The Ultrasound

Today I saw my firstborn. It was special. There I was, the supportive husband sitting next to my cute wife as a Swedish doctor rubbed her belly with a camera and showed me my firstborn child. He (or she?) is a cute little shaver. He was squirmy and active and gave Barb a couple strong karate kicks while we were watching. I just sat there and looked up at the TV screen that came down from the ceiling with a big smile. Today my belief in what we are getting into arrived at a new level. Up until now, to be honest with you, I sometimes wondered if maybe Barb was just having a spike in her weight gain, mysteriously confined to her belly. Well, I can say goodbye to my strange doubts that Barb has been faking a pregnancy to get attention. It turns out there’s a person in there and I saw him. A very little person with an adorable little spine and fantastic little fingers. He has a normal size head and his crown to rump length is within the expected parameters (12.5 cm or 5”). So far, he’s healthy and we are happy. It hadn’t crossed my mind until just last night that today we would find out if there were any noticeable problems with the baby. We talked about it last night and did what we could to prepare ourselves for the unexpected. Fortunately we only had good news today.

It is amazing how much we love our baby already. We worry about it, we dream about it, we have conjured up names for it, and we’ve imagined who it might be friends with. Today Barb said to me, “This is one of the most exciting days of my life, seeing this little critter!” I would have to agree. I love our baby and I am really excited to meet him or her.