Our First Ultrasound (Technology is Awesome!)

I got my first ultrasound on Wednesday.  Baby was 20 weeks old.  I think the grandparents-to-be were more excited about the baby itself; we just might have been more enthralled with the technology that allowed us to see it.

Still images don't really do these machines justice.  They look a lot less clear than the moving images shown on the screen in real time.  It was fun to watch a very active little baby do everything from yawn, kick and punch, and put its hand on its forehead.

It was almost just as fun to watch the technician do her thing; it was amazing how proficient she was at switching views, making measurements, and replaying the cute things baby did right after they happened (we watched the yawn a few times before moving on, for example).

I have to wonder exactly what has changed in the last few decades to make the technology so much more impressive.  Is it a case of better engineering, and signals the machines send and receive are simply more accurate? Or is there some computer science going on to correct the images as they are formed?

Either way, it's thanks to this super awesome technology that we now have our very first picture of baby giving us the finger.  Granted, this one's not all that high quality, but the zoomed in arm and hand make a memory we'll love having for years to come.