Baby's First Words

At our 3rd visit with the midwife, we got to experience something we'd been eagerly anticipating- we got to hear the baby's heartbeat!  At 18 weeks, it felt like we'd waiting FOREVER to hear that little noise.  So many American bloggers get to hear the heart beat much much earlier, so it was really hard for me to wait.

We had a fairly no-nonsense meeting with Mandy (our midwife) who collected another syringe o' urine from me, checked my blood pressure (It was totally fine, unlike the slightly elevated reading I'd had at the last visit) and made sure everything was going well.

Then I hopped on the exam table and she pulled out the Doppler wand.  I said something to Ross and referred to the baby as "she".  Mandy raised her eyebrows and said "She, eh?"  I explained our method and I'm pretty sure she didn't think we were too crazy.

She warned us that it might take her a minute to find the heartbeat and not to freak out if we didn't hear it right away.  A very nice thing to do, I'm sure, but it wasn't needed in our case.  Almost instantly the room was filled with the sound of our baby's heart.  Such a lovely sound.

Mandy explained that, if one goes by the highly unscientific heart rate information that can be found on the internet, the baby's heart rate meant that it was a boy.  A few seconds later, the rate sped up.  Mandy announced (with a twinkle in her eye) that the baby was now awake and a girl.  So that was our conclusive gender prediction!  This same method was all they really had back in they day when mom was pregnant with me.  It led to the doctor stating that I would be a boy.  Mom and Dad were pleasantly surprised when I burst onto the scene as a girl!

One thing that become obvious to me at this visit with Mandy was just how awesome the care we get is.  She mentioned that we should never have been scheduled at that time because it wasn't the standard block for our kind of appointment.  She noted that she was already running late for a group she was supposed to lead when our appointment started.  But!  We never felt rushed.  She didn't rush us through our appointment or discourage questions to make us speed up.  I know that many people have not had that same experience with their pre-natal care and I am really grateful that Mandy is doing such a good job!

After finally hearing our little one's beating heart, Ross and I started joking that the baby's first words were "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Did you use any non-scientific methods to guess your baby's sex?
Did you ever feel rushed when meeting with your doctor or midwife?