Houston, we have a heartbeat!

Went to the baby doctor today and what a worthwhile appointment it was!

For some quick background, I appear to be anywhere from 10 to 11-and-a-half-weeks along. Thanks to some possible over-estimating on my part, I had to confess to the nurse that I might only be ten weeks.

She then had to confess to me that we might not be able to hear the heartbeat, as planned, because that's kind of early in the process. But she didn't want to disappoint, and the gleaming heartbeat monitor was already sitting on the counter so she said she'd give it a try. (Though, she warned us we might not hear anything and we shouldn't be disappointed.)

With the clear jelly slopped all over my belly, she moved the little monitor back and forth. We heard lots of static, some gurgles and then whooooshh, whooooshh, whooooshh. Patrick and I were quite excited as our ears tuned in and we both sat up in our seats, but the nurse informed us that was just my stomach making noises. "It picks up everything, especially if you didn't eat lunch yet," she said. "The baby's heartbeat is much faster."

Stupid stomach noises, I thought, and then I said aloud, "C'mon baby!"

After a few more false alarms (and a little disappointment) the nurse and I suddenly picked up a faint shh-shh-shh-shhh-shh-shhh-shh in quick succession. She lost the sound and then picked it up again, and we were like, "There it is again." I was beaming, but Patrick still couldn't hear it. So he got really close and the determined nurse hunted around again until we could all pick up the distinct, spunky shh-shh-shh-shhh-shh-shh-shh-shhh of our growing baby and its wee heart.

Patrick beamed, too, leaning in and said, "Settle down, little baby." Heh heh. Apparently, babies at this stage have super quick heartbeats. I think the count was 166 or thereabouts.

Needless to say, we were both overjoyed.