Another sigh of relief.

It's still there.

[Heave another another sigh of relief.]

It's still there, and growing nicely, measuring a few days ahead and thus already showing a family resemblance; whether to its tall sporty parents or to its corpulent kitty sibling remains to be seen.

It moved its arms and waved at us a little bit. "Sometimes they are very active, turning somersaults and jumping around," the doctor told us, "but we won't wake this one up." But why not? It can sleep the rest of the day away, after all – "Wake it up!" I immediately urged ... silently. To no avail, but that's okay; the waving is cute enough for now.

It was standing on its massive head, smaller body floating above, making its ultrasound image look for all the world like that of a two-balled snowman wearing a little knit cap. (See?)

Its heart was beating nicely. We saw it, we heard it, and we measured it: soundly in the 160s. I was happy to find out the number, especially since I'd been a bit worried about not knowing what it was at the last appointment.

(Why didn't we know? Can you believe I forgot to ask – me, the one who goes to appointments like a lawyer goes to court, loaded down with documents and notepads and pens, all put to extremely judicious [over]use? When I called later to inquire, the nurse – without even asking who was speaking (either my terrible anglophone accent gives me away or "CRAZY!!!" pops up on their caller ID – told me that it was too early to be able to measure it but, as the doctor had said, that everything looked good. I bit back a "but everyone on the Internet knows the heartrate at seven weeks!" and then spent the time between appointments trying to stop interpreting "it's too early" as some kind of medical code for "yeah, this one's a goner." (I never said my label wasn't deserved.))

Next up: nuchal translucency scan in just over two weeks. It will be abdominal; the transvag invader has been wielded for the last time. I'll just have to remember not to start taking off my pants the minute I walk through the office door.