Fetal Position
I had a wonderful experience a weekend ago when I was able to accompany a legion (not really that many, but certainly quite a few) of our family members up on a road trip to Denver to visit a 3-D ultrasound company that gave us another wonderful view of the beautiful life that is growing within our daughter right now and will burst into this world and I’m sure stun us all with her beauty and grace in August.
[Author’s Note: OK, I’ll pause for just a minute and let you know that beauty and grace really don’t describe most new born babies…in fact, I thought my oldest daughter looked quite a bit like Yoda when she entered this world with her own special beauty and grace. Now some would think Yoda was cute, and in a baby describing way, you are right. That Yoda from then is the beautiful young woman of today that is incubating our soon to arrive granddaughter, and if every Yoda looking newly born baby came out over time as beautiful as my daughter of 23 years of life, the world would be an incredibly stunning place! But I digress…back to the topic at hand.]
As the ultrasoundologiest moved her scope all over the belly of my daughter, we saw the wonderful 3-D image of our granddaughter, and we saw her all snuggled up in that oh so typical and obviously safe and comfortable fetal position. I can imagine after seeing how long her legs seemed to be, that the fetal position was not only the most comfortable but quite frankly may have been the only possible position without sticking her feet out the side of my daughter for a big, long stretch. I was stunned by the live imagery and awed by how technology gives us such a real life look at the little baby as she turns, stretches, moves, and even sleeps. I’m including a picture of our granddaughter below…we couldn’t get a great picture of her face because she, almost knowingly, kept her face hidden and at one point even turned her back to us while we were trying to get a good picture. But this picture shows so clearly the body and the snuggled up fetal position which she seems so comfortable to be in:
 
I am totally enjoying this journey we are on (even though as primarily spectators and support crew) as this new life grows in preparation for her grand entrance in August. I realize I’m only the grandfather – and only one of them at that – but it sure is fun to watch the excitement that comes from the creation and then welcoming of new life! It’s also so fun to watch the dynamics between our granddaughter’s mother and father, and the dynamics between the baby’s mother and her grandmother, my wife! In a way, all of us get just a little bit out of character and a bit giddy as we make this journey…that’s also part of the fun and definitely part of the growing anticipation as my wife and I wait to spoil this new member of our family and the baby’s mother and father prepare to provide all that nurturing, mentoring, and worrying that comes with the territory as new parents!
This is so cool!