8 weeks + 1st Ultrasound!

Yesterday we had the very much anticipated first ultrasound.  For the few days prior, I couldn't think about anything else.  By yesterday morning, I was so incredibly nervous my stomach was doing flip flops and I could barely eat breakfast or lunch.  Erik and I went together (he actually almost didn't make it due to our scooter not starting, luckily our next door neighbor was nice enough to give him a lift to the hospital!)  The ultrasound was performed by a physician (likely because it was done for the study) and she was so nice and sweet it made the whole experience that much better.  Right before she started, I was nearly shaking from nerves and felt like my heart would beat straight out my chest...  But as she began, before she even said she saw the heartbeat - I actually saw it.  I saw the little peanut and beating heart right there on the monitor.  (The night prior I spent some time online looking at videos of early ultrasounds so I would have an idea of what I was looking for.)  Next to our wedding day, it was one of the best moments of my life.  I immediately started crying tears of relief and happiness, and then was able to relax a little more as she took measurements and allowed us to hear the heartbeat.

Here are a few of the baby's stats we learned yesterday:

• There is in fact, only one - whew!  (not that I would mind having twins, but it would immediately make me ineligible to continue my prenatal care at the birthing center, so it was something I was a little worried about.)
• Baby is 18mm long (0.71 inches) about the size of a raspberry
• Heart rate is 176 BMP, completely normal for this gestational age
• According to the measurements, they estimated me at 8 weeks and 3 days.  Not too far off from the 8w 1d I had calculated!  (You might think this is a pretty standard calculation from the LMP, but my unusually long and somewhat irregular cycles makes it harder to figure out when ovulation might occur.  Plus the cycle we conceived I actually ovulated an entire week late due to me being sick.  So I was pretty happy that I was so close to determining our date of conception on my own.)

The physician said that everything looked great and the baby's measurements were excellent.  I asked her the chances of a miscarriage after hearing the heartbeat and she said only about 7%.  So much relief set in, and for the first time this entire pregnancy I really felt like this is really going to happen.  When we left the clinic I felt like I was floating on a cloud, I was so very happy!  Erik recorded the entire ultrasound on my ipod.  See below for clips of the best parts!


Erik took this video while I was in the bathroom.  The physician had explained a little about the procedure before she stepped out to let me get undressed.  Erik decided to provide to you his own explanation of the machine, hehe...  (Note, this was a transvaginal ultrasound, not the external abdominal kind...)

The very beginning of the ultrasound.  You can hear my shaky, crying voice as I realized there was a heartbeat.

Hearing the heartbeat for the first time.  Ticking along at 176 beats per minute.  Erik joked afterwards that the baby must be a natural cyclist as it already had a good time trial heart rate.  ha!

Now that we know everything is progressing okay, it is really hard not to call up our parents and tell them the great news.  (Side note:  if you are just starting to read this blog, at the time of writing this the settings were still set to private.  It did not go live until after we shared the news with everyone...)  We have decided to stick to the original plan though, and wait until my parents visit in 2 weeks.  We will tell Erik's parents around the same time.  We were sent home with a couple photos of the baby, and the plan is to let my parents "find them" in the nursery as we are giving them the new house tour.  We will do something similar with Erik's parents via Face Time on the iphones.  I hope we are able to capture their reactions this time around as well!