A sensory treat at the tail end of 22 weeks

As of Saturday, I am 23 weeks pregnant! On Friday I got a long awaited treat: I was finally able to hear my fetal heartbeat with my fetoscope!



This is a fetoscope.



This is the business end of the fetoscope.

If you haven't had midwifery care before (or possibly even if you have) you might not know what a fetoscope is.  It's essentially a specialised stethoscope for listening to the fetal heart tones.  The traditional way to use it is to press it firmly onto the pregnant person's belly using the health care provider's forehead.  This is because the forehead is really sensitive to pressure and the skull bones conduct sounds, so it allows the provider to sense the delicately quiet fetal heart rate with more than just the earpieces.  When doing it on yourself, you can just hold it on using the bony part of the palm of your hand or your wrist. Personally, I wouldn't hold it like the image here shows because it's not taking advantage of the reverb into the bones of the hand.

Anyway... with my student grade fetoscope, I wasn't expecting to hear the heartbeat for a few more weeks. I was so thrilled to hear it as well as I did! I got to share it with a friend, too.

I have a sound recording of my fetal heartbeat from 15 weeks that I should post sometime once I figure out how to do that. :)  It's pretty sweet to hear.  It's given me a lot of comfort.

In other fetal development news...
My fetus has been kicking like crazy.  It seems like early afternoon (about an hour after lunch) is the most active time.  On Saturday a friend said that she could see it move through my dress. I did feel a big movement at that time, but I think that maybe she just saw the wind blow my shirt a bit. I just can't believe that little Foetie* is that strong yet.  But maybe s/he is!
The other cool thing is that my fetus got the hiccups this weekend!  It's a totally normal thing to happen, but it was very very cool to experience.  It was like single kicks repeatedly in the same spot, rhythmically. I could tell that the wee one was head down at the time because of where the sensation was coming from.  I loved it.

My thought are now turning to Toronto Pride.  It's this coming weekend.  I plan to attend the Trans March on Friday since so many of my friends and sweethearts over the years are trans-identified, and the Dyke March on Sunday.  I will likely be slathered in my non-chemical sunscreen and wearing something tight to show off my round figure.  I'd love to have some kind of "pregnant queer" or "breeder" sign to carry on Sunday or an easy and comfy costume of some sort. Do you have any ideas?


* My unplanned nickname for the little one.  It's pronounced "Fee-tee".