Lime time

I'm 11 weeks today (the baby's about the size of a lime) and I had my second doctor's visit. I had a pap smear and the doctor listened for the baby's heartbeat. He couldn't find it. He told me not to worry, it was because I'm only 11 weeks. (Looking back at Claire's blog, my other doctor heard her heartbeat with no problem at this point -- glad I didn't know that this morning.) Then he pulled in the portable ultrasound machine. Still couldn't find a heartbeat. He blamed it on my not having a full bladder. Next option: transvaginal ultrasound.

Finally! What looked like a blob three weeks ago is clearly a baby now, with waving arms and a heartbeat of 150 beats per minute.

So all's well that ends well, but I do not like that kind of suspense. Ninety-nine percent of the time I'm thankful not to have any pregnancy symptoms to speak of, but for a few minutes this morning, it would have been nice to tell myself, "Hey, I puked my guts out this morning -- I'm sure everything's fine."

My tiredness is gone. Really, I've been pretty much back to normal ever since the night I slept 14 straight hours a few weeks ago. It looks like I never wrote about that on this blog, but I mentioned it here.

I'm still having some food aversions, mainly to meat. Everything fresh and light sounds good. I'm also drinking caffeine, but trying not to overdo it. Usually I skip the morning coffee so I can enjoy Coke without guilt later in the day.

I have ultrasound pictures from this morning as well as the last appointment that I still intend to scan and post, but at the moment I'm out on the porch and it's just too nice to go inside until I have to.

The next appointment is on May 10, when I'll be 15 weeks, and after that we get to find out the sex! I still think it's a boy, but my confidence was badly shaken by the news that Meg and Drew are having a boy. I know it sounds dumb, but I was POSITIVE they were having a girl.

There are these drug-store tests now that you can take anytime after six weeks to find out the baby's sex, and supposedly they're like 85 percent accurate, but I think we're going to hold out. It's not much longer! Although, if anyone wants to donate $3o to the cause, I could be persuaded to pee on one more stick.