The most beautiful...

Week 12!

Look at Baby's pretty little hands!!!!!!!

We had our second doctor's appointment today, but our first with the new doctor. Since I have a new job, I changed my insurance carrier and so we had to change our doctors as well - which is actually probably very beneficial. We met with our new OBGYN, I am pleased to say that we both loved her! She was extremely knowledgeable, but also very funny, easy going, pleasant and full of energy.


As part of our visit, we got to see a second ultrasound, and much to my relief and amazement, everything looks great! The progression that has taken place in the past 6 weeks is just incredible! Our first ultrasound was practically unreadable. Of course, I was so thrilled to see it that it didn't matter, but you couldn't make out anything but a little blob. This time around, Baby is starting to look like something resembling an actual baby! We could see the spine, the eyes, even the fingers of the hand! We discoverd that our sweet baby is already a thumb sucker (I hear that's pretty common, but I still think it's the coolest thing on the face of the planet. Our baby is so totally a genius)!

Baby's head is pointing down here, and the eye is clearly visible (that little tiny circle!), and you can see the fingers where Baby is sucking its thumb!

I was so immersed in looking at Baby from all the various angles, trying to see what little features I could make out, that I even forgot to cry. Until, that is, a faint, scratchy little sound came over the ultrasound. As it intensified, it developed into a fast, strong thub-thubbing, and I realized what it was: our baby's heartbeat! The experience of it was beyond words. By far the most beautiful sound in the world! That I did not survive without tears!!




Casey and I also finished the first book - The Iliad - that we are reading to Baby. Well, not finished so much as just decided we're done reading it. Yeah... that book is definitely a marathon, not a sprint! We've been reading it for about 8 weeks, and we're only about half way through. I don't particularly want to spend the entire pregnancy reading this one book to Baby, so we've decided to move on to Harry Potter, which is already going much more quickly! I think Casey is particularly pleased to be rid of Hector, Achilles and their commerades; he's not exactly what you would call a reader, so I'm pretty sure that, to him, this was like starting by climbing Mt. Everest!