Photo from Mount Royal, Frisco, Colorado.

"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

Tuesday 18 January 2011

I saw our child for the first time

It's totally incredible. One moment I'm sitting in a waiting room filled with nervous couples. Judging by the size of the bellies around me, everyone was there for their 12 week scan. They call it the neck fold scan for Down Syndrome. I figured it was by some mistake they had called me in for a scan - but what I wouldn't do to see a beating heart - or two. Not that I wanted a child with two hearts. I was thinking more along the line of twins.

I, as usual, stuck out among everyone there since I was in running attire, for one, and since I was alone. This is generally a thing couples do together, but SR had to miss it due to work. I felt bad for him - I know he wanted to be there. But things like this simply must be more important to moms. Or am I wrong? To me, this was the single most important event of the last, oh, six months perhaps. Or, I thought it would be. But what if they just found a big bladder and a bunch of fat tissue? That would suck.

They called me back for the scan and asked if I wanted to be tested for Down Syndrome. I just sat there, kind of quite and uncomfortable. "If I say no do I still get the scan?" The ultrasound tech looked relieved. Of course you do. And for someone as young as you, I wouldn't recommend the measurement for Downs anyway - you have such a little chance and the measurement isn't very precise. Well, that was a relief.

And then I'm laying on a table with wet goo all over me and a probe on my belly. And suddenly, there is our child.

The most amazing thing is, up on that big screen, you just can't tell the difference between a 12 week 5 cm baby and a real newborn. It was moving around and had a beating heart and every part a baby has. Or so it appeared. Here's a picture, but of course, it could never do the event justice.

(Plus I can't figure out how to crop since I'm on a computer I don't normally use.)


I went home a new person, having seen our child for the first time. I wanted so badly to share it with SR, but he was with patients and couldn't answer the phone.

I went on a run, feeling so warm and happy. I even put on black underwear - as a symbol to myself that I wasn't afraid of bleeding from a miscarriage anymore. I had just seen our child move and it was doing ok! Maybe I could even do some speedwork - naaaah.

To most people in the town of Næstved, it seemed like an unremarkable day. But today was the first day one could run on trails again without slipping all over ice. And there was short green grass everywhere, trampled and beaten by the winter. This is completely amazing to someone used to winters in the Midwest. It reminded me of pictures I've seen of Ireland with short green grass and green moss over everything. Was January 18th the first day of spring? I ran for three hours. I couldn't help it. It was nearly effortless. I would have run longer had I not had a meeting to get to.

It feels like the beginning of something good.

Running song of the Day: River by Akron/Family

16 comments:

Allison Chapple said...

Congrats!!! Great news. :)

cherelli said...

Awesome! So pleased for you, sounds like a wonderful moment :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! I'm so excited for you guys!

mmmonyka said...

Beautiful! I am happy everything is great.
(I am not sure which "excitement" word to write since all three words that came to my mind were already used in past comments and my vocab ends there).

PiccolaPineCone said...

yay. YAY YAY YAY! That is great news. the early scans are the most fun because you can see everything, after about 20 weeks the fetus is so big you have to look ast one part at a time and I could never tell what was what eve with a very qualified tour guide at the helm.

3 hours... I've "known" you for awhile but it still blows my mind that a 3 hour run is a regular, sometimes 2 or 3 week occurrence. I think I can still count using my ten fingers the number of times i have run 3 hours straight!

Unknown said...

Congratulations :) Grow baby grow!!!

BrianFlash said...

Two thumbs up!

Kate said...

awww, that was a sweet post that your child will love one day when he/she can read it for him/herself. congrats!

Kirsten said...

I'm just really happy for you!!

Ewa said...

This is awesome. And your baby looks awfully cute already.

SteveQ said...

Hello, little Finnbjorn!
(You'll just have to get used to the missing diacritic)

Stefanie Schocke said...

Yay!!! So excited for you!

kathleen said...

i didn't do the nuchal scan for downs. it was for the other trisomies (trisomy's?) mostly for trisomy 18 which is usually fatal. downs was the least of my worries.

anyway, now that you have the ultrasound. you can obsess over "nub theory" the theory being that you can tell the gender by the "angle of the dangle" http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2009/06/03/nub-theory-baby-gender-prediction-at-12-weeks/

using nub theory, i think you're having a boy...

sea legs girl said...

Kathleen -

Cool link! But are you looking at our baby's umbilical cord or "the dangle"? Because to me it sure looks like that bright white thing between the legs is pointing down.

kathleen said...

i was looking at the bright white thing but honestly, even when i click on the picture to enlarge it, it's pretty blurry. i'm sure the original is clear!

Mapp said...

:-)