Dopplers Revisited

I started a list tonight of the things I have found to be absolutely essential during pregnancy, and the first thing I thought of was my doppler.  And then I decided that this is something that should probably be a post of its own, since it really has been vital for my sanity during a lot of this pregnancy.

Some of you might remember that my doppler also caused a lot of stress on one particular day, early in pregnancy, when I couldn't find a heartbeat at all.  Luckily, I never had that hard of a time finding his heartbeat after that, though there were still times it took a while.  I'm sure the reason it was so hard was because it was still early in pregnancy - it really did get easier to find as the weeks progressed.

I'm not sure I would have needed the reassurance of a doppler if I had not had a miscarriage with my first pregnancy; it's impossible to say whether I would have felt the same sense of anxiety the first time around.  Even though I had a good feeling about this pregnancy from the very beginning, it didn't keep me from feeling slightly neurotic at times, and I really needed all the reassurance I could possibly get!  So as soon as I had an ultrasound that was transabdominal instead of transvag, I was ordering myself a doppler from Baby Beats.  I know you can get much cheaper dopplers elsewhere, but those aren't really dopplers, they're more like glorified microphones.  This place (and several others) rent medical grade dopplers, just like what the OB uses.

I thought about renting one just until the time that I thought I'd be able to feel him moving, but then I decided to go ahead and rent for a full 6 months - a time period that just ended a few days ago.  Before I felt him moving, I used it every single night.  Never for long, just a quick check in to say, yes, he's still there!  And then once I felt him moving, it was so inconsistent at first, that I needed the reassurance to know that he was still really ok, since it would sometimes be hours or even a day or so between feeling him move.  Once he started to move consistently, I didn't listen in as much, maybe once every few days or so.  Usually if I don't feel him move, I can push on him some, and he'll move.  Occasionally all I'll have to do is think about how I haven't felt him moving to get him to give my stomach a good kick, and so I've checked more just to hear the sound of his little heartbeat, and not because I need reassurance.  I had planned on mailing it back last week, but then I had a day where he didn't move much, and he didn't seem to respond when I pushed on him.  This is pretty common in late pregnancy - there just isn't room for a lot of movement anymore - but I still worried.  And it was such a relief to put the probe on my belly and hear that swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!  I've now decided I'm paying the extra $45 to keep it an extra month.  I have put the return box out on the kitchen table though, so I remember to send someone to the post office with it as soon I we get home from the hospital.

It wasn't a particularly cheap investment, but for the peace of mind, it has been well worth the cost!