August 3

I can't believe it's August already. Pregnancy is a strange combination of time slowing and skipping ahead. I'm trying to just relax and enjoy the experience, but I'm also very excited to get to the next milestones.

Today, we had another prenatal appointment. The results from the NT screening were good. The next set of tests will be blood tests at 20 weeks. We're in week 13 right now.

During the appointment, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was very faint and at first my doctor had trouble finding it. She had to take out the ultrasound machine and find the baby and her/his position to know where to find the sound. Matt and I were fixated on the ultrasound image of the baby's face and head. It was the first time we've seen him/her from that perspective. We get really excited to see our baby. Both of us spoke to our little one, saying, "We saw you again today." Our baby can now hear sounds so we are both making a point to speak to him/her. Lucky me, I get to eavesdrop on Matt's conversations with the baby. Matt also likes to kiss my belly where our baby is growing. I have no complaints about that. =)

Speaking of my belly. It's growing--faster than I expected. I'm getting a faint line in my skin running down the middle of my stomach down to just above the pubic bone. Is this a stretch mark? I see the line on other pregnant bellies, but I'm a little surprised to see it so early even if my belly is getting rounder and sticking out more.

The good news is that I've only gained a half pound in the last month. I need to be careful to keep my weight in check early on since I was overweight before getting pregnant.

Overall, things are going smoothly and we're very happy to be in our 2nd trimester.