The only other activity for which I accept appointments so early is a game of golf : 7am even, not a problem. At 7am hospitals and doctors only take emergencies and the first pregnancy ultrasound is anything but an emergency. So we have the first of the day's appointments : a shower, breakfast and an ultrasound before the day at the office. The first ultrasound needs to be done between the 11th and 15th week of pregnancy so Delphine's Doctor told her to make an appointment between the 23rd and 29th of the month... go figure.
I've had ultrasounds before, not for a pregnancy you can imagine, no, to accelerate the healing of scared tissues. This ultrasound has pictures. In a matter of seconds there is an image on the screen : an already formed embryo with a head, a body, legs, arms, hands and feet : everything visible, in place. Wow, I didn't know what we'd see but it's clearly human, and it's only 11 weeks! Well not quite the doctor tells us... in fact it's 10 weeks and 6 days. Wow again! How do they know that? Well they don't actually, it's all based on when you've had your last period so there's some margin of error in there BUT it's not very important, what is important is how big the embryo is and in our case that morning it is 43.75mm. They actually measure the embryo on screen, when it accepts to face the right direction and lie straight. Unless you are a doctor or you've been pregnant before that doesn't really mean anything. What it does mean the doctor tells us is that it's too small for the purpose of this first ultrasound : the minimum size of the embryo for the tests that need to be done should be 45mm. So we have another appointment for the 1st next month. We basically got a freebe ultrasound.
Delphine's doctor got her dates muddled-up.
It was great. I didn't get teary-eyed or anything but definitely got emotional. Still don't feel like a father though. I actually hope that I don't get that feeling until it is born. This should be like Christmas I reckon. It's only when the present is opened that you get the joy, the satisfaction and that it becomes yours. Before that it's a build-up of excitement, of tension, of emotions and anticipation all leading up to a climax. I looking forward to Christmas.