...its heart sure is working overtime.

Erin and I went for our most recent midwife appointment last Thursday. An exciting milestone - this was the first appointment that we had the opportunity to hear the baby's heartbeat. It took a little bit of searching - turns out the little one doesn't like being poked and prodded at - but our midwife managed to lock onto the sound of the heart beat. Clocking in around 160 BPM its little heart is pumping away at a good clip. Hearing the heart beat was in some ways even more incredible than seeing the ultrasound. The ultrasound, while we could see some motion, was still more of a blob than anything, but the heart beat is a pretty good reality check. We were both excited and relieved to be able to hear it. We were right on the edge of the range (week 11) where they expect to be able to hear it.

The morning sickness, fatigue and Superhero caliber sense of smell seem to be fading away now and it looks like we're entering the "honey moon" stretch of the pregnancy based on what we've read/been told. It seems like everything really starts happening again around 18-22 weeks. Week 18 will be our next ultrasound. Also anytime after week 18 Erin should start to be able feel the baby moving around - although it's typically closer to 22 weeks from what we've been told.

Due Dates
As mentioned last time we knew the due date would be pushed back a bit but it didn't end up being pushed back as far as we first expected. Based on the ultrasound we're now being told our most accurate due date is October 10th. Yes, for those keeping score at home, that is in fact Thanksgiving Sunday... so wherever it happens to be this year, put us down as a definite maybe.

What is it?
With the heartbeat of 160 BMP that draws the boy/girl Old Wives Tales back into a dead heat. The first, the Chinese Birth Calendar, says "Boy". On the other hand with an average heart rate above 140 the Wives Tales say "Girl". As we hit the point where we can try the other theories we'll let you know the results. Everyone's going to have to wait until October to find out what it actually is though. :)

Until next time,

Erin and I are excited to announce that we're expecting our first baby in October. Originally it was forecasted as being due October 6th, the day after our anniversary, but after our first ultrasound last week it looks like we're about a week behind where the midwives originally thought we were so now we expect a due date of the 12th/13th. If we don't make the family thanksgiving dinner this year we apologize in advance - but we'll have a pretty good excuse.

Erin is doing well, fortunately "morning sickness" has for the most part stuck to "general unwellness" so aside form feeling a little gross she's been doing great - but she's definitely competing with our cat Webster for who can sleep the most in a given day though. Scarily enough I think she's winning right now.

The ultrasound was an amazing experience, right now the baby is about the size of a grape(2.19cm to be exact) but you could still make out the head, arms and legs on the image. The lab we went to for the ultrasound also had video recording capabilities - so we took a long a video tape and brought home this VIDEO (10mb, AVI). The last 20 seconds are neat as you can see the baby moving it's arms and feet around already. It's a little fuzzy as they had to zoom in the machine quite a bit but the head is on the left to give you a point of reference. The technician's prognosis was that everything looked great and healthy - which is always reassuring.

We'll keep this blog up to date as we find out more and move along through the pregnancy. Be sure to stop by periodically.