Wonders of technology

September 6, 2007 · Filed under Pregnancy, Twins

Upon feeling yesterday’s ultrasonic waves washing over them*, one of the babies waved back slowly with a teensy-tiny little hand. The other was sucking its thumb, ignoring us completely. That, I suspect, is the smart one.

I was dazed for the rest of the day. “It waved!” I kept repeating. “It waved at us! And the other one sucked its thumb!” I know these aren’t the first babies to perform such tricks in utero, but seeing them wriggle on the black-and-white screen is a truly visceral (heh) confrontation with the fact that inside me right now are little creatures that will eventually be people. And if that isn’t a legitimate reason to feel a bit freaked out, I don’t know what is.

Watching those two little kinda-baby-shaped blobs grow week by week, reading in my Pregnancy Journal all of the changes these creatures are undergoing inside me (this week they’re growing fingernails, toenails, and hair follicles!) – it seems like I should be aware of all that activity in some definite, unmistakable way, instead of just having vague symptoms like nausea, fatigue, and a pot belly. There should be jackhammers and cranes; there should be flags up around my midsection, and tiny people in hardhats waving the traffic through.

I suspect this will all seem a lot more real when I start feeling them move. That should be . . . in about six to twelve weeks. Don’t worry; I’ll let you know when it happens.

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*We’re being followed so closely because of all the gadgetry and finagling it took to get us here. Otherwise, I would not be subjecting babies to so much poking.