oh the things you can buy!

As i mentioned in my post last Friday (found here), we took the boys to my first OB appt where we heard the heartbeat. They were fascinated and loved it. We've talked about babies or heartbeats with the boys every day since then. And everyday, at least once a day, pooks listens to my belly with his fisher price stethoscope and is ''twying to hear that babies heart''. Well needless to say, he's been unsuccessful. After trying for a good 2 minutes yesterday {while I was in the middle of cooking dinner nonetheless} he gave up. I feel bad because he is so excited and he shows such interest but obviously, it just won't work. Hell, even a real stethoscope doesn't pick up a fetal heartbeat until closer to 20 weeks. What they use in the office is a fetal doppler:

It's a type of ultrasound, hence why it picks up sound waves so much quicker. I only have one appointment each month until 30 weeks, and I'm not taking all the kids with me each time. But one thing that I never realized is that (of course on the good old internet) you can actually rent or buy one for personal use. Now I'm not talking about the $20 one Wal-Mart sells (everybody everywhere says those are crap) but legit medical grade dopplers. The huge downside is that the medical grade ones are $200-$600 dollars to buy and anywhere from $25-$48/month to rent.

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

So we were looking at buying one on Amazon.com. They have ones for sale that aren't the cheapo glorified stethoscope ones that walmart sells, but not the medical grade either. We were looking and reviewing one that cost about $60. I'm hesitant because I don't want to get the kids hopes up and have it not work. So I turned to the place where I knew someone could give me some advice, my online moms' group. I asked about renting vs buying and if anyone had experience with the $60 one. And low and behold one of the mom's actually owns a "real" one and has offered to let us borrow it!! How sweet is that? Hopefully everything will work out (she has to find it, lol) but if it does, how happy will pooks be? I will definitely make B record their reactions on the camcorder and get it posted up here, asap.

I think it will be a great way to help the kids bond with the baby and help them realize that it's still in there and still growing slowly. Pooks is now referring to the sweetcheeks only as "Sissy" and in all honesty, my gut instinct is telling me that it's another boy, lol!

Oh and I should update; some decisions were finally made regarding the ''big" ultrasound. If we go to our appt in May/June and the sono tech can tell the sex of the baby, we will find out. If we go to the appt and the sono-tech cannot tell the sex of the baby (legs are crossed, etc) then not only will we not find out then, but we won't find out AT ALL until the birth. Both B and I agree that if we aren't meant to find out, then we won't. And if we are, then we will. { I will mention that at Bubba's very first ultrasound, they couldn't determine the sex...we found out at a later appt; so it isn't a far fetched idea!)

Also, we agreed on both girl and boy names, as well as middle names. I won't tell you the first name, but if it's a boy the middle name will be Ray; after my Papa Barry and my Great Grandpa Everett, both shared Ray as a middle name. (Well and myself...my middle name is Rae) And if it is a girl, the middle name with be Diane; after my Grandma Virgina as well as Nanaw (my mom) both shared Diane as a middle name.

Whew, I think that's all the updates I have regarding sweetcheeks :)