Third Visit with the Doctor

We had another good trip to the doctor today. Doctor Austin did a full check up and said everything looked great and the baby seemed to be growing like it should. Always nice to know everything is on track. We got to listen to the heartbeat again. This time they used a Doppler to listen to the heartbeat (last time we "listened" using the sonogram). I don't know why but I thought the Doppler would be some advance scientific tool. I was really surprised when they pulled something out that looked like a radio someone would have found in a second hand store. It was a surprisingly low-tech tool but I guess I can't complain since it did exactly what it was suppose to do.

I think we might have gotten a glimpse at our little shrimp's personality for the first time this week. No matter how hard Doctor Austin tried he just couldn't seem to get the baby's heartbeat. The baby was hiding right next to one of my veins and the sound of my heartbeat was hiding the baby's heartbeat. After about 5 minutes of searching we were finally able to hear the faint little beating of the babies heart. It is so amazing to hear the heartbeat. There are two beats of the baby's heart for every one beat of mine. What was really neat is that every other baby beat was exactly at the same time as my heartbeat. While that may be explained medically and/or very common it was still amazing to me. Now when I feel my heartbeat I imagine a second little thump in between it and imagine I am listening to the baby's heart.

I also had blood work done. I guess my skin was a little sensitive this time but it hurt a lot more than the blood work I had done in the past. I felt like such a wimp! They took lots of blood so I guess they have lots of test to do.

Doctor Austin gave us the thumbs up to start sharing our news. Many people wait until the end of their first trimester (12 weeks) to announce their pregnancy. We didn't want to rush telling people if there was still a strong risk but Doctor Austin felt like our risk was greatly diminished by the established heartbeat. That was just the confirmation we needed so we are going to start telling people this week. We have told family and a few close friends but we still have many loved ones to share the news with. I can't wait!

Our next appointment will be in a month (February 18). Since we have decided not to do the optional genetic screening tests, I think it will be just a routine checkup and will be pretty uneventful. The next big appointment will be late March or early April (18 - 20 weeks). This will be the next time we do a sonogram and hopefully we will be able to determine the baby's gender as well. Definitely something to look forward to!