Hibernation

So, I feel like a bear, except rather than hibernating through the winter, I'm hibernating through the first trimester.  I pretty much sleep, work, eat, and sleep.  I haven't been doing a great job of keeping in touch with anyone in real life or otherwise, as you can plainly see by the lack of recent posts here.  I guess there just hasn't been a ton too exciting to say..."sleep, work, eat, sleep" doesn't leave much room for exciting news.  On top of that, I'm transitioning to a new job at work, so it just exacerbates the sleep part of my routine!

However, there are some new developments this week, so I thought it warranted a post.  This past weekend, we shared the baby news with our extended family at a much belated Christmas celebration.  We normally draw names and just each do one gift for that person.  We did that, but then also had a special gift for everyone...bottles with sonogram pictures inside!  We had everyone open their gift bags at the end of the gift exchange.  It was a huge hit and a giant surprise!  I had a hunch that a couple of them already had a clue something was up.  Turned out no one had any inkling!  It was so much fun!  My cousins, who are more like sisters, are very excited to be aunts soon!

The other news is that I'm fairly confident that we heard the Beaker's heartbeat on the doppler last night.  K let us borrow her doppler, but held off giving it to us until 10 weeks because she new (rightfully so) that I'd obsess if we didn't hear anything.  I had originally intended to wait until closer to next Friday's appointment just in case I freaked out.  But, I just couldn't hold out any longer...especially after I read that 95% of women hear a heartbeat in the 10th week.  Yesterday was 10 weeks, 2 days.  Surely we wouldn't fall in the 5%, right?

Hubby is convinced that we heard the heartbeat, and I am 99% certain, as well.  Two weeks ago at the RE, baby's heartbeat was 164.  Last night, we were able to find a 160bpm heartbeat 4 or 5 times in the same general vicinity right above my pelvic bone on the right side.  The confusing part, though, was that it's SO easy to find your own heartbeat that it makes you second guess things.  It was especially difficult to find Beaker because I think he/she settled in near an artery.  So, we could find a steady 160 for a few seconds, but when baby moved, it would turn back into my heartbeat instead.  Makes it kind of easy to second guess.  However, the fact that we were able to consistently find 160 in the same area...I believe it was definitely Beaker! 

It was fun trying out the doppler last night.  Hubby was very sweet...he's actually the one that brought the box in and said "let's see what Beaker has to say."  Albeit, I had suggested that I'd like to try earlier in the day, but it certainly didn't require any reminders.  And, he was intent on being the one to use the wand to try to find him.  Very sweet!

So, we have no reason to assume that everything isn't going wonderfully down there!  One week from today is our first official prenatal with the OB.  It's only been two-and-a-half weeks since the last RE appointment, but it feels like an eternity.  I'm definitely ready for the next appointment!  In the meantime, I'm going to head back into my cave for another week of hibernation!