An Hour with Baby Darling

I think the fact that I am actually pregnant -and that I will have to give birth in 6 months is starting to set in as a reality.  It is no longer a far fetched idea of "maybe one day I'll be a mom." It's real... it's happening!   And it's so overwhelming.  God chose to make me a mother.  Its a concept that I just cant seem to wrap my brain around.  I'm growing a little person that I will one day be able to hold and squeeze and kiss!  What a sweet little miracle.

I went today to get a first-trimester screening for downs syndrome &; other chromosomal abnormalities aka a nuchal translucency ultrasound.  A lot of people choose not to have this done, but the way we see it - it's not invasive, it can't hurt... and it gave us another opportunity to see our baby darling.  If something is wrong, it wont change the way we feel about our baby, but it is nice to be prepared.

Unfortunately Steven wasn’t able to go with me today.  He had to take his last FAA exam which certified him as an A&P mechanic!!  This ultrasound was pretty exciting so I hate that he had to miss it!  There were two tech’s who were in the process of re certifying, so my original tech asked if the other two could “practice” on me.  They said that they didn’t get many 1^st trimester nuchal trans ultrasounds  - so I said, sure! Why not!?  It just meant that I got to see the baby for even longer!

SO the original tech looked around, got the measurements she needed  - and introduced me to my baby.  We saw its face and hands and feet… and little heartbeat (160bpm) and I even saw it jump!  (For now baby darling is an “it” since I do not know if “it” is a he or a she)  So the tech printed some photos off for me and got the next person.  The next tech didn’t look very long.  Baby darling was CRAZY!!  It was jumping all over the place and would not be still to save a life!  When they do an NT they have to get a very specific measurement at the back of the baby’s neck… so a wiggly baby does not produce good results.  She finally gave up and called the next tech in.

The third tech was my favorite.  I had to roll over on my side a few times to get the baby back in a good position.  At one point the little darling flipped completely upside down!  I had to keep apologizing because I couldn’t stop laughing.  I’ve never seen something so active.  The baby would slide down my uterus, use its feet to push itself off… then bounce all over.  It kept moving its arms and little legs – and once it even said HI (See photo below).  The thing that took the cake though  - is that she finally got baby to chill out a bit to get a close up of it’s head.  Then we saw something going in and out, in and out, in and out.  Baby darling was sticking its tongue out!!  We watched for a while as it did it over and over and over and of course we were laughing hysterically the whole time, so she never actually got the measurement she needed.  At one point it opened its mouth and took a few drinks – or yawned…

I’m not sure if that tech ever got what she needed, but she looked around for a long time.  The baby kept us very entertained.

So at the end of the visit, I got to watch my baby for a total of about an hour – and I got 6 pictures!  The only downer is that they did have to draw my blood… but it was completely worth every second!

After seeing this, I just can’t even wrap my brain around how people can say that a baby is not a person at this stage of life.  To see its hands and feet, to see it move and yawn and stick its tongue out and flip upside down.  I don’t get it.  It’s still early, but this has already been such an amazing experience (I’ll do another post on the 1^sttrimester run down later).  I cannot say enough how thankful we are that God chose us for such a task!!!

Some photos of baby - one day shy of 13 weeks