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Email a FriendPosted by Danielle Bean on Thursday, Jul 24, 2008 9:04 PM (EDT):
I’m a real sucker for these ultrasound pictures ... just amazing! Thanks for sharing it, Arwen—I am so happy for you.
First Glimpse
A new little one is always a miracle
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Thursday, July 24, 2008 7:05 PM
On Tuesday I had an ultrasound to pin down the age of our tiny unborn baby. There was some mystery surrounding which month he or she was conceived, so the ultrasound was necessary to determine whether I’m due in February or March.
Because of some complications in the first trimester of my pregnancy with Camilla, I had a series of ultrasounds during that time to make sure that she was still alive. (You can imagine my enormous sighs of relief every time her still-living image appeared on the screen.) Because of that, I’ve got a pretty good idea what an embryonic person looks like on an ultrasound screen through the first trimester: five weeks looks like a pea, six weeks looks like a wiggly pea, eight weeks looks like a gummy bear, and by twelve weeks the little one is starting to look like the baby you’ll meet six-ish months later. (The picture above is of Camilla at about that age.)
With this ultrasound I knew I would see either a gummy-bear look-alike (meaning conception occurred in June) or a looking-more-like-a-baby twelve-weeker (meaning conception occurred in May). I was guessing May, and expecting that I’d see a little baby moving around in there, so when the twelve-weeker appeared on the screen I was somewhat prepared to see him.
But still. There is nothing that can completely prepare you for the first glimpse, however blurry, of your own child, brand-new and yet already infinitely precious. I should have remembered, but it took my breath away. I stared, entranced by those tiny hands and that tiny profile, for all the minutes until the midwife finally pulled the image off the screen.
Camilla’s conception occurred after thirty cycles of trying to conceive, and we were shocked and grateful, and I couldn’t imagine that anything in my future would ever feel quite so miraculous as her conception did. I, however, was wrong. This baby, although not as long-awaited, seems to me every bit as much a miracle as his or her older sister is. That God could create a whole new person, unique and exquisite, and just give him to us, just for FREE like that… it blows my mind, still, every time I think about it. No matter how many children we end up having, I imagine that it always will.
Comments
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Posted by Rachel Balducci on Thursday, Jul 24, 2008 9:38 PM (EDT):
So beautiful, Arwen! I always find myself giggling through tears at every ultrasound. A miracle indeed.
Posted by Lisa Hendey on Thursday, Jul 24, 2008 10:25 PM (EDT):
Oh Arwen, thank you so much for sharing these wonderful words and lovely Camilla’s picture! This baby is going to have lots of “aunties” when he arrives on the scene! I will keep all of you in my prayers! Lisa
Posted by Kate Wicker on Thursday, Jul 24, 2008 11:13 PM (EDT):
Thank you so much for sharing. Ultrasounds never fail to astound me. I remember worrying how I could possibly love another child as much as I loved my first. Then I saw my second daughter’s first close-up. Like chalk on a blackboard, our baby’s white silhouette filled the screen during my 20-week ultrasound. At one point, a tiny, fine-boned hand took center stage on the screen. It was only a grainy image, but I could clearly see each finger waving toward me like the delicate appendages of a starfish dancing beneath the waves of a tide pool. And I knew, as my baby girl reached toward me, that even if she was second in succession to her big sister, and even if we ended up misplacing her sonogram (we didn’t) and didn’t memorialize it in a fancy scrapbook (didn’t do that either, but at least we still have it), she would be second to none and that there’s more than enough love to go around.
God bless you and your little miracle! I hope you’re not feeling as sick!
There is nothing like the first ultrasound of a new baby. Rachel, I did the same thing-laugh through tears. Every child IS a miracle. wow.
Congrats!
Gretchen
http://www.simonpeters.org
Posted by Ann on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 5:52 PM (EDT):
So beautiful, brought tears to my eyes.
I recall, like Kate did, worrying with my second if I could love another child as much as the first. I was worried too that this second child was to follow the perfect child and could not live up to that.
What I learned was that perfect comes in a rather wide range of types! And if possible, having two made me able to love each of them even more.
Their Dad is gone, and now, years later, I have married a wonderful man who never has had any children—we are trying to add to our family. If anyone would like to add us to their prayers it would be most appreciated!
Posted by Sonetka on Friday, Jul 25, 2008 10:21 PM (EDT):
I’ve had roughly a trillion ultrasounds and have never failed to be fascinated by them; the gestational ones most of all. Look, there it is - and twelve or twenty weeks ago, it was two unremarkable specks of genetic material. I always think of that Donne quote “And quickly made that which was nothing, All.” Not literally, of course - but a nice little miracle nonetheless.
Can’t wait to meet him or her in person!
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