Turning point?

I had my second appointment today at 11w6d, and it went well (besides all the waiting beforehand for such a short appointment). The doctor tried to hear the heartbeat on the doppler, and after searching for a couple minutes, he did find it. Yay! He estimated the heartrate at about 165 to 170 and said that was within normal range. All of my blood work came back normal from last time, which I knew already. He asked if I'd made a decision on the AFP/tetra screen blood test to screen for birth defects, and I did decide to have the test done. That will happen at my next appointment in four weeks, which will again involve checking the heartbeat with the doppler. That's really about all that came from today's appointment. I've now shared the news with my mom, who is no doubt spreading the word relentlessly as I type this. :)

The best news to come out of today, however, is that I've felt fantastic all day long. I truly feel like myself right now, and I'm making dinner for the first time in almost two months. I hope this isn't a temporary reprieve and that things will start to ease up significantly as far as nausea and vomiting are concerned, but I'm trying to enjoy it while I can in case it does come back tomorrow or later. Keep your fingers crossed that I can start to enjoy this now.

I think I'm starting to believe that things might really work out this time. I'm still on edge quite a bit, but the longer things go, obviously the better things look. A sign of my slowly-returning confidence is that I pulled out my What to Expect When You're Expecting book, which I'd read through the fourth month last time and promptly hid away for eight months after I miscarried. I haven't started reading it again, but I at least pulled it out and acknowledged my ownership of the book. Also, I bought Baby Bargains while we were out today because I need to do a significant amount of research on baby items (I'm clueless when it comes to this stuff, and I've read this is the best source for such information). This is not something I've let myself think about thus far, so this is a big step for me. Could this really, really be it?