12 Weeks

At 12 weeks, we had a bit of a  . . . surprise, which turned out to be great!  I won't call it a scare, because I was honestly at perfect peace the whole time.  I had a bit of bleeding one night.  After consulting my many trusted books, I was convinced it was nothing because I had no other symptoms, but we agreed I would call the nurse the next morning regardless.  That morning was Thursday, and Jason's car was in the shop.  We were planning to leave at noon for Birmingham anyway, so he took me to work and then headed back home to mow the yard before we left.  I was completely sure the nurse would say it was nothing to worry about as long as it had stopped.  Instead, the response I got was that Dr. Phillips likes to bring you in for an ultrasound in any case of bleeding.  Um, ok!!  So she made me an appointment for that morning.  Jason wound up barely having time to take a shower before heading back downtown to pick me up.  By the time I had gotten to work, called the nurse, waited for the return call, gone to my morning meeting, explained to everyone what was going on, wrapped up what I could, and headed out the door to the doctor, I didn't even have a chance to contact my family to tell them what was going on.  I sent a quick text from the waiting room.  This turned out to be a good thing, as my mom and sister were rather worried.  Fortunately, they didn't have long to wait - I think my appointment was at 10 and we were back in the car by 10:20. 

Our first ultrasound was at 7 weeks, and this is what we saw:

Awww . . . but, admittedly, a bit of a blob. 

So imagine our joy, 5 short weeks later, to see this:

A baby! Head, body, arms, legs, hands!!  Of course, we had been reading the weekly emails about the development of the limbs, etc, but there is just nothing like seeing it for yourself.  What a miracle!!  The baby is about 2.5 inches long at this point, about the size of the picture.  And yet so formed.  How great is our God?!

All this happened in the middle of the "be here now" revelation, and what a great example of that principle it was.  The night before, getting the lawn mowed before we left town seemed like such a big deal, but this sure put it in perspective!  We were even done at the doctor in enough time to run across the street to the hospital for a visit with the Bagwells and sweet baby Campbell, whom we had thought we would not get to see for another week or so. 

What a nice surprise this turned out to be!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
Psalm 139:13