Listen! It kicked again right here. I swear it’s not appendicitis!

Good ‘ol Pearl. She’s a bit to hopeful about starting a family.

This one was inspired by my multiple scans, doppler and ultrasound tests I got related to my cancer. I felt like a peace of meat on the butcher’s block. But now it’s all water under a bridge. Let’s concentrate on what’s upstream and forget the ride over the rapids the last two years.

Abstract

I propose a model, which adopts Doppler’s approach, except that it treats neutrino time travel rather than wave-length and frequency. The new model, which I call “time-Doppler”, is founded on Galilean Relativity, but it disregards the notion of a preferred frame of reference. Alternatively it could be viewed as a modification of Special Relativity Theory that disregards its second axiom. The proposed model predicts with precision all the 𝑣𝑛−𝑐0𝑐0 neutrino velocities reported by OPERA, MINOS, and  ICARUS. In contrast, Special Relativity yields grossly incorrect predictions for all the aforementioned experiments. Combined with ample evidence from cosmology and high energy experiments indicating the breakdown of SR and Lorentz Symmetry, it is proposed that the two theories are valid at low and intermediate energies, but they break down at sufficiently high energies, whether in Laboratory experiments, or in cosmological observations.

see original Abstract or  Full article

© Professor Ramzi Suleiman

An artist’s representation of extra-solar planets

Dr. Fressin has analysed data from the Kepler mission to come up with his startling figure. But, it should be pointed out that a lot of assumptions come into this number, so I thought I would explain what some of these assumptions are, as well as explaining a little about the Kepler mission.

Wobbling stars

The history of detecting extra-solar planets (exoplanets) goes back to the mid 1990s. The detection technique used for the vast majority of the early discoveries was to detect the wobble that an orbiting planet produces in the position of its host star. When a planet orbits a star they in fact both orbit the system’s centre of mass. This may be a point actually within the body of the star. The larger the ratio between the mass of the star and the mass of the orbiting planet, the closer the centre of mass will be to the centre of the host star.

The dopper shift in the spectrum of a star produced as an unseen planet orbits it

Our Earth produces a wobble in the Sun, but it is too small a wobble for us to be able to detect. However, Jupiter, the most massive planet in our Solar System, produces a wobble in the Sun’s position that is detectable.

If we are looking at a star with a Jupiter-mass planet going around it then, as long as this planet is not too far from its host star, we should be able to detect the wobble in the position of the host star. But, only if we are looking at it with the right orientation. This is because we do not directly see the wobble in the host star, what we observe is a rhythmic Doppler shift in the spectral lines of the star, which shows that it is moving towards and away from us in a regular manner.

If we were to look at such a system face-on (at right angles to the plane of orbit of the planet) we would not detect any wobble, as the wobble would be side-to-side. The effect is maximum when we view the system edge-on, and will be less for other angles. More precisely, if is the angle between the plane of orbit of the planet and our line of sight, then the observed wobble to our line of sight will vary as , maximum when (edge-on) and zero when (face-on).

Because of the accuracy with which we can measure Doppler shifts, this technique for finding exoplanets tends to predominantly find planets with masses as large or larger than Jupiter orbiting often much closer than our Earth orbits the Sun.

The Kepler mission

The Kepler mission was launched in 2009 and uses an entirely different technique, known as the transit technique. If a planet passes in front of its host star, the light coming from the star will be reduced a small amount as the planet passes across the disk of its host star. Often the amount can be less than 1%, but with our modern-day high accuracy cameras we can detect such tiny dips in brightness.

The dip in light from a star when a planet passes in front of it.

Of course, we will only see such a dip if we are viewing the system edge-on or close to edge-one. Depending on how close the planet is to its host star, once the viewing angle is more than a few degrees away from being edge-on, the planet will no longer be seen to pass across the disk of its host star and so no dip in light will be observed.

Although this is a severe limitation, Kepler gets around this by viewing many stars simultaneously. Kepler constantly stares at the same small patch of the sky (some 1/400th of the sky), but in its field of view there are over 150,000 stars. To date, Kepler has found some 2,740 candiate exoplanets, a much larger figure than the number of exoplanets found using the wobble technique.

The Kepler mission telescope, which was launched in 2009.

I should also point out that not only orbiting planets can cause a dip in a star’s light. Some stars are intrinsically variable, but we know which kinds of stars these are so can ignore those. Also, something else could come between us and the star, such as a clould of gas and dust, or another passing star. So, the dip in light of a particular star needs to be observed to be repeating for us to know that it is due to a planet in orbit about it.

In addition to its greater number of detections, the transit technique is able to observe planets as small as the Earth orbiting their host star, because we are capable of detecting even such tiny dips in the light of the host star. In late 2011, Dr.Fressin and his team made the first announcement of the detection of Earth-sized exoplanets which were detected by the Kepler mission.

What can we learn from the dips of light

It turns out that we can learn quite a lot about the exoplanet from observing the dip in light. First, by observing the time between the dips in the star’s light we can determine how long the planet takes to orbit its host star (the period of orbit). Also, by analysing the amount the host star’s light dims, we can work out the physical size of the planet as we know from the spectral type of the star what it’s physical size is.

In order to confirm that a transit event is indeed an orbiting planet we need to follow up the observation using the Doppler-shift technique to see its radial wobble. The Doppler-shift technique allows us to determine the mass of the exoplanet, because we know from the host star’s spectral type what its mass is, and so the size of the host star’s wobble is related to the ratio of the host star’s mass to the exoplanet’s mass.

By combining the two techniques we can also determine the exoplanet’s density, as the transit technique tells us its size and the Doppler-shift technique tells us its mass. The density allows us to say whether the exoplanet is gaseous or rocky.

Is 17 billion reasonable?

So far Kepler has detected some 2,740 possible exoplanets, from the more than 150,000 stars that it is observing. As scientists only recently announced a 461 new candidates, clearly new detections are still being made. Dr. Fressin calculates that 17% of stars host a planet up to 1.25 times the size of the Earth. This figure is based on several steps of calculations – including how many of the 2,740 detections are Earth-sized planets and how many of the approximately 150,000 stars in the field of view have the correct orientation for us to see a transit event. The figure of 17% that Dr. Fressin has determined is then multiplied by the calculation that there are 100 billion stars in our Galaxy to come up with the figure of 17 billion Earth-like planets.

By anyone’s reckoning, 17 billion Earth-like planets is a lot! Even if the figure is found to be too high, it is unlikely to be out by more than a factor or 10, probably much less. This still leaves more than 2 billion Earth-like planets in our Milky Way galaxy, a very large number. Not all of these Earth-like planets would be suitable places for life to have evolved; they may be orbiting high-mass stars whose lifetimes are too brief for life to evolve, or they may be too close or too far from their host star to be suitable.

It seems to me that there is every likelyhood of not only life but intelligent life elsewhere in our Galaxy. Whether we ever make contact with extra-terrestrial civilisations is a whole different matter.

Update

This interesting histogram has recently been produced by NASA, as their Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for Saturday the 12th of January 2013.

A histogram produced by NASA showing the percentages of different types of exoplanets.

As the caption to the image on NASA’s APOD page says, these percentages are for predominantly planets in orbits close to the host star, within the equivalent of Mercury’s orbit. This is because Kepler is more likely to detect a transit event when the exoplanet is in a close orbit, because a larger range of viewing angles will still lead to our seeing a transit event.

Can you see the baby’s face?

Andromeda Galaxy

So we have considered the evolution of stars, and evidence supporting the big bang, however, we have not yet covered the end of our universe.  This topic has, like many  phenomena of astrophysics been debated over for many years.  There are multiple theories, but all of them depend on the mass of the universe.  The universe could be either

• Closed
• Open
• Flat

Possible Fates of the Universe

A closed universe means that gravity will stop the universe from expanding, causing it to contract, this would result in a massive contraction of the universe in a big crunch, from which the universe could begin again.  The density of the universe would have to exceed the critical density, ρ > ρ_c.

An open universe means that gravity would be too weak to stop the expansion.  The universe would expand forever, the density of the universe would be less than the critical density thus ρ < ρ_c.  The universe will end in either a big rip or big freeze.  In the big rip, acceleration of the expansion of the universe caused by the presence of dark energy would become too large, and would supersede the strong nuclear force, the electromagnetic and gravitational forces, resulting in the reduction of all matter to elementary particles.  However, the possibility of a big freeze is also possible.  As the universe expands, the concentration of dust and gas clouds would decrease, and the fuel needed for star growth would decrease as well.  This would result in less stars from forming.  Furthermore, the extreme redshift of electromagnetic waves, would leave the waves with little energy.  Meanwhile, the distance between galaxies would be rapidly increasing.  The universe would be unable to sustain life, as Earth would become too cold.

Lastly, the universe may be flat.  The density is equal to the critical value, consequently the universe will only begin to contract after an infinite amount of time. This means that the universe’s density must equal critical density, ρ = ρ_c.  The fates of the universe would be the same as an open universe.

So, having had no time to properly blow dry my hair or put any make up on other than some hastily applied mascara, I left the house at 6:50pm, knowing full well that I would be late. The first person of the evening to get on the receiving end of my foul mood was the arse driving a Vectra who could clearly see I was doing a turn in the road when he left me approximately 11 inches to complete the manoeuvre. I then gave MYSELF the evils when I realised after completing a pretty skilled 3 point turn (even if I do say so myself), I wasn’t  going to get very far without my purse which was on the sofa. Once the arse in the Vectra had gone off on his merry way, and my purse was once again in my handbag, I made a quick pit stop at Co-Op for a sticky toffee pudding, some custard and a couple of bottles of Schloer. To the guy in front of me at the check out that though it was a good idea to comment on the basket of shopping held by the 8 month pregnant lady with the crazy hair and tell me that it “looked like someone was having a fruity night in”, you deserved every evil/eye-roll you received. What does that EVEN MEAN? Why take it upon yourself to comment in the first place? FYI, totally judged you buying your 2 bottles of Spitfire and ready meal for one on a Friday night, so INYOURFACE.

I may/may not have given “fruity night in” guy a further laugh when he walked past me sat in the drivers seat, glugging Schloer straight from the bottle like a mofo. WHAT? I was THIRSTY and that stuff is DELICIOUS.

So, I picked up Hol and arrived at Sarah’s at exactly the same time as everyone else, thus proving that my friends can always be relied on to be 15 minutes late, and that I probably had time to do a proper blow dry AND flick some Vs at the “fruity night in” guy. Gutted.

Here’s a photo of ma ladies (stolen from the facebook of the lovely Bec, cheers luv). Also, the Lumberjack shirt is a trend that has completely passed me by, but clearly has a solid grip on my friendship group.

So, that was Friday night. What else has happened this week?

Well,. my inability to sleep has reached some excellent new levels, with a typical timeline as follows:

• 10pm-12am: sleep
• 12-1am: go for a wee, toss and turn for a bit
• 1-4am: broken sleep, turning every half an hour or so as my hips complain
• 4am: another wee
• 5am: realise sleep isn’t coming any time soon
• 5:30am: give up and go downstairs
• 6:30am: finally fall asleep on the sofa
• 8:00am: wake up

The cat thinks this new development is great, as she has a captive audience to watch her 6am christmas tree climbing sessions, although she is getting increasingly frustrated at the lack of available space on my lap for napping purposes.

I, on the other hand? Grumpy as hell. I’ve reduced caffeine intake, tried gentle exercise, hot baths and kept naps to a minimum, but still, nothing seems to work. Here’s to hoping it’s just a phase.

Speaking of ‘gentle’ exercise, on Saturday, we attempted a trip to town to spend various vouchers, get fitted for a nursing bra and meet some friends for lunch. I’m not sure at what point over the last 32 weeks shopping became so difficult, but an hour and a half of walking around town left me more tired than completing a half marathon. Gone are the days that our shopping trips went on until Neil got grumpy, this time, it was me calling the shots and demanding a sit down. From now on, EVERYTHING is being bought online.

On Sunday, after another bad night’s sleep and very few movements from Baby R throughout the day, we got the doppler out to have a listen. For the first time, we noticed that the baby’s heart rate was nowhere near consistent, it went very fast all of a sudden, followed by some big dips that we weren’t very happy with. We called the maternity unit to be on the safe side, who told us to come in to be checked for half an hour. I was secretly hoping this might also result in a cheeky ultrasound so we could have a sneaky peak at the baby’s goods (or lack of), but no such luck. I got strapped up to a monitoring device, and after about 10 minutes, we saw a pretty big dip with the heartrate down to around 110 bpm for a couple of minutes. This was shown to a doc, and a consultant, and a couple more people, and then they asked me to sit in a more upright position and be monitored for another half an hour. This came back absolutely textbook, and we were allowed to go on our way to enjoy the rest of the evening and my mum’s birthday takeaway.

I learned a couple of interesting things whilst I was there:

1) I have developed a very low tolerance for other people. Especially if you happen to be in the monitoring bay next to me, do the dying duck any time a midwife comes in to earshot, and then chat normally to your boyfriend as soon as you think you’re on your own. Get a grip woman.

2) The sound of babies being born down the corridor is way cooler than I thought it would be.

New Year’s Eve involved a lot of faffing around with my mum and painting my nails in the daytime. Neil bought me a UV Lamp and some Shellac nail varnish for Chrimbo, so I finally got around to giving it a go.

Finished product:

I’m pretty impressed! Next time, I’m going to try using the Shellac base and top coat with some of my existing non-UV varnishes and see how that works out. Check me out being all girly and stuff!

So, my top 5 NYE’s have all involved good people, good food, and usually too much wine. I don’t like going out, I resent paying over the odds for taxis and don’t really get the appeal of seeing in the new year with loud music, strangers and a dark room. Yes, I am that much of a old fogey.

So, given that wine was off the menu, this year’s plan involved one handsome husband, some comfy PJ’s, “Restless” on iPlayer and the most epic sofa picnic known to man or god.

We were in bed by 11:30pm and for once, I woke up in bed, and not in pain, rather than grumpy and on the sofa with a cat on my head.

New Year’s Day was bloody lovely, so Neil and I chucked on our boots and headed to the local park to work off the cheese hangover. Ten weeks ago, I managed a 4 mile walk, and I planned to do a similar route today. This was a bit of an over estimation on my behalf as we got half a mile in before I turned around to go home, then had a 40 minute nap to recover. When did this stuff get so HARD?

Neil had to work for the rest of NYD, so I took the opportunity to write a birth plan, which started off as a list of bulletpoints, then began to resemble my undergrad dissertation, then was condensed back down to bulletpoints. I don’t for one second think that giving birth will work out the way that it does in my head, and I wanted our birth plan to reflect that, e.g. this is best case scenario, but if other stuff happens, here’s what we’d like to do. It’s not very prescriptive, but it was an interesting process researching and writing it, and a good way for us to work through the process and to make sure that we were on the same wavelength, even if the end result is essentially a bit of paper that says “I’d like to have a baby, please?”

So the rest of the week I was back to work, which considering it was only a 2 day working week, lasted about 4 months in total. Other than visits from Jen and the adorable baby Archie, and Hol and Bec coming over for tea and biscuits, that’s about my week covered.

I forgot to take a proper bump shot this week, so here’s a crappy one off my phone:

However, for many years, it was thought that the universe was static, stationary and infinite.  In fact the great physicist and mathematician, Isaac Newton believed this as well, arguing that unless this was correct, the universe would become a spherical mass, as all the stars would have been attracted together, by gravitation.  But it was a German amateur astronomer, Henrich Olber, who disproved Newton’s theory.  The famous Olber’s paradox states that if the universe was infinite and stationary, then the whole sky would be bright.  If one was to look at any direction the night sky would be bright because, there would be an infinite number of stars in any given direction. This can be mathematically shown by a simple proof.

Imagine the stars are distributed in a layer with a density of ρ, thus the number of a stars would seem to be the density, ρ, multiplied by the thickness of the layer, d, multiplied by the surface area of the layer, which is that of a sphere, 4πR². Thus the number of stars that would be visible would be 4πR²ρd.  The volume of visible stars would increase by R², however, luminosity would decrease by 1/R².  Thus luminosity would be equal anywhere. The distance of R² would cancel out, leaving the luminosity to be 4πρd, which would only depend on the thickness d, and the density ρ, not on the location of the observer.

The night sky however, is dark and thus we can conclude that the universe is not infinite or static, but changes with time. The big bang model states that the universe is constantly expanding, and that the distribution of stars is not uniform, resolving Olber’s paradox. However there are many other factors which support the big bang. The first is redshift. This is a phenomena which occurs with radiation emitted from stars that are moving away from us. This is similar to the Doppler Effect.

So I rented a doppler from onetinysuitcase.ca today. I was not able to find the baby’s heartbeat at first. A few times I thought I got it, but it was false alarm. Dan was able to spot it close to my belly button. Later, I was able to find it on my own.

I facetimed my mother and she was able to hear it too. Then my dad called and mom put him on speaker as I was searching for her heartbeat again and dad was able to hear it, too !

It was a really nice experience. I am really glad we rented it. But maybe I should have just bought one !!!!

Using Doppler at home for the first time

Items like used EKG Machines, Doppler, x-ray machines play an important role in smaller and bigger medical operations because the technology used to produce these machines has not changed significantly since over a decade. Various other medical devices like the various types of scanners also play an attractive option. Nowadays used equipments can be readily purchased from a variety of dealers, including online vendors. An interested buyer must make sure to check that the vendor is registered with Medical Association before buying any equipment from him. This precaution will guarantee that the equipment being purchased has been maintained well and will perform as desired. A person or organization planning to purchase used radiological equipments should also be aware of the rules and regulations governing any equipment where isotopes are involved.

The option of used medical equipments is not restricted to large organizations only. A person looking forward to opt for home based care can consider the option for used home medical equipments. Today when everybody is looking forward to save cash, used home medical equipments is an attractive option. This can be a better option especially for the more expensive items such as oxygen supply machinery or monitoring equipment. As mentioned earlier the interested buyer must always opt for a reputable supplier who can supply well known and well maintained used equipments such as EKG Machines, Doppler, x-ray machines, scanners, etc.

Opting for lease medical equipments is another excellent money saving option. This option provides a variety of benefits because it usually includes insurance and maintenance clauses which in turn mean reduced costs in longer terms. The maintenance clause included in the lease contract would mean that if the equipment doesn’t function properly it will be immediately replaced.

Rental equipments for medical use are generally well maintained and the parts are usually modern and easy to use. This turns out be extremely important if the person who has bought the equipment has little or no medical training. The agency renting the medical equipment might also usually supply training through highly experienced people if the machine being rented is too complex for the layman to operate. This training will enable people to obtain assistance in the case of emergency.

Thus, we can say that whether a person or organizations opts to purchase a used medical equipment or opt for a rental option it is beneficial to always ensure that the equipment is being bought from a reputable dealer who can provide after sales service in a timely and professional manner.

Click Here For More About Info Medial Equipments

Items like used EKG Machines, Doppler, x-ray machines play an important role in smaller and bigger medical operations because the technology used to produce these machines has not changed significantly since over a decade. Various other medical devices like the various types of scanners also play an attractive option. Nowadays used equipments can be readily purchased from a variety of dealers, including online vendors. An interested buyer must make sure to check that the vendor is registered with Medical Association before buying any equipment from him. This precaution will guarantee that the equipment being purchased has been maintained well and will perform as desired. A person or organization planning to purchase used radiological equipments should also be aware of the rules and regulations governing any equipment where isotopes are involved.

The option of used medical equipments is not restricted to large organizations only. A person looking forward to opt for home based care can consider the option for used home medical equipments. Today when everybody is looking forward to save cash, used home medical equipments is an attractive option. This can be a better option especially for the more expensive items such as oxygen supply machinery or monitoring equipment. As mentioned earlier the interested buyer must always opt for a reputable supplier who can supply well known and well maintained used equipments such as EKG Machines, Doppler, x-ray machines, scanners, etc.

Opting for lease medical equipments is another excellent money saving option. This option provides a variety of benefits because it usually includes insurance and maintenance clauses which in turn mean reduced costs in longer terms. The maintenance clause included in the lease contract would mean that if the equipment doesn’t function properly it will be immediately replaced.

Rental equipments for medical use are generally well maintained and the parts are usually modern and easy to use. This turns out be extremely important if the person who has bought the equipment has little or no medical training. The agency renting the medical equipment might also usually supply training through highly experienced people if the machine being rented is too complex for the layman to operate. This training will enable people to obtain assistance in the case of emergency.

Thus, we can say that whether a person or organizations opts to purchase a used medical equipment or opt for a rental option it is beneficial to always ensure that the equipment is being bought from a reputable dealer who can provide after sales service in a timely and professional manner.

Click Here  For More About Info Medial Equipments

Items like used EKG Machines, Doppler, x-ray machines play an important role in smaller and bigger medical operations because the technology used to produce these machines has not changed significantly since over a decade. Various other medical devices like the various types of scanners also play an attractive option. Nowadays used equipments can be readily purchased from a variety of dealers, including online vendors. An interested buyer must make sure to check that the vendor is registered with Medical Association before buying any equipment from him. This precaution will guarantee that the equipment being purchased has been maintained well and will perform as desired. A person or organization planning to purchase used radiological equipments should also be aware of the rules and regulations governing any equipment where isotopes are involved.

The option of used medical equipments is not restricted to large organizations only. A person looking forward to opt for home based care can consider the option for used home medical equipments. Today when everybody is looking forward to save cash, used home medical equipments is an attractive option. This can be a better option especially for the more expensive items such as oxygen supply machinery or monitoring equipment. As mentioned earlier the interested buyer must always opt for a reputable supplier who can supply well known and well maintained used equipments such as EKG Machines, Doppler, x-ray machines, scanners, etc.

Opting for lease medical equipments is another excellent money saving option. This option provides a variety of benefits because it usually includes insurance and maintenance clauses which in turn mean reduced costs in longer terms. The maintenance clause included in the lease contract would mean that if the equipment doesn’t function properly it will be immediately replaced.

Rental equipments for medical use are generally well maintained and the parts are usually modern and easy to use. This turns out be extremely important if the person who has bought the equipment has little or no medical training. The agency renting the medical equipment might also usually supply training through highly experienced people if the machine being rented is too complex for the layman to operate. This training will enable people to obtain assistance in the case of emergency.

Thus, we can say that whether a person or organizations opts to purchase a used medical equipment or opt for a rental option it is beneficial to always ensure that the equipment is being bought from a reputable dealer who can provide after sales service in a timely and professional manner.

Click Here For More Info About Medical Equipments .

Medical equipments, scientifically known as armamentarium are designed to assist medical practitioners in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of health related ailments. With the advancement in technology more and more medical equipments are being invented to assist doctors in various ways. Nowadays interested buyers can purchase new, refurbished, and even used medical equipments online and that too at affordable rates.

Let us have a look at some of the commonly used medical equipments:

1) EKG Machines: With the help of Electrocardiogram or ECG or EKG machines, doctors can easily diagnose various heart diseases. Advancement in technology has reduced the size of an electrocardiogram machine. Originally the machines were huge, and used wires to detect and send heart signals. The miniature model is place in the middle of electrodes that allow doctors as well as patients to have a rapid and a much better view of the cardiac issues. This machine is being used by doctors all over the world to save millions of lives.

2) Doppler: A medical device that measures the movement of objects such as fetal heartbeat or blood flow in a body using ultrasound and the Doppler Effect is known as a Doppler to measure.

Basically there are two types of Dopplers:

A) Fetal Doppler: A hand-held device that is used to detect the heart beat of the baby in the womb is known as Fetal Doppler or Fetal heart rate monitor. In order to hear the fetal heart beat a small amount of ultrasound gel and a Doppler probe is placed on a pregnant woman’s lower abdomen. The probe transmits ultra sound waves into the body and when the position of the fetal heartbeat reflects these waves, the frequency of the waves start changing. This change in frequency is detected by the Doppler Effect and this is how the sound of the baby’s heartbeat can be heard.

B) Ultrasound vascular Doppler: A device that used to measure blood flow and blood pressure is known as an ultrasound vascular Doppler. High frequency ultra sound waves are bounced off by circulating red blood cells and thus, help identify blood flow. The rate of change in the waves pitch is used to estimate how fast the blood flows. The Doppler probe is pressed against the area of the patient’s body being examined and is moved from one area to another to detect the change in frequency.

3) Spirometer: Spirometry in simple terms means the measuring of breath and is the most commonly used, pulmonary function test. Spirometry is the name of the test and the device used to measure the breath is called a Spirometer. Nowadays small and portable devices are available that are relatively cheap.

Today various medical equipments are used to measure or detect various health related issues. People who cannot afford to purchase brand new medical equipments like EKG Machines, Doppler, Spirometer, etc. can go for used equipments. Used medical equipments are sold by many vendors and with a little search online can be obtained at affordable rates.

27 Weeks This Day 12/18/12

Another day in the life of a pregnant woman, growing a little more uncomfortable every day. Aside from the occasional morning sickness and lower back pain, everything else is pretty much great! I just went for an OB appointment a couple days ago. I’m going to a new Dr. now, one conveniently 15 minutes away from my place of residence in Lake City, FL. I like my new Dr. much better than the one I was seeing in Jacksonville, she’s great. We listened to the baby’s heartbeat and for some reason the baby did not seem to like the intrusion of that doppler all over her! Every time the nurse moved it around she and I both felt the baby punch her hand. It was the cutest thing ever! We both got a kick out of it.

I was supposed to take the gestational diabetes test on this appointment; where you drink a small bottle of liquid, wait an hour, and then draw blood to see what your glucose levels are. Luckily I had not drank the drink yet because I actually was not supposed to do it there, but had to go to a whole separate office. So I’m going to go there tomorrow morning. I’m also being required to take some kind of shot due to my blood type being A-. I’m RH- and because of that I need to take this shot to prevent my body from developing antibodies that will try to eliminate the baby. Because this is my first baby, it won’t affect her, but any subsequent baby will be affected if I don’t take the shot. At first I denied it because I am 100% strongly anti-vaccine/anti-medicinal. I do not trust the ingredients in vaccines due to their unprovable effectiveness but rather developing the very thing it was meant to “protect you from”. I just don’t believe in them PERIOD. So before I just willingly accept anything that the doctors try to give me, I’m going to do my research about it first. Come to find out that this is very important and it could risk the health of my baby, so I am going to accept it and go to the hospital to take it tomorrow when I take my other test.

Yesterday I put the stroller together and pushed it around the house a little bit. I wanted to see what I looked like pushing a stroller around, lol! I look pretty good doing it ;D
It is adorable and it came with the travel system car seat (that also sits in the stroller), the high chair that converts to a toddler’s chair and table, and the pack-n-play. I covered the items with the plastic that it came delivered in to keep from accumulating dirt and dust until the baby actually gets here.

I’ve also made my birth plan (that is subject to change at any time) and have made the decision to have my baby in a birthing center. I know that I definitely do NOT want to have my baby in the hospital. For one, I don’t want different doctors in and out while the whole process is going on. Two, I don’t want to be around a stressful chaotic environment, such as that of hospitals. I feel like it is a very negative environment to be in, especially during a time of such importance, such as giving birth to your first baby! Three, I don’t want to feel pressured to do anything that I do not feel comfortable with, such as vaccinating my child. This will surely happen in a hospital environment because all the doctors seem to think they know better than you just because it’s their “job”, however that is not always necessarily true (especially these days where most of the doctors are not fit for their jobs). Those are just a few of the long list of reasons why I do not and will not have my baby in a hospital. I found the perfect birthing center nearby that accepts my insurance. I looked at their website and they seem like the perfect place for somebody like me with my preferences to have a baby. They are pro-all-natural, no drugs, meds, epidural, etc. They use meditation, massage, deep breathing as pain relievers which is ideal for me, they allow you to walk around and eat if you want, and they allow you to have anybody there that you want. Not that I want an audience or anything, but it’s nice to know that I would have that choice if preferred. The place seems perfect and I can’t wait to take a tour and meet the kind of people I will be having my baby around.

Ultimately, I get more and more excited each day as I get closer to delivering this beautiful baby girl into the world. I’m trying to plan as necessary at the right time when I’m feeling the most positive because I am very optimistic about this entire experience. I’m “semi-uncontrollably” anxious about everything that has to do with preparing for this baby, including planning the baby shower! I already have so many ideas its ridiculous. Additionally, writing about all my experiences during this pregnancy is very pleasing and helps calm my pregnancy anxiety, so I will continue to do so up until I have this baby, and even after if I’m not to occupied by the new addition to my life. <3

I can’t wait till my little girl gets here so I can doll her up in the cutest clothes that match mine!
[Pleas excuse the mess in my mother's bathroom]