“The hospital corridors were quiet, the midwife was quiet. She whispered—that’s how I remember it—that I needed to see the doctor and have an ultrasound. She helped me gather my things and sent us even farther down the corridor. I remember lying on the doctor’s examining table in a dark cubicle, only the ultrasound machine emitting light. I remember covering my face with my hands. After a while, the doctor touched my arm. “Look,” he said. My husband took my hand in his. The doctor pointed at the screen and moved his finger carefully around the sonogram, as though showing us a rare map, and then, because we couldn’t quite believe what we were seeing and what he was telling us, he turned up the sound so we could hear the steady beating of the heart…”
~ Linn Ullmann, ”Unquiet: A Novel” (W. W. Norton & Company, January 15, 2019)
Notes:
- Photo of sonogram: Kim Pham
- Related Posts: Miracle. All of it.
- Inspiration: Inspired by Albert Einstein’s quote: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Live & Learn 
nothing can match this experience. love your inspiration
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No. It cannot. And then this:
“Charting the heart’s early development: The nascent heart tube begins to elongate in the middle of the fifth week of gestation, initially taking the shape of the letter C and developing into a compressed S.”
~ Linn Ullmann, ”Unquiet: A Novel” (W. W. Norton & Company, January 15, 2019)
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wow
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Amazing and heartwarming … when you hear that sound! … ‘he turned up the sound so we could hear the steady beating of the heart …”
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How precious!
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Thank you for this 💛
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A mother can still lay down, close her eyes, rest her hand on her belly, sit and wait, and she’ll hear that heartbeat again.
Especially at 3 am, morning!
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Ha! True! Another Miracle!
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Back in the day, there was only audio in ultrasounds, I brought a boom box to my appointment to record the heartbeat. Amazing! I sent in the tape to then current daughter’s Junior high Science class for the human reproductive cycle module. 12 years later (same teacher!), I sent it in again with the daughter whose fetal heartbeat it was. Both times, classmates were utterly astounded — and asked to hear it again. Miracle, all of it, indeed!
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What a classroom experience that must have been. Amazing!
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We forget (or never quite realized) that we ourselves are miracles.
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For some reason your thought reminds me of:
Nobody is smarter than you are. And what if they are? What good is their understanding doing you?”
Terence McKenna, Nobody is Smarter Than You Are
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That is great food for thought!
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For
Me too Carol!
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Relax, love what you’ve shared…thank you
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Well, thank YOU. 🙂
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There is nothing like that first sound…
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No. There is not
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The wonder of our babies image and the sound of Life’s blood pumping through her amazing! I never felt her kick… I felt a flutter once, though I knew with the need to use the bathroom often, being so tired and my obvious growth of tummy I knew a miracle was taking place…(I didn’t develop adequate amniotic fluid, so movement was not noticed) The swooshing sound, imprinted and unforgettable!
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Unforgettable. That’s it.
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Always a miracle 💕
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Seeing a baby on an ultrasound is so amazing
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Nothing can match.
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