On Monday I was finally able to attend a doctor's appointment with Rose and saw the babies via Ultrasound for the first time. The first appointment I was supposed to go along on was moved by the doctor to a time at which I couldn't attend. The second ended up taking place while I was out of town for a couple job interviews. So, finally we had one scheduled for late afternoon, and I have to say, it was an ... experience.
To me, the ultrasound machine looked like a laptop computer on steroids with legs and wheels. There were two handheld devices attached like a mouse to the computer with a cable that interact with the mother physically and, I guess, sonically, and then display images on the screen. One of them looked like it was supposed to be rubbed over the belly so it can create the images; a kind of scanner (which is exactly what it was). The other looks, um, more, shall we say... intrusive? Luckily (probably mostly so for Rose, but for me, too) the doctor chose the one intended for external use. Maybe there's some protocol for using one or the other based on time, or circumstance, but I'm glad the doctor didn't chose the other one. Menacing probes aside, the pictures were pretty amazing.
The first pictures that Rose brought home were also amazing, but for some reason, I hadn't anticipated seeing any movement. But the pictures you see on the screen are live and in real time, so you are definitely able to see movement. One of the babies was kicking it's legs, which was kind of funny. The other seemed almost to be fanning its hands. It was quite a sight.
The babies, as they're supposed to be, are situated in a "yin/yang" position, with one pointed "up" and one "down." It was hard to tell their orientation in relation to Rose's but the doctor said that everything looked the way it was supposed to.
Interestingly, the doctor kept referring to the babies as "guys". (Oh, that guy's kicking his legs. Oh this guy's got a strong heartbeat, etc.) We don't know whether they're boys or girls or there's one of each yet. We plan to find out, but at this point, it's too early. I just thought that was kind of strange. When I'm teaching, I try not to assign gender unnecessarily so maybe it's just me. But I wonder if anyone in our position has ever asked her, "You mean it's a boy?"
