21 Weeks

Baby Engle is 10.5 inches long and three-quarters of a pound. The fluttering movements have turned into full-fledged kicks and nudges all day long. I love the constant reminder that he is with me. Still feeling pretty good, getting bigger each day and looking forward to getting closer and closer to meeting our son. Our 5 Month check-up and ultrasound went great. It was unbelievable to see how much bigger he is than the last time we saw him. At the last ultrasound we could see his whole body profile and he had a TON of room in my uterus to swim around... now he is all scrunched up! See pic from babycenter.com >


It's amazing how flexible they are in the womb, I certainly wouldn't want to be in that position... again. It was harder to see all of him since he is bigger and scrunched but the tech again confirmed his gender and did the full body scan (from hemispheres of the brain, chambers of the heart down to his toesies!) to make sure everything was growing properly. She said he is very cute (do they say that to everyone? haha) and everything looks great.. he is a very healthy, happy baby! All of the tests we had been waiting for all came back very good as well. Dr. Miller couldn't be happier with the way things are progressing thus far. We sure can't hear that enough. AND, the Dr. said that I can still have my cup of coffee every morning... YAHOOOOOOOOO! I'm NOT a bad mother.. already. I realized the headaches I was getting, which we thought were just from all of the surging hormones, were the consequences of an addict weaning off of their drug of choice, coffee ;-)

Other news, we registered to save his cord blood on the day of birth. It is so incredible the things that they can cure with the fresh stem cells of a new born now (i.e. Cancers, blood & immune metabolic disorders, cerebral palsy, brain injury, acquired hearing loss-regenerative therapy etc). It is expensive for a young couple like us, but after discussing it and learning more about the possibilities we felt like we would be bad parents if we needed it one day and we hadn't planned ahead. For us, the price is well worth the investment and health of our child. So, we feel really good about the decision. If anyone is interested in looking into it, we used CBR (http://www.cordblood.com/). They are the largest, most recognized company out there right now mainly because they advertise like crazy in all of the pregnancy magazines etc... but after calling and interviewing many of the companies now out there, they are definately the best quality private storage banking company out there. They use more advanced technology which enable them to gather the best samples (the most cells) than most other companies that do it manually. It is all very interesting, I could probably tell you more than you want to know about the whole thing but bottom line.. we feel that it is a great insurance policy in the long run. AND, we got a discount for signing up before our thrid trimester (early decision pricing)... and, if you refer someone you get a free year's storage! Thats $125 back in your pocket! Love it.. you might see me on the street corner passing out flyers ;-) haha

Well, I am SO glad it is hump day (Wednesday).. I am taking friday off for my bday, getting a pregnancy massage, having lunch with Becky and staying at the Surf & Sand in Laguna for a staycation planned by my amazing hubby, Shaun. I am SO excited to get pampered. Hope you all have a great rest of the week and that we get a beautiful weekend! Thanks for reading!

hugs,Tay.