Amazing

We had a lull at work the other night, and during it, we decided that it would be a good idea to ultrasound the baby. It's weird to be at this stage. I am now 14 weeks along. I've gained weight, and I'm showing - but I can' feel the baby. Every day, I wonder if he/she is ok. The last ultrasound I had was at 6.5 weeks, and the baby looked like a tadpole and/or gummi bear. Thus, I didn't expect much this time. Boy, did I get a shock! Our baby has hands and feet and is moving! We watched him move around for 5 minutes on the ultrasound. He was very active. At one point, it looked like he was contentedly sucking his thumb. (I have no idea why I've taken to referring to the baby as a he...I'm no ultrasonographer, so I certainly couldn't tell.)

Seeing that for the first time caused indescribable feelings - fierce protectiveness, love, awe, and excitement would be some words that might come close. Really, it was a feeling of being full till near bursting. The techs commented on my chipper mood for the rest of the night.

Incidentally, we've picked out names: for a girl, Evaline Catherine (with plans to call her Eva after my husband's grandmother), and for a boy, Lane Russell (after my grandfather, and my husband's mother's maiden name). We're pretty happy with those, and likely to stick with them...but things could always change.