Phew, we made it!!

We just got back from our 3rd prenatal appointment and things are still looking fantastic! So now I can say that I have officially made it into the second trimester and still have a baby with a heartbeat! This makes me happy. :) I was growing more and more nervous as we waited for the tech to come in with the fetal heart doppler that when she did arrive, I think we all could hear MY heartbeat beating loudly away without any kind of tool. She took my blood pressure and all was continued to be good there. Then the "fun" part with finding the baby's heartbeat. I think she picked mine up before even contacting my stomach with the doppler, and then after moving it around a little was able to find the baby's! The baby is sitting just to the right of (and below) my belly button, this is where she found the heartbeat today and it's also where the baby was last time (just much lower last time). We took a video of it so that we could share that sweet, sweet sound with all of you! (Make sure your sound is turned up!)

The baby's heartbeat was measuring at 156 beats per minute today. The past two times we've heard it, it was at 172 bpm. The doctors assured me that anything between 120 and 180 is considered "normal" range, and I read somewhere that as the baby grows larger, it's common for the heart rate to drop some - so I'm not worried that it's lower than it previously was. Just the fact that we have a baby with a good heartbeat is a huge blessing. Our doctors visits are really rather quick, and I'm always so concerned with hearing a heartbeat that the millions of questions I've thought of over the past month for my doctor just completely disappear. So after hearing that heartbeat I was basically numb and had nothing else to discuss! They measured my uterus and that has grown some, and I've gained a couple of pounds (much less than my scale at home has been letting on!) So that was about it, we go back in 2 weeks for some blood tests and then our next appointment is at 18 weeks on August 4th, and I believe that is when we'll get to schedule our "big" 20 week ultra sound. I'm feeling pretty relieved that we've made it to our second trimester and still have a baby with a heartbeat, but I really am convinced now that I'm going to be one of those people who won't stop worrying that everything is going to be OK until I can hold our baby in my arms! (And, then a whole new set of worries are sure to begin!) :)