In a Heartbeat

Lately, it has been my Saturday morning ritual to check in on our babe the only way that I can–with our home fetal doppler.

I like to listen in for a few minutes, lying there in awe of its heartbeat, chug-chug-chugging along, growing louder with each passing week. This is baby’s heartbeat from this morning, at 16 weeks:

Prior to getting pregnant, and even early on, I didn’t think I would ever be one to buy a fetal doppler. But late in first trimester, the worry and suspense of wondering if everything would be OK started to build up, and I mentioned the doppler to Michael. We figured what the hell, it’s $60, we’ll be able to use it throughout this pregnancy and for any subsequent ones in the future. (For those who are curious, I ordered the Sonotrax B off of Amazon. Through my Google searching, I found it was highly recommended by expectant mothers all over the internet.)

When the doppler first arrived (I was about 10 weeks pregnant), I admit to being a little obsessed with trying to find the heartbeat. But once I did, it was like instant relief. I used it quite often over the following two weeks, because it made me feel better that things were going as they should. Then we had our ultrasound at 12 weeks and my fear pretty much left me completely. Now, I don’t feel the need to check in all the time, but since I can’t feel any movement and haven’t seen much growth in the belly region, it is nice to have the doppler to use to “connect” to the baby in some way. I have started the routine of checking in with baby once a week, on Saturday mornings. It’s been fun.

This morning, I woke up from sleeping on my right side. It was so beautiful in our bedroom with the sun coming in, the fresh air, the breeze… I just relaxed in bed for a few minutes, taking my time waking up. After a little bit, I got up to go get the doppler, and came back to bed to lie down and listen. When I lifted my shirt up, I was shocked to see that my belly was completely lop-sided!

First of all, I really don’t have much of a belly to speak of (yet), so I didn’t think my bump was really the baby at this point–but clearly, it is. Baby must’ve shifted completely over to my right side, because my stomach on the left was pretty flat, while there was this round, firm mass settled over on my right. Hilarious! But I do have to admit I was a bit alarmed at first, because I just didn’t think this could happen this early in pregnancy. However, my mom assures me it is perfectly normal. Plus, after getting up and eating breakfast, I was happy to see that baby had settled back into a normal position. Phew!

With the doppler, I have always found the heartbeat on the left side, pretty much in the same spot every time. But this morning, with the lump on the right, I knew there was no need to look on the left. Sure enough, I found him/her on the right. Too funny. Baby’s playing games with mom already! :)