What an exciting day! Geof and I have been looking forward to this appointment for awhile now... ever since the last one really. We knew that today was the first time we'd have an opportunity to hear the baby's heartbeat.

I was really trying to not get my hopes up too much. I knew there were quite a few reasons why we might not hear the heartbeat... Wags might be in an inconvenient place to get it, I have a good layer of "fluff" on by belly and the Doppler might not be able to pick it up yet, it really is still kind of early - it's just the second week when we *might* have been able to hear it. And there was still the chance that baby might not have made it... it's not something I want to think about, but as a matter of reality I had to. (The great news is that starting tomorrow the risk of miscarriage is WAY down... and it will drop even more week by week.)

So as Dr. Peters was passing the "mic" over my belly (and Geof was holding my legs down so I wouldn't inadvertently kick her because I got tickled), I heard a very faint, fast beat for about 2 seconds... but no one else seemed to so I thought maybe I was just thinking it up. The doctor tried the other side and we heard a good, strong beat - but slower than it should be. That's when I realized she was right over MY femoral artery and it was mine! (And I'm quite proud that I remembered what that artery was called... go high school anatomy class!)

She was just about to give up, but she thought she heard something... back where I heard it the first time. It was really faint, so we were a little sad because we wanted to record it to post here. But hey, at least we heard it, right? Then Dr. Peters moved it just slightly and we got a great, loud beat going. Geof recorded it (and I didn't even kick anybody when he let go of my legs) and we were all happy. Then she moved it just slightly and it was WAY louder... so Geof recorded it again. It was such a great day! If you want to hear the heartbeat (and you know you do!) the two recordings are posted in his entry for today... "Squishy Squishy."