My Amazingly Spastic Baby

At this afternoon's appointment, we went ahead with the ultrasound. First came all the unpleasantness, though: being felt up by a strange woman, the "two-digit exam", and a Pap smear. YUCK.

After that was over (and it sure was fast!), they slipped in the ultrasound machine, and voila! There before my eyes was a baby that *actually looked something like a baby*!! It was absolutely amazing. I stared in wonder at the clearly defined little head--complete with visible nose, mouth, and ears, the body with bent arms, the perfectly proportional legs, knees, and even feet... And the truly amazing bits: the two sides of the heart, pumping right before my eyes, the tiny ribs, the spine... And BAM! It jerked!!

I couldn't help but jump a little, then laugh. My baby had just punched the inside of my uterus! I watched anxiously, hoping to see another such movement, and to my pleasure, I watched as the baby began twitching its arms quickly, jerking them around, almost as if it were aware we were watching and looking for just such a movement. Then my tiny child curled up into a tighter ball for a moment before extending at full-speed, arms punching upward while legs extended and kicked downward. Protesting the cramped quarters, my love? ;o)

It was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE watching my little one twitch and jerk and slide around inside me, and I'm terribly excited now about feeling the movements in a few short weeks. I got a single picture to take home with me, which I placed on the fridge door under poetry magnets arranged to read, "I love you." Just for kicks, I also put "soon" and "almost" across the top edges of the sheet, and to the side, "My breast shall quench thee" because hey, if you're gonna have Shakespeare poetry magnets that HAVE words like breast and quench, you might as well put them to good use, right? ;o)

I'll be taking the picture to work with me tomorrow to scan into the computer first thing, and you can bet your britches I'll be posting that sucker everywhere I can!!

Mom asked me after my appointment if I felt "more pregnant" than I had a few hours before. Absolutely!! During the beginning of the second trimester, there are no constant reminders to prove to you that you're still pregnant. The bump could conceivably just be fat, the nausea's gone, the fatigue has mostly passed, and it's hard to believe sometimes that this tiny little "critter" (as my OB called it, lol) is growing inside you at such an incredible pace. I cannot begin to explain how REAL it felt to see the little one swimming around and know THAT'S OUR BABY.

I'm a happy, happy girl tonight. :o)