My first Doppler

Yesterday I had my first Doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat.  After seeing the heart valves open and close on the ultrasound last time, I was looking forward to actually hearing it instead of just seeing it on a screen.

This was actually a drastic change for me, so I'm going to sidetrack here...almost every single time I had to go to a doc appt from June-January, I somehow ended up waiting in the sub-waiting room which is adjacent to one of the two ultrasound rooms in my doc's office.  The first time I heard a baby's heartbeat from another woman, I about lost it.  It went on for over 15 minutes!  I'm like, who in the world needs to listen to that sound for such a looong period of time?!  If I ever needed to be tortured and interrogated for anything, all you would have to do is put on the sound of a baby's heartbeat and I would be a goner and confess anything just to get it to stop.  The sound was excruciatingly painful for me to listen to--like it was making a mockery of the fact that I didn't have a baby, no matter how badly I wanted one.  I know, not rational, but that's how I felt.  The first time it happened to me, I immediately texted (because you're not allowed to use a cell phone in the waiting room) 2 of my closest friends about my awful situation.  One friend suggested bringing my iPod next time, and the other just gave her sympathies since she was also experience sub-fertility and has gone through that many times before since we both go to the same OBGYN.  It was all I could do not to get up and leave the room.

Fast forward to present day...

Now I get to hear my own baby's heartbeat.  HUGE change in attitude about hearing a baby's heartbeat.  I'm actually really excited!  DH was able to come along to the appointment, which made it all the more special.

The nurse has me lie down and puts the gel on my abdomen.  She explains that she's basically looking for a moving target since the baby currently floating around in my uterus and said to not be alarmed if we don't hear the heartbeat right away since she has to find the baby first.  So we wait and listen...there's lots of static, then suddenly, thump, thump, thump really fast.  It only lasted for a second, then the baby moved again!  This time we heard my heartbeat first, more static, then the baby's heartbeat through the static.  That happened about 3 more times before the nurse was satisfied and turned the Doppler off.  Baby's heartbeat was 160 bpm (last appointment was 163), which the nurse said it within the acceptable range of 110-160.  I'm wondering if the old wives' tale is true about girls having a faster heart rate.  My next appointment is on April 20th at 16 weeks for another Doppler, and I'll have my 2nd ultrasound sometime mid-May to find out the gender!