I never knew that it could be the most delightful sound ever!  Today was my first doctor’s appointment with my pre-natal doctor and I finally had the opportunity to hear the baby’s heartbeat!  S/he was a strong 160!! I am 19 weeks along today and while I haven’t yet started to feel the baby move, I did get to hear the baby move while we were listening to the heartbeat with the Doppler!  It was almost like the baby kicked the microphone :-)  The doc pointed out that old wives tales predict that I’m carrying a girl with a heart rate on the high end and that goes along as well with my results with the Chinese calendar that my friend Jacki got me to do for fun, so we shall see!  My doctor told me that those two “predictors” were accurate for her both times.  In reality, it’s a 50-50 chance, but it’s kind of fun to imagine having a little girl (while not committing to it at the same time!).  The husband is constantly asking me what “I” think it is, trying to get the slightest hint of any kind of “intuition” of what we could be having because he wants to know!  We’re going to wait until s/he is born to find out basically because I’m the one who wants to wait and I think the wait will be well worth it :-)  For now, hopefully this little very unscientific prediction will give him something to satisfy his curiosity for the time being! lol

My doctor is very happy and pleased with my overall health and she could not be a nicer, more inviting, more cheerful and enthusiastic doctor!!!  I am OVER THE MOON at how much I like her and that alone puts my mind at ease knowing that I like the doctor that is going to delivery my baby and who is so positive and young at heart!  There’s nothing worse than feeling intimidated by your care provider and I have been there before and it can be traumatizing!  Especially for something that I will remember for the rest of my life 🙂

She was of course interested in all the usual health factors and I of course was nervous about the weight part.  I am already around 20 lbs approaching the half way mark and my range is “supposed” to cap at 25! Eeeesh!  But she was so great about it and was actually more interested in my activity level and said she would never “wrap my knuckles” about weight gain and is satisfied that I know how to eat healthily.  She said that it’s actually more important that I keep being active and getting on the ball with that before 20 weeks can really bring down the risks of developing gestational diabetes.  I was really happy to hear that!  First trimester for me (and many women) was pretty much a right off because I was so miserable and sick and I just couldn’t get myself motivated to do much of any exercise other than the pre-natal yoga class once a week because I was so tired when I got home from work even when the nausea let up.  Now I’m hitting the streets during my lunch hours and on the weekends and getting in 45 – 60 minutes of good walking in about 4-5 times per week and with the sun shining here in Halifax and the weather improving, it is doing wonders for me all around.  This Friday is my last pre-natal class and I was initially going to sign up for the next session, but truth be told, I don’t particularly like the Friday night time slot because that has always been my laziest time of the week after work.  I just simply don’t want to do anything but relax on Friday nights.  So I ended up ordering Fit By Sarah’s 2nd & 3rd Trimester Pre-natal Yoga DVDs 3 weeks ago that I just received in the mail today!  I can’t wait to try them out and tell ya’ll what I think!

I found out about them from the PregTASTIC podcast I found on iTunes that I have been listening to in my car every day and I have to say, this podcast has been the BEST resource to learn about pregnancy in general on a peer level as well as from experts.  It’s a round table of pregnant women who chat about their ups and downs from week to week and usually they will have an expert of some kind on a certain pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding topic and  when their baby arrives, they come back to share their “birth story” and it truly is an amazing resource.  Because the women who host the show are pregnant, they know exactly what to ask the guests and they always ask the same questions I feel like I would want to ask.  So I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is pregnant or planning to be or know someone else who you might know who is pregnant.  Because of that podcast I’m starting to feel much more confident about all of the unknowns about child birth, breastfeeding and being a new mom. 🙂

So all in all everything has been going really well lately and I’m definitely enjoying my second trimester more than my first!  There was a time when I thought the “honeymoon” trimester would never come!  And BEST of all, the husband and I are going on a “baby moon”!!  Since we are no longer going to Jamaica for our friends’ wedding in June, we decided to go to Orlando!!  Neither of us have ever been before and we’re going for 10 days in a month’s time!  Sooooo excited!  We’ve rented a condo and plan on hitting up Disney, Seaworld, Bush Gardens etc. etc. and 10 days will give us enough time to relax and enjoy the parks!  I was so lucky that my buddy Shari sent me her Disney planning books!  Thanks again Shari! 🙂

For those of you who have been to Orlando, what were your favourite places, restaurants, shopping etc?