The Little One

Probably most of you know my news by now, but for those who don't: My wife is pregnant.

Just Thursday we went to a doctor to have the three month checkup. This time we went to a new hospital, and the visit went well. We felt very comfortable there because the building was nice and clean, the doctors seemed to know what they were doing (they doubtless take a lot of care to cultivate that image) and the workers there were all friendly.

We had the first ultrasound, or at least the first one in which we could recognize the baby. Now before seeing the baby in the ultrasound I didn't think I would write something about it here because the experience can never really be related in words except perhaps to those who have experienced it themselves. I also thought that I would never, never post that little ultrasound picture on the Internet, so that everyone can squint and say, "What is that?" I always felt that all ultrasounds of little infants in the womb looked like grainy pictures of peanuts.

However when that little peanut happens to be your baby, the whole thing changes. My wife and myself were excited beyond words to see that little one for the first time. I had thought that the tiny guy would not be recognizable at all as a baby, but actually it was very clear. We saw his (I say "he" in the general sense, not knowing the gender of the child) head, body, arms, legs and even backbone. We even saw his heart beating (at least that's what the doctor said it was). He moved several times during the ultrasound. For the first time he seemed like a real guy.

When the nurse first turned the machine on, I saw the infant clearly. A moment later they turned on the screen for my wife to look at. She didn't recognize it at first, but when she did she gasped. She covered her mouth and giggled. She said, "It never seemed real until now!" She was amazed. I enjoyed watching her enjoyment of it as much as I enjoyed seeing the image myself.

Later as we were walking to catch a bus, she was talking excitedly on the phone to her parents. As she talked, she used animated gestures. She was telling them about how we could see each leg separately, and she held her fingers up and made a scissors motion with her fingers to show "separately." They asked her a question, and she said, "yes," nodding her head with a shining smile. She told them, "We saw him put his hand on his head!" and she put her hand on her head. I was the only one that got to enjoy these gestures.

The hospital gave us a printout of the ultrasound picture, and true to the long tradition of ultrasound operators, the picture they gave us resembled a peanut.
















When my sister sent me a picture of the ultrasound of her first child, I wrote out a little bit of doggerel.

The sonograms show my sister's sweet fruit
In a pillowed pouch with a humble mein.
This precious infant whom they say is cute
Looks to me like a human lima bean.