4D sonogram and a little reflection

This should have been posted last night for my Wednesday post but I was too tired. A few things before I get into it: The painting is completed; I just need to cleanup now and start putting the furniture together. I took down the polls since no one was voting for my stuff; not the names or the theme so down it came!

This past Labor Day we went to get a 4D sonogram done. The experience was awesome. We go there and of course Nikki didn’t need any invitation to hop onto the bed and prepare for the sonogram. The deal was that we would get pictures on a CD and a DVD where we could see him moving as if we are watching a movie. Like I said Awesome! Although at some points I could not make out what was on the screen. They had this huge screen and music playing in the background to give you a really nice feel to the exam. So I made myself comfy and sat back and watched the show.

The techs first had the image in 2D just like a regular sonogram and then switched over to the color fancy stuff. We asked them to tell us what the sex of the baby was and they obliged. A boy was the reply and they showed where the scrotum sac was along with the penis. Of course I couldn’t make out crap so I just took their word for it! When they switched over to the 4D we were able to make out his features. His head was resting against the placenta as if he was getting ready to go to sleep and didn’t want to be disturbed. The techs claimed if he moved away from the placenta the image would be better but we thought it was good enough. We could see his face somewhat clearly. His eyes, chin and lips were all evident. Nikki claims he has her lips and chin. At one point he was rubbing his eyes. He may have been crying because we interrupted his sleep. Another time he seemed to be sucking on something which we thought to be the umbilical cord (the end attached to the placenta) and then he seemed to be trying to suck his finger. We could see his hand moving towards his mouth. I will have to have a stern talk about this finger sucking thing.

No amount of cajoling could get Nicholas to move away from the placenta though. Walking around or gently poking mommy’s tummy wasn’t working. Nikki pointed out that he is like me in that regard. See, I am the only person I know that will not do something simply because someone may expect me to. So, he knew that we wanted him to move away from the placenta and this is reason enough for him not to. Stubborn? Perhaps, but that’s my boyyyyy! I will try to post a picture from the 4D thing on my Sunday night post.

On a more reflective note, it is quite a humbling experience to see the baby still in the mother’s womb. I suppose with being unable to feel the kicks firsthand like mothers do, this is as close as us dads can come to the romantic side of a pregnancy short of the baby actually being born. So as I sat there I was truly excited and amazed in a subdued way. This occasion really didn’t call for the backslapping or patting on the back as sometimes accompanies the daddy’s involvement. It was more of a marvel and a blessing of nature (and science) to see Nicholas sufficiently developed and very much human presumably doing the things that babies birthed would do only this time still inside the womb. It made me so much more appreciative of the joy we are experiencing now and that will continue long after birth.