3D Ultrasound | Goddess in Progress

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Eating My Words

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (15)· December 6th, 2010

I’ve long been skeptical of these stand-alone elective ultrasound businesses. I couldn’t tell you exactly why, but probably because it seems a little like getting a medical procedure at a non-medical establishment. I don’t know, maybe it smacked of hypochondriacs? It would also bug me when I’d read about the women on the Babycenter message boards who would spend a few hundred bucks to go for a 3-D gender check at like 14 weeks, because they simply couldn’t wait the extra three weeks until their already-scheduled 17-week anatomy scan.

Whatever, people. Seriously, you can’t wait three whole weeks? It bugged me, is all I’m saying.

And then, sometime in the last couple of weeks, it started to creep into my brain.

I was so spoiled during my theoretically-high-risk twin pregnancy (in which, thankfully, nothing ever went wrong). I had so many ultrasounds, I lost count. If my blog is an accurate record, the complete tally looks to be 17. I got to see the babies often, which was always happily reassuring. This time? A whopping TWO ultrasounds? Seriously, I had the anatomy scan at just shy of 19 weeks, and that’s probably going to be it. I wouldn’t even have a late-third-trimester scan to see if the baby is vertex, because with a repeat c-section, who the hell cares? I miss all of those little ultrasound visits.

But, if I’m being completely honest, the major driving factor behind wanting another ultrasound was the relative uncertainty the tech expressed in the baby’s gender. Seriously, that 20-25% was bugging the crap out of me. I know, I know. Our mothers NEVER had a single ultrasound. All that really matters is that the baby is happy and healthy. I would be happy either way. I KNOW. But I’m a planner. I have clothes to buy, quilts to make, names to choose. And while I’m not an over-the-top pink-and-frilly kind of person, I would rather not have a wardrobe comprised exclusively of yellow and green. Call me superficial, I don’t care. That’s how I roll.

Anyways, after much hemming and hawing and an “oh, just do it already!” from M, I made the call and made the appointment. Goldenview Ultrasound in Brookline was the only place I found nearby, and it got a good recommendation from someone in my moms-of-twins club. The rates were reasonable (especially on a weekday). I figured, if I was going to pay out-of-pocket for an ultrasound, I might as well get the 3D photos, but I definitely didn’t need the DVDs, the heartbeat recording in a stuffed animal (creepy!), or any of that other silliness. Just a nice look, that’s all.

It was not medically necessary. It was a luxury. Chalk it up to straight entertainment. And you know what? It was totally worth it. It was so freaking cool.

For one thing, the baby is pretty well confirmed to, indeed, be a GIRL. We did an initial 2D scan, and even to this unprofessional eye, I could tell we were looking at girl bits. Excited to be welcoming another girl, and much relieved to have as good a bit of confirmation as we can reasonably get.

Also? I kind of think she looks like Rebecca in that picture (above). Not 100%, but that was my first reaction.

Ignore the weirdly cut-off arm in the picture (I swear, she has two hands and 10 fingers, we saw them), tell me that’s not the cutest freaking baby yawn you’ve ever seen?

She had her hands up by her face for a large portion of the time we were looking. Several times, she seemed to be gnawing/sucking on her forearm. It will be fascinating to see if that’s a habit she has on the outside.

So, pride swallowed, words eaten. Baby visualized, gender confirmed.

All is well.

Did you have any 3D or elective ultrasounds when you were pregnant? Do you think you would?

Comments (15)

Categories : Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

Tags : 3D ultrasound, elective ultrasound, second pregnancy, singleton vs. twins

Hospital day, 32w6d

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (0)· July 12th, 2007

Today was the usual BPP/NST combo at the hospital.

The ultrasound (BPP) went well. Plenty of fluid, both babies moving around well, etc. We’ve almost stopped referring to either one of them as baby A or B. Neither of them is at all engaged in my pelvis, so it remains to be seen who will “present” first. Baby boy is still head-down, and baby girl seems quite comfortable staying breech. The funniest moment of the ultrasound was when we were getting a good look at baby boy’s face. It was a nice profile shot, and we could see him not only moving his mouth, but sticking out his tongue! We tried to get a 3D picture of it, but no luck. But while we were watching, in the fluid space next to his face, we suddenly saw a shape that looked mysteriously like a little foot! Indeed, his sister was sticking her foot right by his face. The still picture we got doesn’t do it justice. It was pretty neat in motion. In the end, we got a nice profile of baby boy, and a 3D of baby girl:

The non-stress test took a little longer than intended. Both babies were a little more cooperative when it came to being monitored, so that was a good thing. The nurse didn’t need to stand over me, holding the sensors just so on my belly. But after about 20-30 minutes, while baby boy’s heart rate was moving all around as they like to see, baby girl was being pretty steady and quiet (“nonreactive”). I tried drinking some ginger ale to see if the sugar got her going, but that didn’t seem to quite work. So the nurse suggested we get “the zapper.” Needless to say, this was alarming to me. It sounded like she was going to get a taser and stun the baby. But in fact, the zapper is just a little hand-held wand that looks rather like the doppler that OBs use to hear the heartbeat. But instead, you put this one up to the side of the belly where little miss sleepyhead lives, press a button, and it makes a short buzzer sound. That’s all. And, as it turned out, that’s what it took to wake her up and get the readings we were looking for. She even developed an amusing case of the hiccups. Sorry for the disturbance, my dear. We just needed to make sure you were OK in there.

In the end, another good day. I had a couple of contractions while on the monitor, but not too many, and they didn’t seem to bother anyone. Though I know a good result today is no guarantee of what tomorrow will hold, each successful testing session makes me feel like I’ve “made it” for another week. Tomorrow, I’ll be 33 weeks. Discomforts notwithstanding… it just keeps getting better. I can scarcely imagine how far I’ve come. 35 weeks is a big goal for me, and it’s only two short weeks away! 36-plus would be better, and if I start to go past 37, I might lose my mind. But it’s all just so soon!

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Categories : Hospital, Pregnancy, Ultrasounds

Tags : 3D ultrasound, nonreactive, NST/BPP

Ultrasound, 25w6d

By Goddess in Progress · Comments (1)· May 24th, 2007

Had a good visit with the perinatologist today. Hooray!

Both babies put on eight ounces since the last visit. While baby girl A is still smaller than her brother, she put on a significant amount of weight and went from about the 17th percentile up to the 27th percentile! Baby boy B also went up from the 48th percentile to the 52nd. So while they’re still “discordant” as far as their weights go, they’re both going up, so that’s definitely a good thing. Heartbeats were good, baby boy’s kidneys were holding relatively steady. Still a little larger than we’d like, but clearly working. Oh, and as I suspected, baby A has turned back head-down. B is still firmly breech.

A couple of good pictures today, too!
Little miss is sort of bending her head back. Not sure what the big white shape is in the upper left, but I suspect it might be her brother’s foot. It was the best shot we could get, since her head is nice and low right now.

Baby boy, however, had no trouble showing off his profile. Of course, I suppose it helps that his head is practically up near my ribs.

And, just for fun, the ultrasound tech even busted out the 3D! The ones we tried to get of our girl looked like a big blob of nothing. But baby boy B was ready for his 3 dimensional debut. How’s that for cool?