“Let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York!” Nov. 11

Hello lovies! What’s new? Sarai wanted me to tell you all she said, “Hola!” And although she’s not a Yankee fan, she’s the tiniest bit happy that a New York team won the World Series. (Shhhh, don’t tell Adam!)

Where do I begin? The presentation I did on cord blood last week went really well I thought. It’s easy to talk about something I feel so strongly about. Thanks so much for inviting me, Stephanie!

I had to run out of the meeting to head up to Syracuse for the weekend. Sarai got to meet some friends and family. It was so great to see everyone and we had a great time. Sarai was really good, thank goodness! So far she’s been pretty good about not embarrassing me in public. We visited with my dad, and Sarai smiled so big for him! And at my mom’s house, she showed everyone how she can roll over and practically crawl! Seriously, not only does she pull her knees up under her body, she flexes her feet and tries to get some traction with her toes to push forward while rocking back and forth trying to move her arms too!

We had a doctor’s appointment today. Sarai got a couple shots (no flu shot for her because she’s too young this season). The doctor was so happy with how well she’s doing. She put her on her stomach and she showed the doctor her crawling motions, and the doctor just said, “Amazing!” She said if she didn’t know there was something “wrong” with her, she never would have guessed. (By the way, the physical therapist said last week that, on a scale of 0-10, 0 being perfect muscle tone, Sarai is about a 2. Not bad at all!)

I was sure Sarai weighed at least 10 lbs, but she’s 9 lbs 3 oz and 23 inches long, which the doctor said is just fine. She doesn’t really fall on the bell curve for her length and weight, she’s below the 5th percentile in both areas because of her prematurity. If she was a dog, she’d be a chihuahua. But she’s progressing steadily on her own curve and will hopefully catch up by the time she’s 2. If you look at her like a 2 month old, she’d fall in the 50th percentile for her length and the 15th for her weight, so she’s maybe more like a beagle!

We have our appointments set for our second trip to North Carolina for the second cord blood infusion. We’re going to drive this time. I can’t wait to see what Dr. Kurtzberg and Dr. Escolar say about Sarai’s progress!