Baby!

We're having a baby! The above picture was our first glimpse back when baby was as big as a grape. (Note: Heather signed up for these emails that give us updates on what baby's doing week by week and they always related the size of the baby to a fruit. So baby was a grape, a fig, a lime, a medium shrimp (one of these things...), a lemon, an apple, an avocado, a bell pepper, an heirloom tomato, and now the length of a banana. I'm slightly confused but mainly delighted by the strict food and mainly fruit comparisons.)

Our first look at baby was really amazing. At first baby just sat there with an awesome chin which I was just happy I could see. When I've seen ultrasounds of others' babies, I could not make heads or tails (can you see baby's?) of anything. So, either technology is getting a lot better, or its way different when you see the lil' grape moving and shaking its hands. The other really amazing part was hearing the heartbeat. They center in on the heart and then amplify the beat so its this really strong, fast, primal beat. Gah guhn, gah guhn, gah guhn, really fast. That's when the reality of baby as a new person--as opposed to two lines on a home pregnancy test or an abstract something the size of progressively larger fruits--really hit me. So incredible.

On Aug 10, we got an ultrasound to find out baby's gender which would be really great to know since English doesn't have a neuter gender like some fine European languages I know. But coy, demure, proper baby was stuffing its business end way down into mom's hips and crossing his or her legs.

A no show. Kind of like waking up Christmas morning and finding out that Christmas isn't for another month. Though kind of not like that too since we got some of the neatest profile ultrasounds I've ever seen. Our theory is that baby was ready for the appointment but when the clinic kept us waiting for almost an hour, baby settled down and got low and comfy.

I really love this one. Arms up, hands on forehead.

Another great profile shot.

Kind of weird looking from the front, but looks like eyes and teeth are developing well on our 10 oz baby.

So what do you think? Girl? Boy? Everyone seems to have a theory. When one of Heather's coworkers heard that baby wasn't cooperating with us wanting to know the gender, she said, 'oh, it's a boy. They're difficult. Gotta be a boy. I had two. Trust me.' Then our neighbor told us that a friend of hers told her that it's gotta be a girl since its riding low.

The jury's still out. We could know in a month. Guesses?