It never ceases to amaze me how tiny babies can be. It sounds like a trite phrase, the sort of thing everyone says, but it's true. We had Sue's ultrasound yesterday, and got to actually see Jordan's brother (or sister ... we don't want to know which until that fateful day in June). Unlike Jordan, who slept through every ultrasound she ever had, little Melbourne was a frisky little guy, holding up his/her hands, kicking feet, clinching tiny fists, and generally making the ultrasound tech work for her paycheck.

Sue's second pregnancy has gone by in a rush, as you can see by the dearth of posts on Nuketown about it, with only a single mention in Radio Active. With Jordan, I was posting at a crazed pace, intoxicated with the idea of being a dad for the first time. Now, well, I'm more buzzed than intoxicated. Excited, yes. Thrilled, yes, but there's not that headlong rush of adrenaline and panic as I wonder "are we really ready for this?" and "what if I drop the baby?" and the thousand other thoughts that ricocheted around a new dad's skull at 2 a.m.

With Baby Nuke 2.0, the big questions have been answered, at least about myself. Of course the pregnancy remains a sort of unfolding mystery, with us gleaning clues about the baby's personality and habits through its tiny kicks and nudges against Sue's womb and its penchant for in making its Mom burp uncontrollably. But the freefall euphoria of impending first time parenthood has been replaced with the confidence of a dad who's already got a two-year old daughter.

Jordan herself changes things -- last time around, the baby had our 100% focus (much to the chagrin of the dogs). This time though, our attention is divided between the pregnancy and Jordan ... and questions about how we'll do have been replaced by questions of how well she'll do.

Having said that, this pregnancy -- for all its seeming speed -- has its moments. Listening to the baby's heartbeat for the first time, which we got to do at around 11 weeks (a few weeks earlier than Jordan) was thrilling. We've got our running joke about Melbourne (inspired by some confusion my dad had over why my sister's planning on naming her daughter when she's born in March ... Dad -- for the record it's "Sydney") and we do have Jordan, who is slowly figuring out that hey, something different is going on with Mommy. Finally, unlike lasts time, where we were one of the only ones having a baby, everyone we know is having a baby this year, including my sister-in-law, who's due a week before Sue. When Jordan visited family, she was always on her own; when Melbourne does; he or she will have at least one cousin, maybe two.

And then there was the ultrasound, which froze the mad-rush toward June for a second, and allowed us to marvel at those tiny hands, those tiny feet. For a moment, the baby had our entire focus, and it was ... amazing. Just like it should be.