A Baby!!!!!!

There really is a baby in there! How amazing! How unbelievable. I had my second prenatal today and heard the heartbeat for the very first time. I cried. She felt baby parts, but it's too early to tell which is which. She thought she felt the head somewhere at the left top of uterus, but wasn't sure. The baby kicked the fetoscope while she was listening. And I still can't believe it! How weird is that? The heartbeat was 148 bpm, perfect. I measured 20 cm, which is right on track, and my urine was fine. I did gain a lot, guess you can tell that my appetite is back. She didn't care though, and I didn't either. Too happy that I have energy to cook again.

My iron was a bit low for me, so I am supposed to eat more iron rich foods, and she'll recheck it at the next prenatal. She also would like me to keep a food diary for a week, so we can see where there is room for nutritional improvement iron and protein wise. I started out by making whole wheat crepes for lunch and filling them with goat cheese and dried apricots. Yum! And nice and iron rich too I would think. Then I put together a richly filled tomato soup in the crockpot, including beans, millet, spelt, rice, and tons of veggies. That should do for dinner. Maybe I'll make some whole wheat pretzels to go with it.

We talked a lot about the emotional issues I am having this pregnancy, a feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. A feeling of disbelief and wondering whether things really are going well. She asked me what I did when I got those feelings, and I told her that usually I try to focus on something positive instead, or bake, or walk, or write. She said that I also could try to do visualizations, and she even lent me a tape with special mother baby bonding visualizations. I am looking forward to listening to them. And she recommended a book, which I got out of her library, which she thought might help too. She agreed with the trying to focus on something positive instead of the worried/unbelief feelings, so I am going to try to do that even more. It was nice to be able to talk to her about this and get some ideas.

It was a wonderful prenatal, I feel so blessed to have a midwife who takes the time to talk to me about my worries and issues. And of course, hearing the heartbeat was even more wonderful! I am still in awe that there really must be a little person in there!

Went swimming again early this morning. Master's swim team, I am still the slowest :-) I swam 1.5 km, so not too bad after the break I took for the holidays and the chickenpox. It is hard to get out of my bed that early, but it makes me feel really good the rest of the day, that I got all that exercise done already.

I made an awesome tomato soup in the crockpot for dinner. One of those 'everything but the sink' ones :-) It turned out really well, and of course generated tons of leftovers, for lunches and such. I baked whole wheat pretzels with everything topping as a side. Those were good too, and very popular with 67 % of the kids :-)