When I was pregnant with my first son and heard that you could rent those baby doppler gadgets online in order to hear the fetal heartbeat in the comfort of your own home, I thought it sounded kind of cool, but rife with the potential for obsession. I didn't want to be constantly poking a goo-slathered microphone around my belly, intently listening for sounds of distress, not that I even knew what a fetal sound of distress might be. (A tiny voice begging me to stop already with the Haagen-Dazs?)

Then I sort of completely changed my mind and ordered one. I'm not really sure why—maybe because during those early weeks I felt ridiculously gassy and bloated (an overabundance of frozen dairy can do that to a person), but also weirdly not pregnant at all. I decided that being able to hear the heartbeat would be soothing, and that listening to it with my husband would be a special, loving ritual we could share together as we bonded with our unborn child.

If you follow my posts regularly, you know that I had a hard time in the past getting a tubal ligation scheduled, and I've been MIA for the past week or so. Thankfully, that's because after our move, I was able to find a doctor who did the procedure with no problem. But man, I don't know if it's just my body or what, but this was a lot bigger deal than a lot of people made it out to be.

I also learned that Vicodin makes my head so fuzzy that I get randomly dizzy and wicked dry mouth and can't concentrate on anything ... but I digress.

Do you actually know what goes on when a woman is having her fallopian tubes tied? Different types? I'll tell you a bit about what it was like, in case you're considering the procedure, or if you've had one, let me know if your experience lined up with mine ...

Not everyone who leans toward natural birth practices started there -- many have had bad experiences in hospitals or have been close to women who have. Sometimes it's women who read incredible amounts of literature on pregnancy long before peeing on the stick. It's not just patchouli-wearing, long-haired, barefoot hippies. It's law students, businesswomen, head of your PTA -- anyone. Especially with homebirth on the rise, it's safe to assume it's no longer just a fringe group of "weirdos."

Yet, many people still get accused of being conspiracy theorists, of thinking they "know better than doctors" and blown off like crazy freaks. Well guess what? It seems that many OBGYNs are letting their personal leanings interfere with their practice.

My daughter tried to tell me the other day that she remembers being in the womb and that it was dark and wet. I know, easy guess. But I swore something was up when she flashed what was either the heavy metal or hook 'em horns sign on her very first sonogram. (As a University of Texas alum and lover of all hair bands in the 1980s, I was quite pleased.) Gang signs aside, it does seem that those babies are up to something in there, and it's kind of amazing. 

It turns out, babies are doing all kinds of things before they even show up out of the womb. One of the most fascinating is developing those facial expressions and seeing that those womb babies are actually smiling and crying. Crying, I'm guessing, because you skipped the chocolate milkshake that day.

So when does all this business start happening, so you can take a much closer look at those pictures of your belly?

When your baby is born, there are so many things that happen so quickly, but each one of them has rhyme, reason ... and repercussions. The general theme that the ACOG, March of Dimes, and many other medical organizations have been trying to make clear to people is this: Patience. We need it.

Whether it's letting your body take longer to dilate, waiting through the normally occurring stalls in labor that are intended to let the mother rest, or realizing that sometimes inductions can take days, we just need to slooooow dooooown.

Another place we need a little more patience? Cutting the baby's umbilical cord. Generally done within the first few seconds, this rush to cut can cause a lot of immediate issues for the baby, as the awesome Penny Simkin demonstrates in a very easy-to-understand video.

The way my doctor talked about the 3-D ultrasound, I thought it was going to be the pregnancy test version of an IMAX movie.

Boy, was I disappointed.

My husband and I had visions of being able to see our baby in sharp, three-dimensional detail, of feeling as though we could reach out and touch her. We thought we'd come away with a really clear picture of her face, her features, her little hands and feet.

What we got instead was like something out of a freaky sci-fi flick. Or at the very least, a futuristic comic book.

When I was pregnant with my first son, I was just starting to hear about 3D/4D ultrasounds and I couldn't wait to try it out. For those who aren't familiar, a 3D ultrasound uses fancy computer technology to render 2D into a 3D image, so in theory, you get a more comprehensive view of your growing fetus than those black and white Skeletor pictures. The 4th dimension is time, which means ... uh, let's see, I think it means the machine tunnels a wormhole into space and risks the very fabric of the universe via the classic time traveler's paradox.

Or it means motion is captured too. Something like that.

Anyway, I was so so SO excited to see what my baby looked like, and, well, here are the images:

Look, for me to tell you to stop getting so many ultrasounds ... well, you know what they say about people who live in glass houses. I'll confess: During both of my pregnancies, I really looked forward to my ultrasounds. I never considered asking my doctor to reduce their frequency (not that they were particularly frequent, as I was fortunate enough to not have complications with either baby).

Getting an ultrasound always put my mind at ease -- everything looks fine, moving right along, developing on schedule -- the experience of seeing my baby moving and growing always took away the anxiety that something could go wrong (at least temporarily).