Baby Update

Well today we went to the doctors for a sonogram. Unfortunately we brought Alyssa who I had to spoon feed M&Ms to sit still and watch as the baby's image came up on the flat screen. The baby appears to be all there and with nothing to indicate problems. It was curled up in a ball for most of the session but moved around a lot the technician said. I couldn't tell. It was like reading hieroglyphics as a blind man. I just nodded my head and intently waited for her to call out the sex. Finally she was able to get a shot between the legs...which reminds of a great story regarding Alyssa. While I was in Iraq and consequently through Holly's pregnancy with Alyssa, I received an email from Holly's account entitled "Shot of girl between legs". Well, I didn't even open it thinking it was spam of porn somehow sent from her account and therefore erased it. Several weeks later while talking with Holly on the phone she made mentioned to the sonogram pictures of Alyssa and how she'd sent them via email and snail mail. It dawned on me what I had erased. As well, in our first area of operations we ha been receiving mail and supplies via air drop. This was due to our distance from any other forward operating base. When chute's broke or neglected to open and mail scattered over the desert, they started trucking it in. On one occasion one of these trucks crashed and caught on fire. It happened to be the base's mail. I can remember going on patrol past that burnt truck and seeing the thousand or so empty water bottles used to try and extinguish the blaze and save the mail. several months later I received a letter that was burnt up but still sealed. In it was Alyssa's sonogram pictures, perfectly visible with charred edges and some smearing of color due to water. Back to today's visit....we are having another GIRL!