16 week belly

Well, this will be our final post before we head off into the wild blue yonder (ie, move to Toronto / head home for the holidays), so I thought you might like to see dear old me with my ever-growing midsection...

Note I took this picture at night, after a very filling meal, so a lot of the belly is really just bloating! :)

But, I am definitely starting to get a bit of a bump!!

baby G's heartbeat!

Okay, now for the star of the show - here is the sound file of the baby's heartbeat at 16.5 weeks. Make sure you have your sound turned on!

heartbeat_20061220.wma

At one point halfway through you can hear Sean giggle in the background - it was the first time he'd heard it, and he had a HUGE smile on his face. His giggle might be my favourite part ;)

And then at the end the doctor said, "150s" and I said, "That's exactly what it was last time," and then the doctor says (but gets cuts off), "Good - totally normal!". In case anyone was on the edge of their seats, thinking, 'Totally... what??' :)

Third OB appointment

We had our third OB appointment today at 16.5 weeks and it was great! I am up 3 more lbs to 127, blood pressure was 112/58, and my belly is measuring 17" (that's top to bottom, inches should just about match weeks so we are right on target).

We heard the heartbeat again, and Sean was there this time, yay!! He thought it was really neat too (I think - Sean? Are you there? Are you ever going to post anything? :) ) It was beating away at 150 bpm, so the same rate as last time. But, this time I took along a recorder, and got the heartbeat on MP3! Very cool! If I can figure out how to post a sound file on here, I will do that.

The doctor then asked if we thought we might like to find out the sex. We said we probably would, if we could. She said, "Well, would you like to go have a look now, see if we can see anything?" Of course we said Yes!!

So we once again trooped off to the ultrasound room. She even said, "I got it all warmed up, knowing you were coming in." Ha! I guess she figured we'd bug her for one again, which is really funny. Anyway we could tell as soon as she started that the baby has grown incredibly in just a few weeks. We could see a lot more this time, including the baby's profile (nose & chin), mouth opening and closing, ribs, and the heart beating!

At first, the doc pointed out that the baby had its hand up by it face, and then when she went back to that area a minute later, the baby was sucking its thumb! It was SO COOL, you could totally see that the thumb was in its mouth and it was making the sucking motion with its mouth. Wow!

And to think I still can't feel a thing! Well, I can't be sure, anyway. I think I might have felt a little "bump" of a hello on my birthday. It felt a lot like gas... but not in a spot where you'd feel a gas bubble. Plus, I wasn't very gassy at the time (a rarity these days. Sorry TMI!). So, maybe the baby was wishing me a happy birthday. That's what I will tell myself. ;)

Oh yeah the point of the ultrasound ! Well as it turns out, partly because of the low quality machine and partly because the baby was just being shy, we didn't get a good view between the legs. Oh well - it was still totally worth it! She did venture a guess as to what it was, but also said she was only about 51% sure - so we won't be buying anything in blue or pink just yet. (And no, I'm not telling what her guess was!)

Since we're leaving, the doctor made us promise we'd send pictures once the baby arrives, which we will do. It's sad to leave such a great place - I just hope our next doctor is as nice!

14 week belly pics

Here's the most recent progression to 14 weeks:

Ultrasound pictures

These are from our second OB appointment on Nov. 22 (12.5 weeks)

Full scan picture. The baby is in the top right, facing out:



And here's a zoomed in version with text saying what's what:

An overdue update

I've been asked (read: told) to update the blog because it's been so long and people need updates. Okay, here it is! :)

I didn't realize I never gave the details of our 2nd OB appointment, which was on Nov. 22 (I was 12.5 weeks). It was great. I was up about 5 lbs, blood pressure was great, doc said everything looks perfect.

But most importantly, I got to hear the baby's heartbeat!! The doctor said, "Now I will prove to you that you have a baby in there," and stuck the Doppler on me. We heard it right away - she didn't even have to move the stick around at all. What an amazing sound!

I had told the doc that I didn't really feel pregnant, and I guess when we first heard the "choo-choo-choo", I must have had a look of disbelief on my face. She said, "Okay, wait let me show you, here's yours...", and she moved it over so I could hear the slow regular-sounding beat. And then, "And here is your baby's," and back to the middle where it was going "choo-choo-choo" again. WOW. I seriously could have stayed there for hours just listening. I thought about stealing the Doppler but didn't want them to be too mad at me before we leave. Maybe next time ;) Anyway the heartbeat was 150 beats per minute (bpm). She said the old wives tale is a higher beat (closer to 160) is a girl, and lower (closer to 120) is a boy. Hmm!

Unfortunately, at the time of my appointment, Sean was madly trying to get things together to fax in the offer for the house we didn't get, so he was delayed getting to the hospital. By the time he got there, I was already walking out. He was really upset he'd missed the heartbeat so I said, let's go back in, she if she'll stick the Doppler on me again. We waited about 15 minutes for the doctor, and then she came in and said, "Okay folks, let's go...!" and we followed her to the ultrasound room. Yay!

This ultrasound was so cool compared to last time! We could see the baby, arms and legs a-flailin', doing somersaults and jumping around like a little gymnast. Wow!! It was really incredible. In fact the baby was moving so much (very weird to me because I of course couldn't feel any of it), that the doctor had a hard time getting any kind of picture. We were able to see lots though, including the head and body, face, spine, little arms and legs, the umbilical cord and placenta. The whole thing seems so insane to me, to think that this little being is hopping around inside me and yet I can't feel a thing, and to the outside world, nobody can even tell I am pregnant!

I will post a picture of the ultrasound but you will really need to use your imagination to see the baby. Blur your eyes a little and then cross them, and it will look 3-D. (just kidding)