The Beauty of "Seeing"

Yesterday afternoon I had an ultrasound. Because my last ultrasound had been in the middle of the night, and was slightly rushed because...well...we thought the babies were coming, they wanted a more thourough look.

The big excitement of the ultrasound was that the rushed measurements that gave us the babies' weights (you may have remembered me mentioning that they were 3 1/2 lbs.) were a little off...it turns out that baby boy is 4 lbs. & baby girl is 4 lbs. 4 oz.!!! While it is a matter of a few ounces of difference, it is huge! Hitting the 4 lb. mark definitely made us feel much better. It signifies a lot more stability for the babies, both now and when they are born.

The ultimate fun of an ultrasound is seeing the babies. I love the opportunity to peek into their world, to see for a moment what I feel. Baby boy was in a new position (big surprise). The good news is that he manuevered into the perfect head down position. Hopefully, he gets stuck there now!

When we did the ultrasound both babies were soundly sleeping. It was so sweet to watch them so quiet and curled up in their little worlds. However, they were sleeping in a position that wasn't allowing us to get the measurements we needed to find out the weight, and so we needed to wake them up by pushing on the belly (a tactic I have used before when I haven't felt a kick in a while).

Baby boy responded just like he always does with a quick kick to get me to go away (I was a little surprised at how well I have him trained to respond!). Unfortunately, it wasn't me, and so the jabbing continued. We watched as he started to wake up and his "breathing" (they actually practice breathing by taking in amniotic fluid - good exercise for the lungs) got more rapid. The poor little guy kept giving his usual kick, but it wasn't working and he just couldn't figure out why he wasn't being left alone. He finally moved enough for us to get the measurement, and leave him alone.

Baby Girl responded in the exact same way she has every time I have tried to wake her up to get a kick. She ignored us and kept sleeping for as long as possible. Then she suddenly, and violently, woke up and thrashed all over. She punched and kicked and let us know she was not happy. We didn't mind much though because all the movement allowed us to get the necessary measurements. However, Lucas said I have to be the one who wakes her up for school (payback for all the times in my life I have responded the same way to being woke up)!

Overall, it was a very exciting time!

Many of you have asked how Lucas is holding up (since I'm the only one you hear from here). From my perspective, he's doing great. He did turn a little pale during the labor talks, but by the time everything slowed down he had himself all geared up for labor, and I think he would have done beautifully! He has managed, in all the commotion, to prepare his sermon for this Sunday, and he is doing a great job of somehow juggling work, taking care of me, and now taking care of my mom (who is stranded out here). He has been an incredible rock. However, he might say something completely different. So, I'm going to try to see if I can get him to do a quick post on our adventures from his perspective!

I cannot say enough about how much we appreciate all the prayers! Every day the doctors say something, or something happens and I think to myself "this is because so many people are praying." Thank you so much!