Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!

My appointment with the midwives was wonderful, you guys! I'm not sure that I could convey how scared I was leading in to this. I was fairly certain that my body was once again deluding me, and that there would not be a heartbeat.

With all of the delays involved in our visit (Don went with me), I was completely on edge by the time we made it into the ultrasound room. I tried to stay cool, but I burst into tears when we saw Baby Bean's heartbeat flicker into view.

Doyle Baby Two is measuring right on target, and has a beautifully strong heartbeat. For my more visually oriented readers, here is our glorious Bean:

For those not up on their ultrasound reading skills, the black center is where Bean lives. The largest round bit near the top center is a baby head. Following down to the right is baby body then baby leg. Branching toward the center is coiled umbilical cord.

It's so wild that almost exactly 4 weeks ago, our baby looked like a stick attached to a bubble, and now it is pretty much baby-shaped (albeit a bit lacking in birth-ready proportion...). Our medical group has huge monitors attached near the ceiling in their ultrasound rooms so that you can easily see the images in real time. This little one was moving a mile a minute. Legs peddling, arms pumping. Quite impressive for one so tiny (3.43 cm from crown to buns)!

Good news, great day! Followed closely by an energy crash of epic proportion. I had the kind of nap where you literally cannot force your eyes open even though you NEED to. I plan on repeating that nap in a much longer time frame tomorrow, because it is currently 2 a.m., and I cannot seem to shut myself off for the night :-/

Send me sleepy thoughts, friends. And tell Bean that I'll send down as much fat as my dumb gallbladder will allow me to... and if more is needed, just borrow from the reserves in my thighs - please.