It's the first ultrasound scan of our little kid who is now about 7cm long from the top of his head to the bottom of his, ahem, bottom. He has his hand in front of his chin in this photo, warding off the paparazzi, but you can see the little critter's profile clearly enough! He's 13 weeks and 5 days old, and is due for his first public appearance on 3rd March next year.
And yes, that's 'he' and 'his'. In the words of Homer Simpson: 'It's a little baby boy ... and what a boy!'
We had pretty much decided to find out what sex the baby is, but weren't expecting to be able to tell at least until the second scan at about 20 weeks, but as soon as the camera was on this little exhibitionist, he promptly did a handstand and wiggled his wangle for all to see. The ultrasound operator practically blushed.
Rather than call it an 'it', or 'Cletus' (as in Cletus the fetus, not Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel), we've been calling it Larry, as in happy as. Philippa reckons that she knew it was a boy all along but I had no idea whatsoever, even though I couldn't resist teasing her that I thought it would be twin boys.
They say its harder for men to get used to the idea of parenthood in the early stages of a pregnancy: after all there's not that much to see from the outside, especially in the first trimester, and our bodies don't get all bolshie and take over from us and make us tired all the time and eat weird things. Like retiring to the bath armed with potato crisps, dried mango and goats cheese for instance. Not mentioning any names of course...
Until now it has all been a little theoretical for me, even though I've been swotting up with the ridiculously detailed and somewhat over prescriptive 'What to Expect when your Expecting' book as well as Kaz Cooke's great little tome which is a lot more down-to-earth. In Australia it's called Up the Duff, but they sell it in the UK as the Rough Guide to Pregnancy. Go figure.
So it was totally brilliant to see little Larry on the telly at Royal Free Hospital, dancing and waving for the camera. I had no idea little 3 month babies can move so much - he was waving his arms and legs and rolling all about. We could see his limbs and heartbeat and his skeleton and head.
They say he's in good nick - he's the right size and the tests they do at this stage are all A-OK.
And don't worry - he won't actually be called Larry. That's just a working title to put people off the scent while we think up a real name for him.
Our next chance to see him will be in October. Can't hardly wait.
