There's a person in there! And it moves!

Gabe and I had our first official ultrasound today and we got to see the minion together. There's something extremely emotional about actually knowing that there's a little baby in there. So far, minion has only been a theoretical grape-sized "sea monkey" that makes me sick.

(For the sake of not calling the baby "it" throughout this post, I'm going to go with "he". He sort of felt like a "he" as we watched him swim around today. But I reserve the right to alter the pronoun in future posts, until the sex is known.)

When the doctor came in, he congratulated us on our cute baby. And I have to say he was right. I was amazed at the amount of detail that can be seen on a 12-week fetus. Minion has a beautiful face, with a defined nose and mouth, seen in profile. He moves around A LOT and he frequently held his right arm up by his face. His legs were crossed for part of the time, indicating a very relaxed and laid back personality. I said he must take after his daddy. Is that too much to read into a creature the size of a plum?

Even more important than how the arms and legs were situated is the fact that minion has two arms and two legs and appears healthy thus far. Being a high-risk patient, due to my previous surgeries, I think this was a more intense ultrasound than for a normal pregnancy. We met with a genetic counselor first and they checked for blood flow through the placenta and the level of amniotic fluid around the head. Although . . . since this is my first pregnancy, I could be wrong; maybe they do this for everyone. At any rate, the minion is developing well and we're past the point of worry about miscarriage.

They want the mom to have a full bladder for the ultrasound and, boy, did I. The doctor showed us the size of my uterus, where the baby is living, to the size of my bladder, right next door. My bladder was at least twice the size. The doctor said that minion has great lake-front property. I liked that doctor (not my regular OB). :)

By the way, there's only one minion, in case anyone (besides me) was holding their breath for twins.