Had our second visit to the midwife today and learned that she is actually head of our city's midwife center. I absolutely love her. She takes her time, laughs, is bubbly, and explains everything to us. She answers all of our questions and seems to be nearly as excited about the baby as we are.
We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time today -- "shwew, shwew, shwew"... if you say that 142 times in a minute, that's what it sounds like. It has to be one of the most beautiful sounds in the entire world. For me, it's a confirmation of life. It was one thing -- an amazing event -- to see the baby on the initial ultrasound 6 weeks ago, but somehow the heartbeat is so much more real. Almost halfway there, baby.
Test results: normal blood pressure, and normal iron and sugar levels. Learned that I don't have syphillis or HIV. However, I was surprised to learn that I don't have conclusive resistance to rubella, although I'm pretty sure I was vaccinated as a child. Therefore, I have to be very careful (although it's not very common anymore, knock on wood). I will be vaccinated at the hospital as soon as the baby is born.
The uterus is growing as it should, although I feel like a big balloon. I've gained around 10 lbs, which is more than I did this early (18 weeks) in the other pregnancies, but there is no apparent reason behind it. My typical meals consist of yogurt and bran flakes for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and a regular, healthy dinner. I'm still walking an hour a day, at a minimum. So who knows...
We've talked about trying to come up with some names this weekend, before next week's ultrasound. There is a chance the technician will tell us whether baby is a boy or a girl (any votes? make them now!), and then it won't be necessary to pick both. Crazy, but I want to pick both a boy's name and a girl's name before then.
In the meantime, we're in the midst of reporting season, which means hours and hours of work. It's going very smoothly, though, and I really like the group of people I'm working with. Besides, I have just over a month left before I start my maternity leave (yes, it is definitely a good thing to have a baby here...) The first 4 months will be leave that I get to take for Lucas (I get one year of leave that I can take before he turns 8.).
And I'm making a list of places I want to see and places I want to eat while in the US. Life has its priorities, you know!
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