A Wave from Inside

Today Dave and I had our second sonogram. The first sonogram occurred at 7 weeks, and we saw a little peanut the size of a grain of rice with a steady heartbeat of 152 bpm.

So today I wasn't sure what to expect- and WOW did we see a lot. A little, mostly-formed growing being, with a discernible nose, upper and lower mandible, lips, ears... the works. Dave couldn't close his mouth - he was dumbfounded. Heartbeat 164 bpm. (No sex, yet. So don't ask)

The purpose of the sonogram was to measure the length of the body, the width of the spinal column, the bridge of the nose... to count all limbs (two of each, whew) and identify the stomach and bladder. The baby's head takes up most of its size right now, and it has no shoulders but a large paunchy belly (like me!). And the heart, which we could see beating on the screen, was HUGE in comparison to the stomach. Then we looked at the top of the baby's head and could actually see the two chambers of the brain, which the tech also measured.

And here was the best part-the technician (who has the coolest job ever - I'm jealous) couldn't get a good measurement for a while because the baby REFUSED to stop moving. It was like a bucking bronco, really. It was flipping from its back to its side, and she kept talking to it, saying, "Ok, now, just one second so I can snap a picture!" and then it would roll around. She said that some babies just lie there and don't do much, but ours was incredibly active. And then the best best part happened...

The baby started fluttering its arms, waving at us (or waving us away? "Get out of my house!" I think it said)! And we counted five little fingers. And then the tech decided to take other measurements (length of the fetus - 6cm - size of a lime) and we could see the little feet and legs, and they were swimming! Dog-paddling, actually. Then she returned to the top of the body, and we saw the baby put its hand to its forehead, like, "Please, people, leave me alone," and then the other arm started moving. Dave and I drove to the appointment this morning listening to a CD we just made for Dina (congrats on passing the FL bar!) and I am positive it was the upbeat music that woke the baby up for our appointment.

We have pictures of all this, but the process of watching it together on the monitor is 100 times cooler than the fuzzy pictures wherein we have to explain in detail what the viewer is actually looking at.

The baby's bones haven't calcified yet, so when it moves around, I can't feel anything, but soon, soon, soon! And then I will wish it slept more and stopped doing flips, I'm sure. Right now, though, it is AMAZING to think that although I can't feel anything, there's a lot of activity going on.

The one part that made me really sad is that there are still a lot of women in this country who don't get adequate (or any) prenatal care, and I think they miss out on some amazing bonding with their fetus as well as health care. It's one thing to feel sick and tired and emotional; it's another to have the opportunity to eyeball the responsible party and realize, "Hey! I'm growing a PERSON!" Especially since today's sonogram enforced the idea that this little person is a separate entity, all by itself, and although it depends on my body for a lot, it is growing and developing all on its own in a small little cavity (uterus). It's not an extension of me - it's going to be a self-supporting person in 6 short months! And that in itself is why the sonogram is so important - and scary. Dave said to me soon after we left the office, "It's amazing to see the baby as its own person. It's a whole 'nother person we'll have to take care of!" Suddenly we realized - what in the world have we gotten ourselves into???