Baby Update

Just a quick update from my Drs. visit last Friday...

His heartrate is still in the normal zone - bouncing around between 140-150 beats per min.

Also, the doctor measured the "fundal height" - ah, here is something new. This is a measurement from the pubic bone to the top of the uterus (approximate). The distance in centimeters should be right about the number of weeks along. While some find this method "antiquated," I guess it is still a good way to track progress without excessive amounts of ultrasounds. The measurement was pretty dead on though - 21cm at 21wks.

So, he's doing just fine at this point!

Another new development is that I can really feel him now. No kicks or jabs yet, just turning somersaults in my belly! Definitely more active in the evenings. Its kinda cool to just lie down on the couch and feel him wiggling around :)

Burning Ring of Fire

I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down down down
The flames they went higher
And it burns burns burns
That ring of fire
That ring of fire
That ring of fire

To put it bluntly, this sucks! I've never been one to get heartburn except on a rare occasion... starting this week, my pregnancy seems to have changed all that. And here it is, almost 3AM and I cannot sleep because of it (yes, I am playing the sympathy card - do I get any?)

I've searched the internet high and low and if I come across one more website with helpful hints on avoiding it, I will scream! What I want/need is a natural remedy that is baby-safe... no drugs (hint: read my last post). So right now I am sitting here drinking a glass of apple cider vinegar water. Which the poster swears by... and it is not doing a damn thing for me.

If I also didn't have a sinus cold at the moment (more sympathy!), I could drink some milk or eat yogurt. But the whole dairy thing won't really play nice with the sinuses. Which I can't take any drugs for either . It may be a matter of the lesser of 2 evils at this point... Oh well, enough of my whining for now. But it is 3 in the morning and who else is gonna listen to me???

Ten Americans

As a mother-to-be, I am inundated with advertising in magazines, parenting websites and even maternity stores to bank my baby's umbilical cord blood. I don't know how long this has been around... maybe a few years? Five? Anyway, for those of you who don't know, the stem cells in the baby's umbilical cord can be "banked" on the chance that at some point your child will develop some disease or illness and then these cells can be used in treatment. Other options for cord blood include donating for research to help find cures.

(By the way ~ for those of you who are against stem cell research, the umbilical stem cells offer a non-controversial way of obtaining the cells. So you might want to re-think in which cases you might approve of this type of research, since this doesn't involve the embryos.)

I don't know yet if Guy and I will choose to bank the cord blood or not... that really isn't the point of my post here tonight :) Bear with me... I am getting to it!

In my nightly trip around the internet, I came across the video "Ten Americans" from the Environmental Working Group .

Well, I certainly learned something new and I hope you all did too! In all the talk about umbilical cord blood, I never have heard, read or would have expected that that many chemicals and toxins would have been found. Even scarier, if its in the umbilical cord blood, guess what ~~ its in my baby too!

We need to wake up and start taking care of our environment, ourselves and our children's futures! Please pass along the link to the video and support the Kid-Safe Act to the update the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 - http://www.ewg.org/kidsafe.

*** Happy Birthday Guy ***

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to bring to you a very special announcement!

Today is Guy's 30th Birthday... Happy Birthday Guy!!

When innies become outies...

OMG. I am beginning to feel like a turkey with those popout timers that tell you when its done (supposedly). My nice innie bellybutton has recently decided to come out, literally. Needless to say, the little guy is not even close to being done yet!

Here is a shot of my belly, so you can see for yourself. And yes, I am starting to get a bit round... as I was just telling a friend, its a bit strange when you can't quite bend over to put on your socks and shoes!

My, how he has grown!

So, our little jellybean is just past the 19wk mark. Not quite half-way, but almost! I went to the dr. for a full fetal anatomy scan today. Everything checked out normal - arms, legs, fingers, toes, all facial features. It was really neat to see the heart beating and pumping blood through it too.

Just "for fun" the tech took some shots with the 3D ultrasound. Thought I would share them with you. Guy says he has his nose... can you tell???

Aww... how cute!

Already sucking his thumb...