There have been so many exciting milestones throughout this pregnancy and I am very grateful for being able to experience them with my close loved ones. My first and favorite experience would have to be hearing my babies heartbeat for the first time and seeing the baby via ultrasound. The doctor would not see me for a whole month when I found out on the 18th so I would have to wait until May 17th to make sure that this pregnancy was even viable. I remember trying to tell myself not to get too excited because not hearing a heartbeat would crush me. Even though everyone kept telling me to be positive that was all I could think about so in a sense I didn’t have the excited reaction to baby conversation that I had anticipated before.
My sister-in-law Bobbie knew how I felt about hearing the heartbeat before I got too excited and was extremely thoughtful in setting up an appointment with a local office that specializes in early heartbeat detection and ultrasounds. She said it was my early Mother’s Day gift and it was truly the best gift ever! It was May 3rd and Jonathan and I had some great support from my mother-in-law, Bobbie, my niece, Miranda, and my father-in-law and brother-in-law tuned in at work via FaceTime. I was told to drink a gallon of water before coming in for the appointment which I managed to guzzle down on the hour ride there. It really just made me have to pee like crazy! We got there and I sat down and awkwardly lifted my shirt to reveal a non-existent bubble where a baby was said to be. My stomach was still pretty small and if there was any shape I’m pretty sure it was just the chubbiness from all of those “first month cravings”.
The technician got some gel which was of course cold and started doing her thing. Running a little wand-like device over my belly she found a little ball that was displayed on the screen. With Jonathan holding my hand I clenched on for dear life waiting for the heartbeat. I remember she said it was still early that it may not be strong enough to hear. She dialed in close on the little flicker that she said was the heartbeat and said we might be able to hear if we were lucky. The room got sort of quiet in anticipation and then all of a sudden, in perfect harmony with a wave of rhythmic waves displayed at the bottom of the screen, we all heard that quick repitition of little flutters. The heartbeat was there and was measured at 141 BPM (beats per minute)!
I immediately felt the tears filling my eyes and a huge relief. I don’t know if any other first-time moms worry about that moment happening or not happening but it sure felt good to actually have confirmation that what seemed like a dream was now a reality. Based on the size and aunt flow’s last visit she determined the due date to be December 22nd putting me at 6 weeks and 3 days. The next few weeks would be filled with peace of mind and excitement for the next steps.
In the meantime we had our first prenatal visit and got to do all of the fun paperwork basically signing my life away for the delivery costs and appointment fees. Luckily I was able to get coverage through Medicaid which aided with the costs. Either way we were prepared to make it work even if it meant paying the full amount of $4,000 for delivery and $50 per appointment…not to mention any testing fees I would have to fork over AND ultrasound costs. Having a baby is expensive and we knew that when we started trying so we were mentally prepared for the possibilities as much as we could be.
The first visit the doctor also performed a vaginal ultrasound. I know what your thinking, sounds delightful right? Yeah not so much. I also felt a little pressured when the nurse asked if a male student could accompany the doctor and said yes. A lot of women are okay with male lady flower doctors which mine so happened to be, but imagine having your regular awkwardness with another serving of awkward sauce standing around observing and your poor husband sitting in the corner watching your unmentionables being on full display. Not to mention they had to call another female nurse in. When they prompted her to come in I remember trying to telepathically communicate to her to hold my hand and support a fellow sister. She didn’t get the message.
When they did the ultrasound both Jonathan and the female nurse saw not one flickering heartbeat but TWO! At first I thought it was a joke but then I saw it too. The doctor did a double take when they both pointed it out and decided to schedule another ultrasound the very next week to determine if we were having one of two little babies. The funny thing is my mother-in-law and a few others had said “there’s two in there, one boy and one girl…”. I would laugh because twins don’t run in my family which is usually a strong result of twins actually occurring. But hey miracles happen all the time and sometimes there are multiple babies in women who never even see it coming. We went to the next appointment the following week and the technician for that office determined no twins. It looks like it was just the heartbeat and the cord with the blood supply pulsing through.
As cool as it would’ve been I think we were both a little relieved to just focus on one baby for the time being. The baby did rock back and forth a lot and actually looked somewhat human than the last time we had seen the baby as a little blob. The technician at our doctor’s office said based off of the size she would argue with our doctor’s estimated due date which changed to December 19th to be the 17th. That’s what I go by considering it’s just a few days sooner and she’s the one who has actually seen the baby!
We still couldn’t determine the gender but you better believe that we were in the midst of planning with Bobbie and my mother-in-law for a party. We were able to later set a date for the ultrasound that would inform us of the gender for June 14th. The actual reveal would be that weekend on the 17th just a week after my birthday and the day before Father’s Day. The anticipation was going to be all I thought about for the next few weeks. Boy or girl, we would find out soon enough what baby moon was.
Comments