We have a heartbeat!

Twelve weeks, five days...and we finally got to hear our little baby's heartbeat!

Allow me to start at the beginning...

Today was our first appointment with a midwife at the Birth Center we chose a few weeks ago. After signing a couple more pieces of paperwork, we were sent right in to see the midwife. No waiting, no reception area with baby magazines or TVs playing medical infomercials or fancy aquariums (I've seen all at various OB offices over the years)...just a "go right in!" So we sat on the big, fluffy couch in the exam room while the midwife talked over my medical history, asked a few questions, then walked us through some pregnancy basics.

After that, it was on to the exam table for the requisite blodd pressure check (just fine) and then, what we were waiting for...out came the fetal doppler!

She felt around for a while without much success, other than some placental sounds. We readjusted, searched a little more, and then BINGO! A heartbeat!

I was in such utter shock that I didn't even think to cry - though normally I cry at everything!

I've read that fetuses sometimes don't like the doppler wand, and ours was no exception. Our little one kept squirming away every time the midwife would start to get a reading. Finally we got a good fifteen seconds or so - long enough to get a reading of 166 BPM. I borrowed a digital recorder from work, so I even got a good recording of the moment, which I have listened to approximately 80 bazillion times since then.

The other big news to come out of the appointment wasn't really news at all. The midwife wants me to watch what I eat, especially concentrating on getting plenty of protein and dairy, and limiting my intake of sugars. I have struggled with my weight all my life, and I've already put on a few pounds - more than I should be gaining in the first trimester. She also urged me to get back to exercising, and not to wait until I got my energy back - because then I'd put it off forever.

Mr. Citysaur heard all of this, and he especially took it to heart. We hadn't been back home twenty minutes when he found an elliptical machine for sale on craigslist and was offering to buy it for me. Luckily, it hadn't been claimed yet, and a couple of hours later, we were on our way to go pick it up!

I've already had my first workout on it, and now I have no excuses for not staying in shape!

A heartbeat and an elliptical of my very own - I think I'd call this day a success.