The Heartbeat
Life • June 22nd, 2007When the little peanut growing inside your womb doesn’t have much material presence, you take what you can get…
I had a checkup with my doctor this afternoon. All good, all great. Time came to check on the baby’s heartbeat. I have not written about this, so I need to explain that few things compare to the first time when you hear your baby’s heartbeat. At the time — many weeks ago — it made Joey’s day (he wouldn’t shut up about it). It’s still a little magical even now, though by now I’m very familiar with the sound and the accelerated frequency of the little pulses.
Doc had me lay down and pressed the doppler on my underbelly. We heard:
tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu tucu…
When suddenly:
tucu tucu TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU TUCU…
It became so loud, I almost went “wow”. But something better happened… My doctor, one of the most serious women I’ve ever met, had no option but to crack a smile. She reached for the volume dial (or that’s what I thought she was doing), turned it down, and said with a big smile: “That’s very good”.
I laughed. Bolliti’s heartbeat had gotten so loud it was impossible not to acknowledge it. It almost made it sound like he/she was banging objects, and screaming “HEY! CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME???”
