Kicks and Beats

Yesterday was amazing.

I was sitting in the living room at my parents' house. I was watching tv and flipping through the channel guide when I felt it. A little tickle, a few inches below my belly button. I paused and held still for a second. I told my mom and she said it sounds like a baby kick! She said thats how it feels at first. I was surprised, but super excited. It really reassured me that Baby Bean is in there and doing okay.

I had a doctor appointment today. I'm 15 weeks and 6 days. I got there and they took my weight. According to their scale I've lost a pound since the last time I was there. They took my blood pressure which was 130/70 (or so) which they said was good. They asked me a few questions, how I was feeling and whether or not I had felt the baby move, and then the doctor came in. She told me that around 15 weeks is when you can do a blood test to test for any extra risk of four different genetic disorders (downs, trisomy 18, spina bifida, and neural tube defects) I wasn't sure at first whether I wanted to do this test because it really wouldn't matter to me if my child was affected by any of these conditions, but I think it would be nice to know. It isn't invasive at all, and only tells you if your baby is at a higher risk for these conditions. (ex 1 in 100, 1 in 1000, etc) So I decided to have the test.

Dr. Thousand checked for Baby Bean's heartbeat and found it pretty fast. It was in the 150's and right where I felt the tickles yesterday. It was so excited and louder than we heard it the last time. It was really exciting for sure! :) I always love hearing that little whooshing sound! Soooo amazing!

After that, I was all done, it was pretty quick..but exciting. Then I went to the lab for the blood tests. It was only one vial so it was pretty short, thank goodness. The first blood draw I had at my first appointment kind of stunk because it was four big vials and took FOREVER! Well it felt like it! The nurse said that the results usually come back in about a week and I can call for the results. I'm a little nervous but I'm happy about the other things, like the tickles and heartbeat, so hopefully I won't think about the test results too much.

But all in all it was a pretty good appointment. Of course I'm nervous about the results, but even Dr. Thousand said that with the results that most of the time when they came back pretty high chances, that they will still be totally okay. That makes me nervous. I don't want a false worry. But I'm hopeful and happy right now. I'm less stressed after hearing that beautiful heartbeat. :)