Scan Update

I had my 12 week scan yesterday. We got up relatively early, had a bit of breakfast and then headed over to the Maternity Unit at Winchester Hospital. We arrived pretty early as we'd been told the parking was crap, but we found about 4 spaces outside. We got inside and were directed to the Ultrasound waiting area. As soon as I sat down the couple opposite me were flicking through their maternity booklet. Arse, I'd totally left mine at home! I double checked the letter that I'd been sent with my scan appointment and right at the bottom in bold lettering was 'Bring your Maternity Notes'. I'd never even got that far down on the letter, I read the date and that there were no special things to remember, so it never even crossed my mind! I think once the world know I might just keep them in my handbag so I don't make the same mistake again. Mr H did go and ask the receptionist if he should go home to get them but they said not to worry.

My appointment was at 9.10am and we eventually got called in at about 9.20am. I've obviously never had an ultrasound before, and it was quite strange to be led into this darkened curtained room with a bed and a tv screen. They wasted no time in getting my clothes into the right position, applying gel and getting the wand thing in action across my tummy.

Within seconds there was this little thing wriggling up on the monitor... and I mean wriggling. I never expected arms and legs to be moving around, nor did I expect it to be doing summersaults and rolls in there. I wasn't sure whether it was due to the sugary breakfast or whether its just got used to getting out of the way of dog paws and has already developed a technique for getting out of the way of incoming objects.

By this point, even me the ultimate ice queen had a few tears rolling down the side of my face. It really was a beautiful sight.

The baby is about 51mm long at the moment, so tiny! and is living about 2cm underneath my skin. I was quite suprised at how close to the surface it is, but I guess it being so close puts some things into context about how uncomfortable I feel sometimes when my jeans are digging in or I'm wearing tights pulled up.

Measurements were taken of the Nuchal fold (the test for downs syndrome) and they came back perfect, she was struggling to get the measurement more than about 1.6mm and the measurement at which they worry is 3.5mm.

She talked us through what she was doing and what we could see, but this baby really was wriggling. She wrote on our notes 'scan restricted by fetal movement' whoops!

Whilst she was poking around she found a cyst that was nearly as big as the baby, she said it probably wasn't anything to worry about and was probably a result of ovulation on the cycle that the baby was conceived. Apparently they will just monitor it in the other scans. I'm not that worried so I've not leapt on google right away to find out more, I'll just see what happens :)

Turns out I was correct with my EDD and they put me back two days. So I'll officially be 12 weeks tomorrow and baby is due on Saturday 21st May 2011. Mr H reckons she was a bit sarcastic when she confirmed I was correct, but I didn't really think so. We were shipped back into the waiting room to wait for my notes and pictures.

After about 5 minutes we got the pics and the notes to stick into my book when I got home. The pics are hilarious, I got two face shots, one odd shot of I'm not sure what and a profile pic.

Introducing el guapo! (because it looks like theres a mexican wrestling mask)

Though this face shot looks a little 'Roswell' to us...



Finally, a good stereotypical profile :)



After I'd got my notes back I had a wait of another 30-40 minutes until I was called through for the triple test (blood test, another downs checker). I'm such a wuss when it comes to giving blood. Something about that creepy inner arm fold that turns my stomach. Not helped by the fact I was starving by the time we were called through. It was over in seconds but I held my breath and was totally fighting back the tears. Before they took blood, I was weighed. The number on the scales scared me, it was in kg. I do not understand kg. I weighed myself at home this morning and I've gained 4lbs. I'm fine with that. The kg figure just looked really scary!

After that we had to make my appointment for my 20 week scan. I'll be 20 weeks on New Years day, so clearly have some weekend/bank holidays in the way of me getting to see el guapo again. We're booked in for the 4th January at 11.45am. I can't wait!