Sleepless in Cordova

I guess "sleepless" isn't really the right terminology to use here, but Leah has been experiencing more of a "discomfort" in the bed. But then again, "Discomfortable in Seattle" wasn't a movie title (that I could find) and thus wouldn't have made a very clever heading. Anyway, Leah has been having a lot of trouble "getting comfortable" in bed, so she wondered if there were any sort of pregnancy exploitation, I mean assistance, device that some retail store could sell us. Sure enough, we found a rounded wedge-shaped pillow that is designed to support the stomach while the woman is on her side (sleeping on the back is not advised, and on the stomach, well...you figure it out). She wasn't sure if she liked it at first, and it even ended up on the floor a couple of nights. But alas, she has deemed it worthy, and I don't have to worry about visiting the Returns counter at Babies R Us.

Remember back in an earlier post, I mentioned that we had rented a doppler from those folks at BabyBeat? We've had a lot of fun with it......and sometimes we'll be lounging around the house and Leah will say, "Let's play with the doppler!" About a week or so ago, we tried and tried and tried to pick up a good, solid heartbeat, and the little swimmer must've been being a bit stubborn. Just like it's mother (he he he). We didn't get worried or think anything was wrong; we just figured we'd get it another time. A couple of weeks ago, Kristi & Joe were over at the house (remember, she is about 34ish weeks), and they both laid out on the furniture and Joe and me found our children's heartbeat. Come to think of it, ours was a bit difficult to find that night, too--I hope this isn't a pattern of stubborness!!

Last night--success!! It took no time at all, and little Eric/Erica decided to make amends, apparently. We heard a good, strong beat, and apparently he/she decided to stay in one place for a bit (sleeping, perhaps?). Because of the onboard record feature, I captured it digitally and moved it over to the computer in .wav file format, so that all you RussellBaby blog readers can hear it. Now, when the little one is 3 or 4, you can say stuff like, "I remember when you were knee-high to a grasshopper, and I heard your heartbeat at 18 weeks of gestation."

Of course, out of my excitement, I brought the doppler to work today to play back the cool recording. Then one person basically said, "That's an absolutely pointless loss of money, and you're a currency-wasting fool for being duped into renting it." OK, maybe that's what it's gonna feel like when I say, "Did you know that my kid did _____?" and somebody deflates my child-excitement balloon with, "Big deal--mine did it 6 months before that. I'm not impressed." Anyway, so that I spare you the needless and awkward position of telling me in person that you don't care about hearing the heartbeat, I've put it online over at the home page. If you wanna listen--help yourself. If you don't, that's cool too. Gotta love choices. I even put smaller version (about 10 seconds shorter) on there in case you're on dial-up.