Houston, we have a heartbeat!

Praise the heavens above please! Originally written October 13, 2010

October 14, 2010
Oh sweet sweet joy! We saw our dear sweet little baby on the ultrasound yesterday! Somehow J and I both made it to 1:15 when we met at the Dr’s office. After waiting for about 15 minutes, J flipping through Kiwi magazine and Family Fun magazine, and me eyeing the hallway waiting for the tech to call us, she finally did! I happened to have a massively full bladder (what's new with the increased water intake, it doesn't take much) but was trying to hold it in case they needed a sample, however L, our ultrasound tech, had other ideas She said it was best to have a full bladder for a first ultrasound since it was so early, you can see things a bit clearer. I’ve read that before so hey, I’ll go with it. She squirted about a gallon of the gel on my belly (works to make things clear and the waves/sound whatever to produce smoother), and then…the BIG moment…literally the MINUTE she put the wand on my belly, up popped our baby on the screen! I knew exactly what I was looking for (J did too) - hai Google Image search, we love you and our pre-research -- and we saw a big black hole/blob (gestational sac) with a little tiny gray blob inside…OUR BABY! Oh sweet tears! Although I had to keep it together because everytime I spoke or moved, the whole thing would shift and she’d have to reposition (you can imagine this was hard for me considering the fact that I ask a million and one questions as it is). Although naturally the minute it comes up I scream ‘ohmygosh there is it! There it IS!, did you see that J!” And then I say ‘that’s the baby right!?’ and L says yes. She scoped around a bit, took some measurements, all the while J and I staring in awe at the screen…and the BEST part, the BEST part, she held the wand still for a minute, and we saw the beating of a tiny little heart - the "tiniest of souls" as my Aunt B said in a prayer she wrote out for us! And in BIG numbers across the screen we see 160BPM! 160! That little heart was chug-a-luggin’ along like nobody’s business! Naturally I was trying to contain myself and just watch, however rewriting this now, tears are streaming down my face, tears of utter joy and disbelief that a tiny human is growing inside, with a teeny tiny heart that is beating with lots of love! She poked around a bit more, taking other measurements, checking out that other things were running as they were supposed to and it all looked good. We had a nice strong heartbeat, an adorable little baby (hard to tell the head from the body at least to us, but L labeled them for us and gave us 4 beautiful printed pictures to take home with us Oh and the baby even has a yolk sac, which gives him/her nutrients from whatever I am able to eat/drink (lately its been a lot of toasted cheese), so the yolk sac will turn into the placenta eventually. It is still very early but I am hopeful that all is well in there and things will continue to proceed as normal.
Oh an added bonus, my Dr came in to say hi and congrats..and... she’s pregnant! Due the end of this week! Fortunately she will be back in January, so plenty of time to be my doctor (she’ll have a replacement while she’s out), and to deliver our baby, on….

May 29,2011 !!!

She also put me on progesterone, which is a hormone that gets released in pregnancy and helps to maintain the hormone levels in pregnancy, most important in the first trimester. Apparently my levels were a little low so she’s putting me on that until the middle of the second trimester (a lot of people go on that so I’m not worried), and she told us to pick up some DHA to help with the brain development (J quickly says 'yes yes I know what DHA is..my ever budding learner). So we’re stocked up with those plus the prenatal vitamins I have been taking since forever. Grow baby grow!