I love my ultrasound chic

First of all, her name is Jillian.
sigh....I wanted Sprout to be Jillian Noelle if he'd been a she, but alas, Jim shot it down. =(

Second, she is by far the best tech in the Maternal Fetal Medicine dept. (Granted, I've only ever had two other techs down there, but she outshines them by far.)

Despite the not-so-great experience this morning with Sprout's biophysical profile (more about that in another post), I had a great time with her, talking about Thanksgiving traditions and our first years of marriage to our husbands.

And she has admitted that she has developed an attachment to Sprout. Last week, she wasn't being too profound; she was just complimenting us on Sprout's nose. She admitted to often telling patients, "Oh, s/he is going to be a cutie!" or "look at those dimples!" but that she had not seen a baby with as precious a profile as ours. She kept saying, "I really, truly believe he is going to be one handsome little guy." (Well, duh!)

Today, though, she was being a little more serious, doing a personality profile. She cracks me up. She said that Sprout is more attentive and aware of his surroundings than most of the babies she sees. And that he seems very inquisitive; it is fascinating to watch him find his umbilical cord, catch it in his hand, and try to bring it up to his face. Or if he accidentally pokes himself in the eye, it is so neat to watch him try to figure out what he's done. (I know I've been so fortunate to have so many lengthy ultrasounds, and to get to observe him like this.) Jillian also picked up on some traits that can easily be attributed to Daddy -- like the fact that she had to wake him up today using a buzzer....literally, he was so sound asleep, she had to put a buzzer probe right up next to his ear and pulse it for 5 seconds. He startled...stretched...rolled over...and went back to sleep. Hmm....I recognize that pattern. ;) Her last observation is that he may well be very independent, in the sense that he can entertain himself. Once she got him to wake up, he seemed perfectly happy to float there, play with his cord, and relax, even though he was getting prodded and poked, and all these things were going on around him. Ah....I hope that holds true postpartum. Oh, how I'd love for him to be an easy baby.

But I digress....

I know I often sing Dr. Gibbs praises, but there really have been a handful of medical professionals that have made this experience as joyful as possible, given the circumstances. Jillian is one of them, so this is a special shout out to her.