Prepping for baby #2

Just going to quiiiccckkkklly type out this post while waiting for my little-big 2 and a half yr old to wake up.

Baby prep!
When I was pregnant with Ella I was not only significantly sicker than this time but also just didn't make very good decor/furniture decisions. I didn't know our house well enough (having moved in whilst pregnant) and I guess I didn't really know what I wanted. All I knew was that I felt a heap of pressure to get everything DONE before baby came.

The result was I bought a chest of drawers of Trademe that I came to hate (they smelt of old-lady perfume, and to this day I can't smell them without retching. Ah pregnany memories) and they were slightly stiff and not on runners.

Fast forward to this baby, and I've been taking my time with the prep process!

Ella has recently moved into a different bedroom with a 'big-girl bed' which is currently a dump. It was our office originally, and then it was a playroom, and now it will be her bedroom. WHEN I get drawers etc set up. Allow me to grace you with a picture of it's current glory:

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[Please oh please may I be able to come back here one day soon and update this with a really nice After shot]


Meanwhile her old room will be the new baby's nursery and we're having a BOY so I was initially thinking that would mean a really boring room (blue? Do I have to do blue?!) but once we got this IKEA dresser last week I started to love it. Long story short but we don't even have IKEA in New Zealand so I was praying about our drawers (as you do...) and was looking into getting some parallel-imported drawers shipped from Auckland when I suddenly checked Trademe and there was a set for $150 instead of $450! And they were already assembled, and local to us. They were the EXACT ones I'd been wanting to ship down. So those are in the room now - IKEA Hemnes and really, really roomy. They look deceptively small in photos - this set is actually large enough to double as a changing table.

[And the drawers slide smoothly! WEEEEEEEEEE]




Other things I'm thinking about:
  • I never figured out an earthquake-safe feature to hang on the wall over the cot. I don't want any picture frames or anything remotely heavy. So I'm thinking of making a simple string garland of stars like these. Will they be easy to make? I hope so :s Craftiness is actually not my pregnancy forte... I save that for every other part of my life.

Numero 74 Stars garland - blue-product
I had wanted to make an awesome (and complicated) hot air balloon mobile but... yeah nah. So much work!

If I had 2-hundy to drop on a baby mobile (I don't) then I would be spending up immediately on this beautiful mobile handmade in the Ukraine:
bear,bear decor,woodland,woodland nursery,nursery decor,baby mobile,bear mobile,organic
It's everything I want in a mobile, and bears (especially polar bears) are kind of a special nickname/theme in our family so it would be perfect. And I love the neutral colour. *SIGH*
  • I've been thinking about these merino baby wraps in lieu of the pile of sheets and blankets that we layered on Ella as a newborn. Anyone used them? Are they good? I would get the double set in soft mint and soft blue, I think! You really need at least 2 of everything for a newborn and their poonamis, #amiright.
  • Baby boy fitted cot sheet. I suddenly realised most of our cot bedding for Ella was pink/floral. I'm thinking a simple ticking stripe would be nice for a boy and found this one for a decent price. It looks simple and quality.


  • Plain newborn socks! I need them - ones that are natural materials (e.g cotton) and teeny tiny and stay on without needing ribbons tied.
  •  Baby coathangers - need more and they're so handy
  • Umm, and, apparently baby boys pee on you while you change them. So I should probably look into some kind of cloth to put on there during changes (that's what I'm meant to do, right boy-mums?????!) 
  •  I swore I wouldn't spend any more money on decor-type items but this basket looks like it would be perfect for holding kids' books. Do you think? It's $16 from Kmart NZ. It looks shallow enough that you would actually be able to see the spines of the books. Currently we have Ella's in a deep square cane basket but I find the rough interior damages the books and any smaller books get buried at the bottom:
Stripe Basket
The thing I love about being a second-time mum is having slightly more of a handle on what I actually need. I'm down to wearing the same dress almost every single day (so comfy, so wearable, so not-sticking-to-my-skin-because-I'm-always-overheated, so easy to pull on and go!) and I'm still using the same L'occitane organic Shea Butter on my belly to try to prevent stretch marks (on my third tin now) and with only 6 weeks to go, I'm feeling like I don't need to buy anything else for myself. Mainly I just want to get these rooms sorted so I don't have to find my way through a maze of giant storage canisters everywhere I walk around here :)
[A blurry mirror selfie for your viewing pleasure. Complete with toddler and "Kwala Bala". Nearly 34 weeks]
[Sometimes I also wear this singlet and leggings-that-look-like-jeans but let's not get all crazy! 32 weeks]

And that was my super rushed, brain-dump blog post of the month. :D
JK, I hope to do more preg updates at some point.






A big ol' recap





A little/big recap of the craziness that is December+January.

We had a great Christmas and I'm a big Christmas fan... but honestly I'm relieved it's over now and we can move on. No offence Christmas but you can be high maintenance sometimes.

My mum still fills our stockings and it might be the best part - JellyBelly gourmet beans are my love language.

We celebrated at Calum's parents' place with this epic view...

.. and at my parent's place where the views weren't so bad either. I guess there are some perks to living on a city that sits on a bunch of dormant volcanos hills.

As well as opening a few gifts at our own place with just the 3 of us. This year Ella's main present from us was a balance bike which she was super excited about - or was it more the Peppa Pig helmet? We'll never know.
[She rearranged all the low hanging decorations]
 One issue I have with NZ or the whole Southern Hemisphere is that everything happens at once. Christmas + summer holidays + end-of-year-everything-events ... then during winter and that loooong stretch in the middle of the year literally nothing happens. NOTHING. But the bonus I guess is that after the chaos of Christmas you get to take off on your Summer holiday and forget that your house is a dump of wrapping paper and festive decs that you'll have to deal with when you get home, along with unpacking a week or two worth of laundry and/or sand.


This was our first Summer holiday just the 3 of us and it was SO nice to wind down that way. 2017 is looking pretty crazy for us so we were making the most of every minute of quality time together and blissful weather. Ella and Calum were total buddies at everything my heavy pregnant butt wasn't up for - like running up Mt Mounganui (my 2 yr old ran!) and catching loads of waves on their board (my bump was majorly in the way for that).

[The Mount]

We were in the Bay of Plenty and every day was full of exploring different beaches, parks, bushwalks, waterfalls, etc.

[Heading out to walk up Drury Hill]
[McLaren Falls park]

[Can you spot all the people? There are hundreds of waterfalls and swimming holes at the top of this cliff area, and river below]

And then we came back home and I was surprised by how nice and spacious our house is. Maybe staying in a one bedroom unit was good for that?!

2017 is looking big, daunting, challenging, exciting. 
Aside from a new baby due in like 7 weeks (wwhhhhaatttt?!!!) we also have my husband starting out on his own with a new business venture, my toddler starting Kindy and toilet training and moving to a proper 'big-girl bedroom' and it just feels like so many changes are happening at once. We are looking forward to seeing how it all works out!

Anyway, my 2.5 yr old just climbed on my lap and started kissing my cheeks with little giggles in between. She's just figured out how to kiss and make the normal kiss noise and is really chuffed with herself and it's SO CUTE. Sometimes we pinch ourselves with this kid.

And that's a recap of life lately!