Life, and All That Surrounds It

I know that a lot of people don't like to know the gender of the baby before birth, but we were sure that we wanted to. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but being able to call her by name for the past couple days has really made it feel more real. And now looking at baby clothes, we gravitate to the pink section without thinking about it. It's really helped my thinking about everything to be able to picture a little girl rather than just a baby.

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing an ultrasound, I'll tell you it's a very strange experience. The ultrasound technician (in our case a very pleasant and competent woman) moves this wand-type thing over Jeanne's belly and immediately, we see a surprisingly clear image on the screen. I'm not sure that the still photos do it justice but being able to see the movement as it is happening is really a neat experience. Hannah (see, I can call her by name now) was really moving around which was incredible to see. The tech kept having to move the wand around as Hannah squirmed and moved.

Seeing the profile of the head and body was cool, but the heart was the most amazing part. It doesn't come through on the still photos, but we could actually see the beating heart! It's one thing for a technician to tell you what you're seeing, but even before she said anything we both could tell what we were looking at. We could see the 4 chambers of the heart and it was beating fast (about 140 beats per minute). We have a fetal echo-cardiogram scheduled in a couple weeks when we'll get to see the heart in even more detail for which I'm now really excited.

The technology of ultrasounds is really amazing, and I assume that in 5 or 10 years it'll be even more impressive. For us as new parents, it really helps us to be able to see into that ever-expanding belly and get a sneak preview of the little girl inside. For the doctors (and us), it gives invaluable information to make sure that everything is progressing as expected and that there won't be any unexpected surprises at birth (I was very relieved when I saw only one in there).

More to come soon.