Peek-a-boo
Take a peek at your hands; they really are incredible pieces of work. Five
nice long digits each, an extremely flexible muscular structure,
and more joints than you shake a stick at make up one of the most
impressive pieces of the human body and
one of the most impressive tools in existence. Add in that whole
opposable thumb thing and, well, what a cool thing I have attached to
each of my arms.
They are even more incredible when they are attached to your child and you
are peering at them for the first time through the wonders of a sonogram.
One of the first recognizable shots of my baby, in fact, included one
of those hands seemingly waving to and fro, welcoming some visitors
to its little world for just a couple of moments.
What a world it was. Images of our child faded in and out. There’s the
head. There’s the heart. Are those toes? Is that a foot? A frontal view
peered deeply into its eye sockets. A side profile was marked with a nose so
cute that it could only have come from my wife.
The thing that got me the most was the fact that it moved. The arms
moved. The legs moved. The heart pumped away. At one point, it covered
its face with its arms, playing a child’s game even then. This wasn’t some
abstract thing poking at my wife from inside her belly. This was a human being.
This was alive.
We were so happy to include the mothers in the experience. They quietly
stood by, oooing and aahing at all the right moments; eyes lost in the picture
on the screen. This just wasn’t possible when they shared the baby making
experience. Now that it is, neither lacked enthusiasm for seeing it first
hand (they both showed up about 45 minutes early). Moms, thanks for coming.
We wrapped up the session by attempting to determine the sex of the baby.
For those that have been following along closely, you may remember that
the wife and I
debated
on whether or not we really wanted to know.
In this one case, I prevailed (or at least she’s allowing me to think so).
Unfortunately, if I’ve passed anything on to the child at such an early
age, it appears that I’ve given it a bit of my stubbornness (or did it get it
from its mom?). We were ready and waiting for the announcement but the
little tike wanted nothing of the sort, crossing it legs in defiance (and
what cute little legs they were). Adjusting the position of the belly and,
by association, the wife didn’t change this.
Just my luck. I get my way and the baby takes her side!
We waited a couple of minutes and the wife happily removed the gallons of
water from her bladder, hoping the kid would move over and give us a good peek.
It did, but only a little bit, leaving the result as much guesswork as science.
Still, there was something there on the screen; something there that could
give us a look into the future. It looked like a fifth extremity. It looked like
a boy.
Mom
September 10th, 2002 at 6:37 pm #
Ken and Jenn, thanks for sharing the wonderful experience! As the article is bringing tears to my eyes, it’s really hard to comment. But we all will welcome baby Wootton, be the baby she or he (huh, that fifth extremeity could be important? Only God knows for sure.). Love, Mom