Leia and I are just getting into this blog thing, but I figure the best way to start out is just to post up some pictures of the most important thing going on in our lives right now. We found out on November 2nd that Leia was expecting, so of course we immediately scheduled a visit with her OBGYN. At our first visit on November 5th there wasn't much to be seen on the ultrasound, so we had to come in for a followup on November 13th. The picture below is what we saw on that day.
At that point the nurse made some measurements and informed us that the baby was 5 weeks and 5 days old. That sounds really precise and scientific, but I wasn't very impressed because we had been told at the previous visit that the baby was 4 weeks and 6 days old. That means that 8 days had passed on the calendar but the nurse was telling me that my child had only aged by 6 days. (I occasionally find a practical use for my Mathematics degree.)
Even though you can't really see much in that photo, and you have to take the word of a math-challenged nurse that the speck she has labeled is, in fact, your "baby", Leia and I were still really excited. With two positive visits to the OBGYN under our belts the reality of the situation was starting to sink in. There was certainly no denying that our child was well on its way.
Our next visit was scheduled for December 15th and we could both hardly wait to get a chance to go see our baby again.
Leia was (and is) reading a lot and kept me informed about the growth and development of our little one. Consequently, I was aware when we went to the OBGYN on the 15th that our baby was probably about 1 and 1/2 inches long and that we would probably be able to hear the heartbeat. I thought I was pretty prepared for what I would see on the ultrasound. I expected another smudgy looking picture with an indistinct white area that the nurse would once again proclaim was my baby. However, when we actually got to the office and the nurse turned on the machine, I was completely surprised by the clarity of the image that immediately popped up on the screen. (See below)
My initial reaction was "Holy Moses! That's a baby!". I could easily make out the entire profile: head, body, hands and feet. In this photo the small white area directly in front of the face is actually the baby's hand. We could tell because it was moving around some and you could occasionally see most of the arm. It was just absolutely amazing to see my child so clearly for the first time. I didn't need any helpful labels from the nurse.
We also got to hear the heartbeat, which was thumping along at a perfectly normal 172 beats per second. The nurse informed us that everything looked really good and later when we spoke to the doctor we got the same story. All of Leia's blood levels look normal, the baby is developing on schedule and in every way they could tell we are having a totally normal pregnancy. This really did a lot to ease our minds and raise the excitement level for our impending "big reveal" to our families over Christmas.
Up to this point Leia and I had kept the baby as "our little secret", but soon we would be telling everyone we know and love, and getting video reactions of the news to boot! Check back for the next blog entry when I put up some great footage of our parent's and sibling's reactions to the big news...
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