Be still my heart - but not yours!

Hi Baby Bean,

Today I saw the little flicker of your heart beating for the first time, Baby Bean. It was the most beautiful sight in the world, and my heart swelled with pride. The doctor declared you "viable", and I haven't stopped smiling since!

It's amazing that you're just a little bean, burrowed deep inside your mommy, but already your little ticker is ticking away. That heart will be with you forever - through the next 7 months in my belly, and when you emerge, through the rest of your life. Someday that heart will race as you run across a playground, and jump when you hear happy news, and pound as you embark on some amazing adventure all on your own.

I can't wait to be there with you for every single beat. I can't wait to see your smile, and watch your surprise as you get to know this great, wonderful world for yourself. I promise to hug you and hold your hand every step of the way, as your heart beats happiness and joy but also excitement, trepidation, and even fear. It's all part of the game, Baby Bean. And we're going to have such fun playing through it all together.

As I write this, you're barely the size of the raspberries I ate in my yogurt today. But my love for you is bigger than all the raspberries in the world. I can't wait to meet you, and hold you in my arms, and be your mom.

May every life begin with love

Yours did, Baby Bean, we can promise you that.

We've known you were in there for just over 2 weeks now, and already our life has changed forever. It was barely 7 a.m. on April 10, 2010 when we found out your life had begun with just a tiny mass of cells, and Evan and I were so elated there was no way we were going back to bed. So we went to the diner down the street, and we dreamed about you.

You'll be born right around Christmas - due Dec. 20 - but if you've got any Meyers in you, it'll likely be 2011 before you show your face. Already you've been making your presence known, turning your normally busy and supercharged mom into a couch potato with an appetite for nothing but lemonade and tapioca pudding. Your tiny being is only the size of a sweet pea, but like the princess in the fairy tale, we can feel you in every cell of our souls already.

We're so excited to be your mom and dad, Baby Bean. We're going to have such fun together. Snuggling under the covers on cold winter days, trying new and tasty foods (and cheeses!), learning how to talk, walk, laugh and live, ski and swim and ride a bike. We'll show you the wonders of the world near and far, both in our New England backyard and across the globe. And we'll do it all together.

This is just the beginning, Baby Bean. We're only 6 weeks in, but boy is it going to be a fantastic adventure. Get ready!