So like, I mentioned before, we finally bought the membership to the local nature sanctuary to take walks in, rather than traipse through our golf course and possibly inhale all kinds of insecticides and pesticides. The membership gives all direct family members access to the Sanctuary, which means when my mom comes to help us with the baby, she’ll be able to take the baby there for walks. She just got her drivers license ( it’s a huge deal for a 60 year old woman in Russia), so she’ll be able to be more autonomous this time.

For us, the sanctuary has a perfect 2.5 mile trail, which is easy enough to walk, even in a nauseous pregnant state, but also works up a sweat  (or maybe it’s the Florida heat) and gets my heart rate up, which is all I can ask from a pregnancy exercising routine. We’ll be walking there every other day, with me doing pregnancy exercises on days off – that’s the plan. I’ve been feeling very lazy and working out is the last thing I want to do, but I can’t justify not doing it , considering the benefits and lack of risks ( unless you overdo it).

So pictures below is from our walk on Saturday. Most of the pics on the first collage is just me snapping away by our house waiting for hubby ( he always takes forever).

Also, we received the doppler. I guess it was in our mailbox all weekend, but we were so bummed when we realized doppler and ultrasound is the same that I didn’t even think to check the mail like I always do when expecting something. So we’re not really sure what to do with it.  First, we decided that we don’t want it, because, admit it, it’s more of a toy for us. So if it does ANYTHING to our baby, shouldn’t we NOT use it?  On the other hand, like any prospective parents, we’re DYING to hear our baby’s heartbeat again.

Yesterday, I came up with the idea of using it once, when it comes, for a very short period of time ( and videotaping it so that we can re-listen to it). And then just stowing it away (not returning it) for a time when there’s possibly an issue, or when we’re really worried, basically for “emergency use only”.  For example, once the baby starts kicking ( btw, when does that usually happen?), and then for some reason the kicks disappear, if we feel really worried, it’d be nice to have it around so that we had an option of using it.

I was also recommended a fetoscope by one of the readers. We’ll definitely be buying one and using it regularly from week 20, since it’s a simple fetal stethoscope.

So what do you guys think about the whole Doppler mess? Knowing how careful we’re trying to be, do you think using it once and then keeping it for emergencies is the optimal choice?  I can’t come up with a better one other than simply returning it….