The sweetest sound I've ever heard

My SIL (the doctor who prescribed me wonderful acne-killing face medicine a couple of weeks ago) brought her doppler to the BBQ so we could try to find a heartbeat. She made us promise that we wouldn't freak out if we didn't find it - she couldn't find it most of the time on herself because she was so swollen all the time. But since we have our big ultrasound on Tuesday, she brought it anyway.

So we're all waiting for the non-family guests to leave the BBQ so we can go try it out... But as 11 rolls around, we realize they're not leaving anytime soon, and say screw it. Nick, SIL and I go into the bedroom and close the door. My SIL got me all set up and covered in US goo, and put the wand on my belly. She searched around for a minute or two, pointing out my own heartbeat and the sound of the umbillical cord passing by the doppler, and then the most beautiful sound I've ever heard comes out loud and clear over the monitor.

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh....

Our little brownie has the sweetest heartbeat. Around 135 beats per minute (which is in the range of normal - hooray!) I was floored. And the babe was swimming around - we could only get maybe 15 seconds of heartbeat before s/he would move away from the wand. I had just had a cup of tea, so maybe the babe was feeling a little frisky :)

We invited my other sister-in-law in to hear, and then my mother-in-law.

And she let us take the doppler home, as long as we returned it on Sunday so she could take it back to the office on Monday.

So we listened again before bed, and then again in the morning before I showered. In the morning, we decided to call my mom. I ended up waking her up (oops!) but told her that someone wanted to say hi. We put the phone up to the monitor so she could hear the woosh woosh (still around 135 BPM). She said, "what the hell was that?" I told her it was the baby's heartbeat, and she melted. We put the doppler back to the phone, and I could hear her saying, "Hi baby! This is your grandma!" It was so sweet. I apologised for waking her, but said we figured she'd want to say hi before we had to take the doppler back.
I think it completely made her day.

I could listen to that all day.... But that's okay. The big ultrasound is Tuesday and we'll get a picture of our little baby brownie!