Heart beat!!!!!

We had a WONDERFUL prenatal visit with the midwives, and got to hear the heartbeat!!! Baby was hiding at first and I was afraid we weren't going to be able to hear it this time around, which wouldn't have been too worrisome at 12 weeks, but very disappointing. But then Kori gave it a try, and checked a little lower and there he was!!! It was so beautiful!!! I was amazed that it was actually my baby on the doppler, my little heartbeat, for real and actual! No imagination, no false pregnancy test, no molar pregnancy (yeah, all ridiculous worries, but who said women never worry over the ridiculous?), but a real, live, BABY!!! He has the most beautiful heartbeat in the world. :-) The heart rate was 158, so if you want to guess, go ahead! Kori said that in her experience, a heart rate of 138 or lower was almost 100% sure to be a boy, but above that could be anything. Although she also said you have to wait until you hit four months to make a guess based on that . :-) They said next time we might even be able to feel him! I wonder, if they might be able to feel him externally, when will I feel him? I can't wait!!! They did find the fundus, which they weren't sure if they'd be able to do since it's still pretty early, but it was a finger's width above the bone, which will probably only mean anything to a few people, but I am so happy I'll tell the blog anyhow! Everything looked really good, and our next appointment is for the 8th of July. I'll be 16 weeks, amazing as that sounds to me! Jimmy was thrilled to death to hear the heart this morning. It must be harder for the guys, they see the morning sickness and weight gain and stuff, but can't actually "feel" any difference, so for them something like a heart must be a lot more tangible...Anyhow, he was super excited about it!! Our little fellow is about the size of a lime they say. Growing amazingly fast!! And, I'm officially past 12 weeks now, so just about out of the first trimester! Yay!!!

Hmm, it's been awhile since I last posted... what happened is week of feeling especially rotten. I'm attempting to convince myself it was a "last fling" and that since I'm ALMOST 12 WEEKS!!!!! it'll be done with that sort of nonsense soon. :-) Jimmy has been amazing taking care of me and putting up with things. You know it has to be love when they look at you, flopped in bed where you're still laying at 1 in the afternoon, hair disgusting, no makeup, haggard from your recent bout with the, *ahem!* bucket, nasty and miserable and fat, and they say with all sincerity, "You sure are beautiful!" Very much appreciated, but hard to believe at that point! Still, I doubt only the validity of the statement, not his belief in it, so that makes it really sweet. :-) This afternoon we were going to see the new 'Robin Hood' that just came out, and theatres always make me think of Andrea in the 'Cathy' comics, "Why yes! A movie would be a fine audio/sensory experience for my unborn baby!" Lolol!!!! We didn't end up seeing it because it turned out the last showing started half an hour before we got there, unless we wanted to wait 3 1/2 hours. Thus we realize the brilliance of checking showtimes before you leave the house! ;-) We figured rather than wait, we would go eat at Costco and then hopefully see it on Monday. Yeah, I know, Costco is not the best. But considering it was one of the few times this week I really wanted to eat, I just made sure it had protein!! I felt so much better today, I actually cleaned up, baked, and vaccuumed the car! And ate some more-- this time chicken enchiladas (which I'm crazy about at the moment!), milk, and banana bread. And oatmeal this morning for breakfast, so overall not too bad!
I can't believe I'm so close to 12 weeks!!! I am thoroughly excited about that. And the day after that, Thursday, I have a prenatal!!!!!! And I'm SO looking forward to hearing a heartbeat!!! I think they said baby is about 2" CRL, and is growing by leaps and bounds! I was on the forum for December due dates and there was an untrasound pic from a lady who is only three days ahead of me, and it was so neat to look at it and know that that is what my baby looks like right now! only they all thought hers was a girl, and more and more I have the feeling this is a boy. I will be very interested in hearing what the heart rate is on Thursday. Jimmy says my arm hair is getting darker. And then there is Joey's theory that if a pregnant chocoholic doesn't want chocolate, she must be having a boy, and Thomas' theory that if you feel like slugs and snails and puppy dog tails, you must be pregnant with a boy. Plus the common theory that huge protein cravings means a boy, and the theory that if you loose hair rather than it getting bushy, it's a boy. Of course, the more indications that it is a boy, the more suspicious I am since it seems like every time there is a 100% certainty, you end up wrong, lol!!
Well, I finally feel good and don't want to go to bed, since every time I do I just seem to wake up sick. ;-) But staying up late certainly wouldn't help anything, so I'd better scoot. Hopefully after the prenatal I'll have more baby related news! Oh, incidentally but very baby related as far as I'm concerned, I'm completely off prednisone!! Yay!! I wasn't too worried since it was a really low dose and studies have shown that to be fine, but it certainly doesn't hurt my feelings to be off, either!
Oh, and before I go, I've been keeping track as far as diet/sickness goes, Shannon. We eat mostly whole grains and very little sugar most the time (besides the good ol' brown sugar for sale in the oatmeal), with the exception lately of cola and ice cream. Neither one of those seems to trigger morning sickness either the day following or the day after. I'm sure a high sugar to a whole grain diet would make a difference, but apparently if you eat pretty well, the ice cream and cola on an upset stomache is fine. Obviously everyone is going to react differently to things, but I was pleased to see that those two things seem to be okay for me. :-) Although, if giving them up would cut the sickness, I'd be more than happy to do so!! The thing that does help, not surprisingly, is protein. Bananas and potatoes worked to a degree, but past that point they seem to be ineffectual. Interestingly, I met another lady who had severe morning sickness and cola was the only thing that settled it...
Right, heigh ho, heigh ho!