Our Bean -- the gymnast

Our bean has perfected the sumersault, cartwheel, backbend and the back handspring...

We rented a babybeat monitor a few weeks ago. It's a little doppler gadget that allows you to hear the heartbeat at home. Supposedly you can pick it up between 10-12 weeks. I'll be 11 weeks tomorrow. Anyway. We've tried it a few times and aside from Shiela having a panic attack because the heartbeat we heard was far too slow (it was my arterial flow.. ) it has been uneventful and a bit frusterating. I had read that it sometimes takes longer to hear if the mom is overweight and if the placenta is attached at the upper/back of the uterus.. both of which apply in our case.

Anywho.

So we decided to try again last night. After about 15 minutes of nothing but my own heart beat and placental sounds (sounds like the ocean).. I said "what if I pooch out my belly". Shiela laughed and said it wouldn't make a difference.. but I did it anyway. All of a sudden we started hearing all this whooshing and wub-wubbing. At first we thought it was just gas or something being picked up.. but it soon became clear that we had found our bean. He/she was flipping and doing the moonwalk trying out his/her new elbows and knees.. it was absolutely unbelievable! We did hear the heartbeat a few times, but only for a few seconds each time.. he/she kept moving so we'd lose it with a loud wub-wub.

I started shaking.. total head to toe shivers just like when we had the positive pee-test. Sheila's eyes get really big and her voice goes up an octave when she gets excited. It was such a blast!

I slept better than I have in a few weeks.. I just had needed some confirmation that the little peanut was still doing his/her thing. Shiela had lots of trouble sleeping and woke up totally pumped.. hearing the little jumping jack kicked her nesting instinct into full gear and she needed to clean!