Our new toy

In case you're wondering which toy I'm referring to, it's the home fetal doppler. The little stuffed Nemo is a fairly new toy, too, which my mom sent us a couple of weeks ago! PC and I do play with that from time to time (thanks Mom), but the doppler is SO COOL. However, I'm a little afraid of the sticker on the back that says "Federal law restricts this device to use by or on the order of a physician." That sounds worse than those tags that come on pillows saying you can't remove them under penalty of law. Just so everyone knows, I did obtain this legally - I rented it from a company called BabyBeat, and if I'm going to be prosecuted the government will have plenty of other people to go after in addition to me. :) Anyway, this thing is so amazing. I had heard some bad things about home dopplers but somehow stumbled across this website (I google alot these days) and cracked. I couldn't resist it, just $24.00 for one month! I was willing to give up a dinner out to get my hands on one of these. So it came in the mail a couple days later, and of course I couldn't wait to try it out! Finding Nemo's heartbeat was only tricky the first time, since we didn't really know what we were listening for because we decided not to listen to the instructional CD or read the directions first (seriously, who needs instructions?). I was having trouble placing the probe on the right spot over my tummy, so PC grabbed it, pressed it down nice and hard (easy for him since it wasn't his stomach) and found Nemo right away. The tricky thing is we can hear my heartbeat in addition to Nemo's, so once we figured out that Nemo's was twice as fast as mine, it was much easier to distinguish between them! His/her little heartbeat was clopping away in the neighborhood of 160 bpm. How cool to not have to wait weeks between doctor visits to say hi to Nemo! I do it at least once a day, sometimes twice, and it's not out of worry or wanting to make sure he's still alive - okay, maybe the first time it was - but that's God's job. I do it now to remind myself that I'm hanging out with a little person all day, and there's something about connecting with him/her in a non-medical environment that is awesome. PC isn't able to come to my doctor appointments because of his work schedule, so this was the only way he'd be able to "experience" Nemo before the 20 week ultrasound (which he is coming to!!!!). Plus, I'm able to enjoy the sound of that heartbeat so much more at home on our couch than I am on the papery exam table at the hospital. So, here's to hoping that there are no undiscovered dangers of exposing an unborn child to ultrasound waves every day! I already checked in once today so I'll give him/her a break for now. Notice that I'm trying to stop calling him/her "him," as that is just not nice if it turns out to be a girl. Maybe we'll take a friend's advice and change Nemo to Nema if we get that news in a couple more months! :)