August 13, 2001
I have a lot of news to report.
First of all, if you are grossed out by talk of fluids leaking from a woman's body, then you should... GO READ SOMEONE ELSE'S FREAKING JOURNAL! I am pregnant, this is my journal, and by God I am going to talk about my bodily fluids all the damn day long if I want to.
Now that that is out of the way. A couple of days ago I noticed a little wetness on my chest. OK, I thought, it's hot out, I could be sweating, no big whoop. I wiped it off. Then a few minutes later, the wetness was back. This kept happening all day long. The next morning I woke up with dried fluid on both sides. Suddenly, I realized -- hey, I'm leaking! Probably colostrum, which is what your breasts manufacture before the milk comes in. We went and picked up some breast pads at Babies R Us (while we were there doing the registry) just in case the leakage becomes more profuse.
Also, I am not totally sure here, but I think that I have been feeling light little taps in my abdominal area. I could be wrong. It might be gas. Pregnant women have a lot of gas. But then again, it might not be. I guess I will know when they get stronger.
And best of all, today we went and had the very first ultrasound. They smeared some kind of slimy goop all over my belly and then slid a wand all over it, and just like magic, there was our baby, waving at us up there on the screen. I do mean waving at us. And kicking at us. And rolling over and flipping upside down and just in general being very active and squirmy. The amount of detail we could see was amazing. When I say we saw the baby waving, I mean we saw an arm, with a hand on the end, with five fingers, waving back and forth. There was no mistaking it for anything else. This was not a blob of indistinct material, it was an arm and a hand and fingers. We could also see the feet and toes, and the spine, and ribcage, and the heart, beating merrily away.
We saw the profile of the baby's face, and as soon as I saw it, I thought to myself, "This is a little boy, and he looks exactly like Keith." Those of you who have ever met Keith, or seen the right photograph of him, know that he has very distinctive features, and I swear to you that this baby shares those features. The overwhelming feeling of, "My God, we have MADE A PERSON!" was so intense that I almost started crying right there on the ultrasound table.
The best part was when the ultrasound tech froze the picture and said, "Well, now here is the right leg, and here is the left leg, and what do you think this is?" I told her I had no earthly idea. She said, "Wellll, I'm only about 80% sure, so don't go painting the nursery yet, but I think that looks like a scrotum so we're looking at a little boy here."
A boy! Maybe. But, a boy! You know, I would have been ecstatic either way. I am just so thrilled to know (well, sort of know). We'll get the gender confirmed at a later ultrasound, but I think it is a boy.
It was a very exciting day. A boy! Who would have thought it?