Tiff took a spill on the way to work on Monday. She was walking to her car from the house and stepped on the wooden border of the sidewalk. It had been raining that morning and the wood was slippery. She picked herself up and went to work. Her doctor wanted to make sure that there wasn't any damage done so they had her come in later that morning. The doctor also made an appointment for Tiff last night for an ultrasound.

We got to the doctor's office and the technician had Tiff lay down on the examination table. Tiff told the tech why she was there since it wasn't time yet for her next "scheduled" ultrasound. The tech then squirted the jelly onto Tiff and we began.

The first few minutes was just like last time: everything seemed to be just random white dots on a black screen. It was pretty hard to see what was what.

The tech would say stuff like, "Here's the placenta," or "Here's the cervix," the whole time I'm thinking, Great. I'm glad Tiff has a cervix and a placenta, but where's the baby?

"Here's its brain," she said. I couldn't see a brain, I just saw another blob. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it has a brain, and I'm equally as glad that the brain "looks normal," but I wasn't there to see a blob that was supposed to be a brain. I was there to see a blob that is supposed to be our "baby."

It wasn't until the tech started to point things out that I realized what I was looking at. The tech moved the thingy around on Tiff's belly, clicked the keyboard a few times with her free hand, pointed to something on screen and said, "Those are the legs," and let me tell you that is when it all came together for me. The legs were moving. On their own! The legs were moving fast, too. Maybe the kid will grow up to be a track star or a fugitive on the run? I'm open-minded and I'll support the kid in whatever it decides to be when it grows up.

Then the tech started moving the thing around some more and she said, "That's the head." It was weird seeing that. It reminded me of a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin had been "bombarded by x-rays" and you could see his skeleton, the most noticable part of which was his large, bulbous skull. The baby's skull was equally as huge and surprisingly detailed. You could see the baby's tooth-line and eye holes and the spot where the nose will go.

After some more moving on the tech's part I also saw some ribs, a spine and a little hand (the hand was outstretched as if it were trying to give a high-5). I could barely believe my eyes! There was a little person inside Tiff! I had to stop myself from saying, "Oh my God, there's a kid inside Tiff! How did it get in there?!" I'm sure the tech would have called the nice men in the white jackets with their nets to come take me away.

Finally the tech was finished and she told us that Tiff, the baby, the placenta, and the cervix are all fine and that no damage was caused by Tiff's spill the other morning. The tech wiped the jelly off of Tiff and printed out some pictures for us to keep. The first one looks like the baby is looking right at the "camera." Its eye holes are big and black and the baby looks as if it's saying, "Hey! A little privacy, please?!" It also looks a bit like a generic alien head. You know what I'm referring to: big head, wider at the top, big, black, almond-shaped eyes, little holes for nostrils. It didn't look like it was of this planet...

Hmmm.

The other pictures are profile views of the baby. One picture is of the baby using its little hand to pick its nose (I swear to you this is what it looks like) and the other is a profile shot without the hand.

It was a pretty cool experience watching the baby move around. It's good to know that the baby is no longer just a blob, but a blob taking human form. It was cool to see the little hands, eyeholes, legs and ribs. It was a sobering experience inasmuch as it really drove the "I'm going to be a daddy" thought directly into the Reality Center of the cerebral cortex. I still find it hard to believe that there's a little alien-looking thing growing inside Tiff but I can't wait till it gets here. Just as long as it comes out normally, and not like in the movie, Alien. Till next time,

-andy