Galloping

So today we met with our Midwife, Maria, who's really wonderful. I realize that the fact that we're doing a homebirth may be news to some of you, but I'll let Cati post later about why she decided to go that route. Anyway, we had a nice long intake conversation with her on various topics, and then went to do various testing. As I've mentioned before to some of you, we've heard what we thought was the heart a couple times now, but as it turns out what we were hearing was the heartBEAT, but not the actual heart. Today, we heard the usual woosh woosh, but then she said she was going to let us hear the heart too. I had no idea what she meant, but she said it would sound different, and we'd know. She searched around for awhile on Cati's belly, and we heard lots of different volumes of woosh woosh, and then suddenly there it was, and we both knew it right away. It's a little gallop, calip calop calip calop...Wow. That really knocked me over. The woosh is amazing enough, but that gallop is the real deal, it sounds little and cute and human and surging to be alive. It's hard to even explain what part of you it touches, it's just a place that makes you feel like you're going to break apart and then reassemble in beams of light that jump in all directions. Not like a normal emotion I've ever felt. Cati's response is usually to giggle, and I can't say I blame her. It makes the doppler go crazy, breaking into loud static from the force of her insensible joy.