Our little gummy bear

Our first appointment with the OB was June 4th. I was just about 8 weeks along and very anxious. Though I had been feeling nauseous and very tired, I didn't really feel pregnant. It's hard to know that everything is going okay with the baby when you can't feel it and you haven't really started growing.

The first part of the appointment, the doctor allowed Jason and me to ask as many questions as we'd like. Of course I had plenty. We covered my concerns from Down's Syndrome to boating. He assured me that based on what I told him about my family history with Downs (I have an aunt and uncle born with it) that it didn't appear to be heriditary. This made me feel better.

Then after a physical exam (i'll spare you the details!) he attempted to hear the heartbeat with a fetal doppler. While he said from the beginning that at 8 weeks it would be hard to hear anything, it was still nervewracking. As expected, he couldn't hear anything. I was very dissapointed...

Then he said, well, let's do an ultrasound to make sure everything is okay. He did the u/s himself and we quickly were able to see the baby. I think I stopped holding my breath at this point! It looked like a little gummy bear. He measured the heartbeat at a strong 169 bpm and the size of the baby was a few days further along, but right on track. It was a great experience.

As I learned quickly in my first month of being pregnant, no matter how tiny your child is, it's natural to worry. The worrying doesn't end with the first ultrasound either and as a future-mom, I don't expect it to ever go away.