There's an actual baby in there!

"The baby looks fantastic!" the doctor said, and relief flooded through me. Before my 20-week detailed anatomy ultrasound had started, I hadn't been particularly worried about things being OK. But as the technician moved the wand over my belly, looking at various baby body parts, I'd started thinking about what could go wrong.

I've been pretty calm about the baby's growth, as I was during my pregnancy with Sabrina. Getting anxious about fetal development just isn't a place I let myself go to and besides, I'm at a high-risk practice so I have the confidence of being in excellent hands. During my pregnancy with Max, I wasn't particularly concerned, either, because I never imagined anything could happen. I had a healthy pregnancy, Max had looked good all along. Hell set in only after the delivery.

I've started feeling the baby move, muffled little flutters and jerks. This is the part where it all gets real. Yes, there is an actual living creature inside me. Who seems to particularly appreciate it when I eat pasta and sugary stuff. (I've moved passed the potato salad stage and have been craving peaches, Thai noodles with peanut sauce and pickled tomatoes. Not together.)

"Can you see the corpus callosum?" I asked the technician when she got to the baby's brain, and she looked surprised, likely because she doesn't get many expectant moms inquiring about that. But I know better than most what can go wrong with a brain. Yes, the corpus callosum was in place.

Dave rushed in, late from getting stuck in traffic. He stared in wonder at the monitor as the baby moved around, and watching him watching the baby made me happy.

Fun fact: Your body temperature increases 10 to 20 percent during pregnancy, my doctor told me. Combine that with Eau de Summer New York City (as in, the stench of garbage), my heightened sense of smell and the humidity and it's gonna be a good time!

At home, I pulled out the long strip of ultrasound photos, and the kids examined them.

"Is he healthy?" Sabrina wanted to know. I think she has some anxiety about the baby, perhaps because she knows something happened to Max at birth. I plan to talk about it with her.

"Yes, the doctor says he's fantastic!" I told her, and she grinned.

Max wanted to know if the baby could hear. I said he could. So Max leaned over and said, speaking to my belly button, "Hi!"

Every pregnancy is different in its own way, but the kids' excitement is really making this one special.