12 weeks, 1 day - Ga-gung ga-gung ga-gung ga-gung

That post title is what little baby blob's heart sounds like. That's right, I heard a heartbeat yesterday. It was a bit anti-climatic, to be honest. The whole "first prenatal exam being the longest and most invasive" was a bit of a red herring. Yes, I got a pelvic exam and some swabs were taken, but all in all, I don't think the doctor was in there with me for more than 5-10 minutes. Start to finish. She's delightful and answered all of my questions, but she did that while doing the exams and then, while we were talking, she squirted some stuff on my belly and plopped this thing on it and all of a sudden, it sounded like Brooklyn's Cookie Monster stethoscope. In fact, at first, I did kind of hear his voice doing the "gung gung-ga-gung gung-ga-gung gung-ga-gung" sound. I just looked at the doctor and she smiled at me and said, "that's your baby's heartbeat." By the time that sunk in, she had the instrument wrapped back up and was asking if I had any questions. Whirlwind. I didn't feel rushed or anything, I just was surprised by how fast everything went. I did feel terrible, though, because everything happened so fast and I didn't know what was happening until after it was over that... I forgot to have them go get Matt. :( He was so sad. Understandably so. It just all happened so fast that I didn't think of it. And of course I didn't want him in the room for the pelvic exam but I just... ... I'm just a jerk. No excuses. Poor guy.

The good news is that the heart rate is still good and high at 163. Doctor told me to gain between 25 and 35 lbs between the second and third trimesters, which is just what all the books said, but not what the stupid people in the blogs say. I should know better than to pay attention to them by now. But yeah, all seems fine.

Oh! And she asked how I was feeling. When I told her that I've had really very little morning sickness she smirked and said, "maybe it's a boy." I guess she's heard that tale, too. We'll just have to wait and see.

I go back again in 4 weeks and I won't have another sonogram until 20 weeks, so I guess you'll all have to suffer through belly pics until then. Which, I promise, I really will start taking again at some point. It just seems pointless because there hasn't been a change yet. I was starting to think that maybe my waist was thickening this past week while at my parents house, but now I think it was just from eating so much salt (I survived mainly on cold cuts and potato chips while home).

I weighed in at the doctor 3 lbs lighter than I did last time I was there, which was a surprise because I weighed myself yesterday morning and was back up to my normal weight. I guess I must have drank enough water to get rid of that salt. Who knows? Anyway, if we're to believe the doctor's scale, I'm down 5 lbs from where I was pre-pregnancy. Also, my blood pressure was surprisingly low considering the fact that I don't exercise and I ate spoonfuls of salt while at home. Aren't our bodies amazing things?