Fetal Heart Rate (胎心率, 胎児心拍数, 태아 심박수)

MJ and I have gone together to regular checkups during this pregnancy process, and I've always been impressed by how real it is to monitor the baby's heart rate, and how fast the baby's heart can beat, anywhere from 110 to 160 beats per minute is healthy. Our as yet unborn baby has stayed right within the 150 bpm, which is right around normal. I'm a pretty callous person all things considered, I don't give hugs, I don't gush emotionally about happy moments or cry tears of happiness at the end of Sleepless in Seattle when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan finally meet at the top of the Empire State Building, but even I can feel something when the stethoscope (or whatever they call it to put on mom's belly to monitor baby's heartbeat) detects a steady heartbeat. It's the first proof of life in a child after the weird ultrasound at 6 weeks showing a tiny something in the uterus, and the heart beat just makes everything feel real, that the baby is coming and the clock has started on when we get to meet her. I will also miss putting my hand on MJ's belly feeling for baby's kicks and movement; it began with very subtle little ripples on my hand, to now I can guess where the baby's head and foot are based on how hard certain areas of MJ's belly feel. It's kind of like in science class at a young age and knowing a chick might hatch out of one of those eggs any day (or kind like the Jurassica park scene of a dinosaur breaking through the huge dino egg shell) where you know something's inside and just incubating until the day they're ready to come out. Maybe this is how Daenyrus Targaryen felt in the first season of Game of Thrones carrying around her dragon eggs, knowing the potential of how powerful they can be. MJ and I just missed having a dragon baby in the year of the dragon but are having a snake (baby dragon) baby! They say babies grow up really fast, but I'm already feeling that the pregnancy is going by so fast! This is the one and only time the baby will be attached to MJ (it's easier for me to say not having to carry her around) but even this time of nausea, tightness, and feeling heavy all the time for MJ may seem like a pleasant memory and "the good ol' days" later on, especially when baby starts to cry. I always wonder, is baby not crying in the womb? Is baby feeling anything, is the brain already starting to pick up on language and voices? I guess they feel pretty comfortable in the womb, otherwise they wouldn't be crying so much when they get forcibly pulled out of there when they're ready to join the world. I did notice them before, but the imminent arrival of our baby is making me focus much more on other people's babies: I see them in strollers outside, being walked around at Costco, even at a football game! I saw a newborn that must have been tops 2-3 weeks old at the Illinois- USC football game recently. Guess some mothers really want their children to attend their first football game early and often! I notice some mothers carrying them facing forward, some facing backward, and most of the kids look.....peaceful. Cherubic. Angelic. Healthy. I also have a couple who had their child very early and spent 2 months in the NICU, but turned out OK and recently went home! That would be anxiety-inducing for me; so far I haven't yet started to feel the burden of all parents worrying about their children every minute of the day for the rest of their lives, partly because baby is resting safely and soundly in MJ's womb, but I'm sure that will start very soon. But it's a good anxiety; I hope to be anxious about baby for a very very long time, not just their fetal heart rate but their real heart rate, their growth pattern, their first steps, their first words, their first football game (not for awhile). This is real; it's happening, and I'm very happy to be there for her, unlike Khal Drogo who died prematurely and left Daneyrus Targaryen to be a single mother of dragons. I'll be there.