Baby is doing really well and kicking up a storm! Our record for time it takes for 10 movements continues to be 3 minutes, a time reached again tonight. It's becoming possible for me to really tell the difference between kicks and somersaults from the outside, too, though Stephanie's been able to distinguish those for a while. Very strong movements for a baby that's probably still under 3 lbs. Also this week, baby's first hiccups.
We received half of an enormous shipment of very stylish baby clothes from my parents, and were visited by Stephanie's parents. We're incredibly lucky that our baby has such awesome grandparents!
We are still putting finishing touches on our registry before we're making it public, but I think we've made most of the big decisions. The new edition of Baby Bargains has been really helpful in doing so. We've also picked a diaper service - unfortunately, the fact that the one we preferred does not actually deliver in our area made the choice for us.
Incidentally, I want to remind everyone to look into Cord Blood donation sooner rather than later, because the paperwork really needs to be settled before 34 weeks. We decided that the expense of private banking was not worth the slim probability of needing the cells later, but we do feel that donating the stem cells from our baby's umbilical cord is a really great thing. Our hospital does not have a donation program, unfortunately, but Cryobank International does collection long distance and was recommended as the next-best thing by our local blood bank (which does donations at pretty much every hospital in the area except for ours). We'll bring in the forms to our next midwife appointment, and hopefully they'll agree to do it. (The birth center receptionist said that they do this often but it really depends on our particular provider's willingness.)
Up this week: putting together a birth plan, or "birth preferences" as I think it is more realistic to call it, so then we can meet with our doula again!
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We love that book and think it has really helped us save money.
ReplyDeleteKeep us updated on the cord blood donation issue. We were told that we did not qualify to donate because we used donor sperm to concieve. And private banking was too expensive.
Oh, that's interesting about the donor issue.
ReplyDeleteOn the CI form for cord blood donation there's a question (#55) about whether a sperm or egg donor was used, which then asks whether that the questionnaire can also be filled out for them and attached. This should be possible for us since we used a known donor. The fact that they included that option made me think that it wouldn't be a problem, at least with our situation.
I think we'll probably leave "Baby's Father" blank and then have the known donor fill out the form separately and attach... I do like that they provide that question and suggestion so that it's not necessary for us to list the donor as father!
The private banking is too expensive to be worthwhile for us, too. I think for me it'd only be worth doing if you have a child with a genetic disease and you then have a second child that does NOT have the genetic disease but a relationship to the first child. In that case, cells from child #2 could be used to treat child #1 more successfully than some random donor. For most cases, if your child has a genetic disease, the stems cells from the child will have that disease too...
PS - We totally loved Bridal Bargains so I was pretty sure that Baby Bargains would be a good idea, and it was! (We originally wanted to check it out from the library but it had an ENORMOUS waiting list which was a good advertisement...)
ReplyDeletesaw your question on another site about baby books and i wanted to leave you this website. good luck to you!
ReplyDeletewww.ourworldourfamily.com
Thanks for the suggestion about the baby books!
ReplyDeleteNutella - about the cord donation, we filled out the forms, including an extra set for the donor's family history, and put them in the mail today. I'll post whether we run into any difficulties, but it really seems like the donor sperm issue should not be a problem as long as you know whether there's a family history of the diseases being asked about!