Thursday, 29 March 2012

Beating hearts baby...

On Tuesday Annie had her final 'booking-in' appointment with the midwife, which involves going through family history, explaining the next steps and trying in vain to spot our guinea pig.

In London I was having a fairly miserable day at work, when Annie sent me a simple 20-second video clip that made me smile from ear to ear.  I was amazed at just how early you can hear a clear heartbeat and also at how fast it is.

This was the moment that it really hit me that we're going to have a baby this year, which sent my heart racing.  Although we have already had one scan there is something a little more abstract about seeing a greyscale image of something the size of a kidney bean* on a screen and something incredibly real about hearing the sound of the little fella/fellaess.

A week today is the second scan which I'm getting very excited about.  At this point apparently they can see arms, legs, fingers and eyes and stuff, which again is a sure fire sign of a living thing.  Also fun about the second scan is the opportunity to procure a hard copy image of your baby that you can keep in your wallet forever.  Now it's my turn to gleefully show others a picture of my baby in utero, and it's their turn to pretend that they can actually see it, a moment that is surely a proud day for any prospective parent?

Naturally I will do my utmost to get a picture of the scan uploaded at the earliest opportunity, and so will probably post again in about a week (one of the slowest of my life, I should imagine).

*while I'm on the topic, there seems to be some sort of bizarre food scale for measuring babies that appears of a number of reputable pregnancy websites.  While I am all for using fruit as a scale for creating the idea of the actual size of the baby, it has not been properly thought through.  It goes something like: a pip-a baked bean-a kidney bean-a lime-a plum-a cantaloupe melon-a banana-a grapefruit, at varying stages of the pregnancy.  Firstly there is little difference between a plum and a lime, secondly there are few grapefruits I have encountered that are greater than a cantaloupe melon and thirdly a banana is a completely different shape from anything else in the list AND is, at least to my mind, one of the most variably sized fruits that I can think of.  The system needs an overhaul. 

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