Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Bouncing Back

I'm leaving for my ultrasound this morning. My three-year-old has to accompany me, as I don't have babysitting available. Let's hope being in the exam room with me (albeit behind the curtain) won't scar him psychologically! I tried to explain how the ultrasound will let us take a peek at the baby. He seemed a little concerned that we would be hurting the baby, so I told him it was only an image of the baby made by waves. "Oh," he said. "Like light waves, right? We will shoot them at the baby and they will bounce back, giving us a picture without ever touching the baby."

Um, yes. So much for my preschool explanation. He's been watching a video of Beekman's World this week while I doze through first trimester. One of the experiments involves making a camera obscura--a cardboard box with a pinhole that reflects an image through light waves. It amazes me that he can already make these kinds of connections between something he saw on TV and a real-world phenomenon. I am reminded, yet again, not to dumb things down. And I think I can finally quit complaining about the gas for our weekly trips to the science museum!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck and I hope you get a lovely "lima bean" shot. I know you don't know me that well, but if you ever need a babysitter for a thing like that, I'll be glad to take him in.

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the ultrasound! Noelle did fine for mine (I had to do one w/o my husband) and other than Noelle thinking that the baby is a fish, she behaved fabulously! I think it also helped that the lights were turned off in the room and she wasn't sure what she could get into. :)

Meredith said...

Thanks, Jordana, that's awfully generous of you to offer. Andrew did well during the exam, sitting up straight and paying attention to everything--even touching the capillary tube as my blood was drawn to see if he could feel it move. The ultrasound was blessedly normal. We even got to see some amazing 3D views of its arms and legs. Whew!

Mrs. Happy Housewife said...

Smart boy! Certainly a blessing to his mama.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! I'm glad the results were so good. It's so scary to be pregnant at times. I think I worried before every appointment and lots of times in between.