Hellos and Heartbeats

Today Helen and I went to meet her baby doctor. The doc seems very nice and took our questions, then talked about all the things Helen could or could not / should or should not do. Amazingly, zip-lining is OK in her book. She said that she recommends pregnant women only gain about 25 pounds total, which was a bit of a surprise since I know some moms who gained as much as 70 lbs when they had their babies.

The doctor also talked about all the things we as humans (pregnant or not) already know but hardly ever do, like eat healthy, exercise regularly, etc. She mentioned that how active the mom is while pregnant will have a direct effect on the chances of the baby becoming obese as a child. Additionally, she gave us a marathon analogy, basically saying that if one sat on the couch for nine months, then got up to try and run a marathon, the results wouldn't be pretty. Same thing with pregnancy - working hard when giving birth is all the tougher when you haven't 'trained' beforehand, though I'm not sure how much one can train for childbirth (I've heard the experience likened to taking your lips and stretching them over the top of your head. Ouch.)



The best part of today's visit was getting the chance to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was so cool. Norbit's tiny heart was thumping like crazy - it sounded like a horse galloping. I think I'll sleep well tonight knowing that baby and mommy are healthy and progressing nicely, and that we're in good hands with this doctor.