Kicks, Jabs, and Beatings

Now that I've caught you up with the posts, here's something fresh and new!

It's hard to choose my favorite thing about pregnancy, but if I had to, I think I'd have to go with feeling the movements of the baby inside my belly.  I started feeling Evelyn move a little around 17 weeks.  They say that you feel subsequent babies earlier so I was really hoping that I'd start feeling this little one at around 15 weeks. In reality, I started feeling this baby moving around ever-so-slightly beginning at about 16 weeks + a few days.

The movements have been few and far between, but I'm so happy to have that feeling back.  I'm anxious for the day that I can start feeling those kicks and jabs on the outside of my belly so that Bob can have the opportunity to feel them as well.

Earlier on in the pregnancy (at around 14 weeks) I made the decision that I would feel better having a doppler around the house to check the baby's heartbeat.  Most people feel that once you start feeling the baby, that is a time of reassurance.  It is, however Evelyn was not super active and our first sign that something was wrong was a lack of movement for an extended period of time.  While I know that a doppler won't prevent anything bad from happening, it just makes me feel better knowing that I can check on this little one even if I'm not feeling him/her move around. 

If you don't know what a doppler is, it's simply a heart rate monitor with a speaker and a little wand.  With a little gel, you put the wand on your belly and you can find the baby's heartbeat.  It's easy to figure out if I'm hearing my heartbeat or the baby's because, at this point, the baby's heart beat is about twice as fast at around 145-160 beats per minute.

It's been so reassuring having that doppler around for being able to check on the baby when I'm not feeling him/her very frequently.  I've been very careful about getting obsessive as could be easy to do with a device like this around the house.  I could listen to his/her little heart ticking away for hours.  There haven't been any studies that show any negative side effects from using a doppler,  but I just want to be careful that I don't go overboard.

Here's a quick peak at our little baby's strong heartbeat.  Note:  This doppler does not very accurately show the bpm in the window.  It tends to measure low. We love listening to the baby, but we know that the count for the bpm is off.  Each time it has been measured by a midwife/doctor, the baby's heart rate has been around 155-160 bpm.  Enjoy!

 

 In other news, we only have 8 more days to find out of this baby is a him or a her, but who's counting?!?