We Got The Beat!

...heartbeat, that is. Today we saw the baby's heartbeat and were told by the ultrasound technician that everything looked "very normal" - good news!




So now, ask me how weird it is to see proof that there's a baby inside you but not feel really any different than you usually do. Go ahead, ask me. Well I'll tell you, it's weird. Really weird. I mean really, really, really weird. I know there'll come a time when I feel it kicking, moving, etc - but even then - that's a whole new type of weird. I mean, there's a PERSON inside me. I don't feel like capital letters truly capture what I'm going for here....so let me add punctuation and pauses for emphasis. (ahem) There. Is. A. (pause) PERSON - a whole entire PERSON - living inside my body. That's just weird.

The picture above doesn't look remotely person-like so I will describe what's what: the black oval is the amniotic sac, the white blob inside the sac is Baby T, the black spot inside the white blob is the baby's brain (actually, it's something like the pre-brain or the neural glob or something like that), and then below the black spot is where where we saw the heart beating.

And did I mention that was weird?

Other than continued tummy twinges, a couple slight instances of stomach discomfort (I wouldn't call it nausea really...more like I felt like I'd eaten too much for dinner and my stomach was reacting to that), and being really tired in the afternoons, I feel the same as usual. So, I was really looking forward to today because it confirmed that I really am pregnant (sure, the home pregnancy test said I was, but since I don't feel anything overly wacky, I wanted a professional to tell me I was).

After the ultrasound, I went to the lab and they took five vials of blood (sheesh!) for tests. And even though the gal did a great job & it didn't hurt at all, I have a bruise & blood under the surface of the skin to show for it.

Bret & I are now trying to figure out when/how to tell our families. I'd like to be able to tell everyone together, but there's nothing coming up soon where we're getting together. Bret wants to just casually bring it up in conversation with different family members, whenever we happen to be talking to them. It sure doesn't feel "announcement-y", but I do sort of like the idea of the surprise of dropping it into random conversation somehow (i.e. "hi mom...oh, you're at costco? sure you can call me back - but hey, could you pick up some diapers for us while you're there?") ...that could be fun!