I had my monthly OB appointment yesterday with my midwife. This time, I took the 4 youngest Little Kids with me. The eldest was off doing some kind of Irish dance performance or something with her two best friends. She missed seeing #6. We didn\u2019t. Lucky us!<\/p>\n
#5 freaked out a bit in the exam room. He doesn\u2019t like \u201cnew\u201d, and was on the verge of tears the entire time. I tried to explain that she was the nice lady who delivered him, and that it would be okay. He\u2019s 23 months old and didn\u2019t seem to care. I finally sat him up on the exam table next to me and he calmed down a bit.<\/p>\n
The office nurse came in and reminded me that now that I\u2019m old I should think about getting blood tests to check for birth defects while I\u2019m not too far along and we still have options. I politely informed her that there are no \u201coptions\u201d as this is our baby and we look forward to meeting him\/her. I\u2019m a bit of a puzzle to her. She said, \u201cBut you have other children to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n
I smiled and said, \u201cI have all of them to think about.\u201d She shook her head and walked out of the room. <\/p>\n
Then came the midwife with the ultrasound machine. (Hooray!) The children all piled around me to get their first peek at our littlest one.<\/p>\n
It was clearly sleeping. Nestled in peacefully and curled up in the fetal position. Then the machine beeped and #5 screamed.<\/p>\n
#6 threw its arms wide in the classic infant startle. Then, the little hands flew instinctively up to cover the ears from a big brother\u2019s offensive racket.<\/p>\n
The little face turned towards the direction of the crying brother, and it\u2019s mouth opened slightly. Then, its chin began to quiver. Clearly, obviously crying.<\/p>\n
Awakened from a nap, scared, and disturbed, our sweet #6 cried. Undeniably sobbed while holding hands tightly over tiny ears.<\/p>\n
We all laughed at the sweet humanity of the moment which only made my two babies cry harder.\u00a0 17 weeks into pregnancy. Barely 4 months. Hearing. Responding. Displaying emotion. Reacting logically. A blob of tissue? Product of conception? No. Thinking, feeling, emoting. Human.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had my monthly OB appointment yesterday with my midwife. This time, I took the 4 youngest Little Kids with me. The eldest was off doing some kind of Irish dance performance or something with her two best friends. She missed seeing #6. We didn\u2019t. Lucky us! #5 freaked out a bit in the exam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1979,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n