Woosh, woosh, woosh....

The appointment went well and we learned Vanessa s really good at growing our baby. We received Vanessa’s blood test results back. Everything is perfect. The midwife took out the Doppler to listen to the babies heartbeat. This is when I started getting excited. The only evidence I have had that we are having a baby is two little blue lines on a pee stick, Vanessa not feeling well, and Vanessa sleeping a whole lot. It’s not that I didn’t believe that we are having a baby, it’s just nice to have some kind of contact with the little one. As soon as the Doppler touched Vanessa’s stomach the heartbeat was loud and clear. It sounded more like a woosh, woosh, woosh… about two a second. The midwife was surprised that it was so easy to find and that it was so strong. That made me happy. Strong heart = good.

So after a couple of minutes, they called me into the room so we could see the ultrasound. This is what I have been waiting for! So the midwife squeezed some hair gel onto Vanessa’s stomach. It might have been something medical, but it looked like hair gel to me. The ultrasound thingy went on Vanessa’s stomach and then we could see all sorts of black and white blobs on the screen. Then I could start to make out the head, legs, and torso. Most importantly, we only saw 1 baby. The baby was about the size of a lime, so you couldn’t really see features, but it did seam to have all of the right body parts. As far as the sex, we are not going to find out and we wouldn’t be able to tell for another 6 weeks or so.

I find that “Do you know if it is going to be a boy or a girl” is the most common question I get. It’s also the question people ask repeatedly every couple of days even after I have explained we don’t want to know. People are surprised that we don’t want to know the sex. I read last night that roughly 64% of people do want to know, so that is only 2 out of 3 couples. There are definitely pros to knowing the sex ahead of time, but we are looking forward to the anticipation and the surprise. It also keeps the grandmothers and myself from going crazy with buying a lot of stuff ahead of time.

90 Down & 190 To Go

Vanessa is down to the last day of the first trimester. So far, everything has gone really well. Vanessa had some nausea throughout most of the first trimester, but not enough to throw-up and it has subsided now. The second trimester is supposed to be much less eventful other than continuing to buy new clothes every couple of weeks and we should be able to feel the baby moving sometime in the next 4 to 8 weeks. Vanessa has really been taking care of herself. She’s eating very healthy and we are walking more often.

We have decided to have the baby at the South Coast Midwifery. I originally wanted Vanessa to have the baby at a hospital, but after going on a tour of a hospital’s facilities and then visiting the South Coast Midwifery, there was no doubt in my mind. The hospital was impersonal, only allowed two people in the room, and told us we would be prohibited from plugging anything in. They said it didn’t matter if the digital camera was dying and the baby was on its way. Too bad.

The Midwifery was much more friendly. They have birthing rooms that look like bedrooms , including one that has a spa tub. When Vanessa goes into labor, they will shut down the entire office for us. We can have as many people as we want, we can throw a party, we can eat whatever we want, we can play music, whatever. At the hospital Vanessa would only be allowed ice chips. Here, she can eat and do whatever she wants. They were 10 times more friendly and would be our primary care all of the way through the pregnancy. It was a no brainer. If something goes wrong, UCI is right around the corner. I did a lot of research on the place and their staff to assure we would be getting the best care.

We went to the first doctor appointment a month ago. I was surprised to learn doctors won’t even see you until you are 8 weeks pregnant. It was much less eventful than I thought. Vanessa gave a urine sample and a blood sample. Other than that it was just 20 questions and we were done. We had a second appointment scheduled for last week, but it was rescheduled after someone went into labor.

Our second appointment is now tomorrow (Tuesday). I’ll update my blog sometime later this week to let you know how that goes. I’m excited because this should be our first ultrasound. We haven’t made a lot of decisions so far, but we did make a decision not to find out the sex of the baby. The baby already has all of it’s organs and parts at this point. It’s just the size of a lime, so the next 190 days is all about growing.