Sprout's first appearance!

Written February 28th... 

We had our first doc appointment with the nurse mid-wife today. Katie Robbins was her name, and she was FANTASTIC! We both really liked her a lot. She pretty much did a typical annual for Shannon, but she was very nice and gentle. She also was very nice to me, and included me in everything she spoke about, telling me to do my breast exams and all that. Also told me that if I wanted to breast feed our little one, they could help me do that, too. I declined. After all the first info and getting all of Shannon’s medical info, and NENO’s info (what we fondly call our donor), we got into the actual baby exam. Katie brought in the wonderful little internal ultrasound machine and got it all hooked up and ready to go. I went over to the far side of the room to hold Shannon’s hand and get a better view of the screen. She found what she was looking for. I was in total awe. There it was on the screen: our tiny little one, our little sprout, with a strong, wonderful, 167 beats per minute, little heart, and a body looking like a little kidney bean. It was the most amazing thing I think I have ever seen in my entire life. I think at that moment it all became real, that we are really going to have a baby. It was real before, but now it’s really real. There is a little sprout growing in there, a tiny little one, with a beating heart, growing arms and legs, a brain, bones, nerves, everything…all just growing and growing, ready to join the world around October 15^th. It’s the most amazing thing in the world. Our little sprout, our little baby, is real, is growing, and was right there, on the screen, so close. I fell in love all over again. I haven’t felt such joy many times in my life, and this ranks very high up there. I never thought I would see the day where I would see my baby on a screen in front of me, but there was little sprout, right there. It was so amazing. I am counting the moments until I will get to see sprout again, until our next appointment, where I can see how much sprout has grown and developed. I can’t wait to hear the heart beat and see it again. See if sprout is a boy or girl. See how sprout has developed. It is so amazing and fascinating to me. I can’t wait until October when we get to meet Sprout and hold a little, tiny hand…that will be one of the best days of my life. Just as today was.