2nd Doppler & Spring Break

We had our second Doppler yesterday at 16 weeks!  Baby cooperated much better this time--the nurse was able to find him/her right away without searching on my abdomen for a while!  She said that my baby was already so well-behaved ;)  The heart beat was 156 bpm.  At 8 wks 2 days, the heart beat was 163, and at 12 weeks, the heart beat was 160.  So we're slowing down a teeny bit, but the nurse said it's still within the healthy range.  While we were listening to the heart beat, every so often you would hear this static blip for just a second, and the nurse said that it was caused by the baby kicking and moving.  It happened 4 times in the span of a minute!  I have a very active kid :)  After the Doppler was over and we were done going over all the 16 week updates, the nurse left to get my prenatal prescription.  At that point, DH mentioned that we should have recorded the heart beat.  I told him that I knew we weren't allowed to record the ultrasounds, but I didn't know about the Dopplers.  DH had to leave at that point to go back to work, so I asked the nurse about it when she returned.  She said that we were allowed to record the Doppler.  Oh well.  I guess we'll do it next time!

Today, Holy Thursday, is the first day of my spring break!  Since I work for a Catholic school, our spring break always starts on Holy Thursday and goes through the week of Easter.  The only downside to this is that this is the first year that DH had a different spring break then I do, since he works for the county schools.  Their spring break was last week.  DH decided to stay home on the couch for his break, but I'm heading south to visit family in Georgia and Florida.  I don't know how much time I'll have to blog and read blogs, but I'll try to get caught up when I get back.  Today I'm heading to Atlanta to visit my cousin K and her family (including my godson!), and tomorrow I'm heading to Gainesville to visit my SIL and meet her new baby!  I'm really excited about this trip but sad to be leaving DH behind.

Have a blessed Easter!

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!