Congratulations mama you’ve made it to week 21 you’re
officially passed the halfway point in your pregnancy. This week
your baby is about 10 1/2 inches long from head to toe and weighs
about 11 to 12 1/2 ounces, about the size of a banana!
Inside your little ones body more blood cells are
starting to develop. It’s the liver and spleen’s job to make them
before this point and now the bone marrow is mature enough to help
as well.
Baby
is also starting to practice swallowing by consuming small amounts
of the amniotic fluid surrounding him.
Your
baby’s arms and legs are finally in proportion now to the rest of
his body. Baby also has a lot more control over his limb movements
which explains all the kicking and stretching you're feeling on the
inside.
As
for you, mama, at 21 weeks pregnant you might be starting to see
some stretch marks. What happens with stretch marks is that the
tissue under your skin gets torn as your skin stretches to
accommodate your growing baby. Only about 50% of women get them
during pregnancy and darker skinned women are less likely to get
them, plus they’re probably not going to be as visible as on fair
skin women.
Unfortunately, there’s no proven way to prevent stretch
marks from appearing but there are some amazing lotions and creams
out there that will help keep your epidermis moisturized. Staying
hydrated may help minimize stretch marks as well.
If
you haven’t started your registry yet, now is a good time to get
that going. Even if you don’t plan to have a shower, you will have
a list of items you can refer friends and family to, should they
want to gift you something.
We
talk a lot more about the registry in this week’s interview, but
before we get into that, I want to announce our Resolutions series.
For the next few episodes, we will be taking you through finances,
healthy habits, estate planning and wardrobe advice. Make sure
soupy attention because a few guests even have special deals for
the BumpCast Listeners.
Without further adieu, I’d like to introduce this
week’s guest: Jen Paterson.
Jen
Paterson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Dollar Divas.