Booger Baby No More

Our precious little booger has transformed into an amazing little alien.

On Thursday we went in and got a thorough ultrasound. The pictures were rather mysterious, and trying to identify body parts was nearly impossible. So we relied on our experienced ultrasounder to interpret the pictures for us. She could have called a leg an arm, and the brain the buttocks, and we never would have known. But it was fascinatingly awesome nevertheless.

In a nutshell, here's what our brilliant obstretrician told us:

Head size: Normal for 22 weeks, which is exacly how far they think Bethany is along. YAY for a non-oversized head. (Thinking labor here...)

Brain: There. We could see two halves. This is good.

Eyes: Big. A little scary. See ultrasound picture below if you really want to get creeped out.

Mouth: Upper lip and lower lip, no cleft palate.

Abdomen size: A little bigger than is normal for this age of bambino. This child may have Daddy's lungs.

Arms: Ahem, ahem, VERY there. The baby was extremely proud of his/her arms, and kept flaunting them for the screen. The arms, in fact, often got in the way of everything else as Baby flexed. He/she takes the last name Armstrong pretty seriously.

Spine: Very cool. Lots of vertebrae. (Duh.)

Umbilical cord: Going all over the place.

Stomach: There.

Boy parts/girl parts: Who knows. The doctor asked if we wanted to know the gender of the baby, and we said "No." (Richie said this a bit more quickly and heartily than Bethany did.) So the doctor was kind enough to give this little guy/girl a hint of dignity and avoided moving the instrument toward those areas. Sheesh, how humiliating for these little babies. Those of you waiting in suspense: 4 more months.

Bladder: Full. She said we might be lucky enough to see the baby pee on the screen (speaking of humiliating--or actually, probably exhilirating, if it's a boy... Males seem to get a kick out of these things...) But no such fortune headed our way. Instead we laughed at the balloon-like, round little bladder.

Legs: Long. After measuring the femur, the doctor smiled and said, "There must be some height in this family." The legs are one-and-a-half to two weeks ahead of the rest of the body, she told us. Daddy Long Legs... Mommy Long Legs... Baby Long Legs... Bethany's just glad it's the legs that are oversized, and not the head. Phew. (Ouch.)

Warning: The following pictures are kind of eerie. View at your own getting-weirded-out risk. Oh, and they're sideways because I can't figure out how to rotate them. (And because it might be funny if all of our relatives get kinked necks.)


Prime example of the arm taking over the whole screen. Yes, Baby, we know you're an Armstrong...



Here's the baby's skull. Looks kind of like a skeleton. Well, that's pretty much what it's a picture of: the baby's skeleton. Still, kind of eerie.



Eerier yet, here's a shot of the head that shows the lens of the eyeball. Stare, stare...



And now a body-shot. Headless body-shot, but a body-shot nevertheless. You may need to be coached through this one. First, kink your head severely to the right. Good. Now look at the left side of the picture you see. That's the arm protruding from the shoulder and bending up. Now shift your eyes right, see the blob above the belly, and be happy that this baby has an umbilical cord. Now, moving further right, you'll see the legs crouched and ready to kick Bethany (again).