7.8.08

Yesterday was a glorious day! I didn't stop smiling, except for when I left Lisa a voicemail crying about how I know she'll soon be pregnant and not to worry, which resulted in her return crying voicemail, which of course made me cry again when I retold the story to my coworkers:) Hormones are fun!

This appointment went much smoother than last time-- I will forever schedule early a.m. appts from now on. We got right in, Matt hid out at the door when the nurse directed me to the restroom, which made all the ladies giggle. Once he had "permission", he headed back to Room 5 and waited for me to join him.

After being weighed, I hesitantly asked the nurse how much of a change there had been since last time and, bless her heart, she didn't even say the number out loud! She simply said, "It's exactly the same as last time." My jaw fell to the ground considering somewhere around week 7 I began eating an entire grocery aisle each week and I was SURE I had gained 5-10 pounds judging by the NYC pictures. (I'll give some credit to it being an early morning appointment vs. the last one which was around 5 pm. But that's just between us.)

Dr. S came in and after a few short questions, got right to business with the doppler! I laid back on the table, she squirted some goop on my belly, flipped a switch and the room filled with a loud, scratchy, not-heartbeat-like sound. I wonder if that's what the baby hears all the time. I think I read that the amniotic fluid buffers a lot of sound though, so maybe it's nice and quiet. Conducive to tropical naps afloat a blow-up raft.

So the Dr. searched and searched. She fiddled on the left side, on the right side and everywhere in between. At one point, I thought I heard a very distant pulsation, but she paid no attention to it. Several minutes later she still hadn't found it and I so badly wanted to say "leftt side! left side!" (Matt later told me he was thinking the same thing) but then she informed us that the slow beat is mine and we were listening for a fast beat. After many, many (maybe 5?) minutes she FINALLY found our Little Beansie beating away!!!

I wanted to cry, laugh and take a deep breath all at once, but I made myself stay as still as possible so she wouldn't lose the spot. It sounded so beautiful!

160-ish beats per minute. Matt thinks it's definitely a boy because he was lounging in the center-- he thinks boys are centered, focused, balanced and rational. My hormones have really left an impression on him in these 13 weeks!

At next month's appointment we'll schedule our big ultrasound where we'll find out for sure if we're having a boy or girl! She said we could do it between 18 and 20 weeks and since Matt starts back to school on week 19, we're hoping to get in at week 18, which is only about 4 weeks away, friends! FOUR WEEKS! This is unreal.

I never thought I was capable of getting this far. As I changed into my work uniform, I held my hands over the spot where Dr. S found Little Beansies and said over and over "I love you, I love you, I love you."