The Ultrasound

I have lots of pictures to post to get caught up, so you can expect several picture posts in the near future. First and foremost, though, I need to show off the newest pictures of Nathan.

If you remember, last weekend we went to Dallas for the sole purpose of getting a make-up ultrasound done. We had the great luck of getting to visit with both sets of grandparents as well as a great-aunt and -uncle (pictures to come). As fun as that was, though, I had the most fun at the ultrasound. Everything looked like it should be exactly as it was last time--same place, same group of people in the room, even the same ultrasound tech--but Nathan looked nothing like he did last time. That creepy E.T.-lookalike had been replaced with a real little baby.
Most notably, you may notice that Nathan's face has filled out considerably. We asked the ultrasound tech about it, sure that it was a common feature of babies his gestational age. It turns out that just like newborns, babies this age can be either scrawny or chubby. Unlike his big brother has always been, Nathan is chubby.

It was neat to watch Nathan keep moving his hands, too. That one hand kept drifting up to his face, and we were able to identify all his fingers on it even. Once it looked like he was sucking on his fingers, and he flicked us off at one point. We also watched as he opened and closed his mouth several times and even blinked. The open eye looked a little creepy, but it's cool to be able to tell that in a sonogram.

It was also neat seeing the peach fuzz on his head when the tech switched back to a normal ultrasound. I can't believe we actually saw his hair--and he has lots of it already!

Oh, and of course it was easy for the tech to verify that Nathan is still a Nathan, if you catch my drift.

I was personally surprised at what a bonding experience it turned out to be. I thought that was just one of their corny catch phrases, but it turned out to be true. I suppose there's something that makes me feel closer to this anonymous baby when he's not anonymous anymore, when I've seen his adorable little face, when I know things like whether he has hair and how chubby he is. I also like being able to feel a movement in my belly and not just know that it's Nathan's, but his legs or his head, based on where the jabs happened. This ultrasound was a big step in the process of being emotionally ready for Nathan to arrive. I feel like I'm just about there--but I keep hoping he'll decide to wait quite a while yet, just to be sure he's completely ready.