Saturday, May 12/18
WHAT TO EXPECT FOR THE 20 WEEK ULTRASOUND
The 20 Week Ultrasound, or the "Anomaly Scan" is an ultrasound done between 18 and 20+ weeks, midway through your pregnancy. At this ultrasound your ultrasound technician or sonographer will check to see that you're just having one baby (particularly if you haven't had an earlier dating ultrasound), and take an overall look at your baby, placenta and uterus in general. This is also the ultrasound where you may be able to find out the sex of your baby! This isn't always an option, apparently some hospitals have policies where they don't tell you just in case a mistake it made, or perhaps your baby isn't in a good position to be certain.
WHAT I EXPERIENCED AT THE 20 WEEK ULTRASOUND
Before I begin this story, I should start by saying at this point in my pregnancy I was still feeling a huge loss of appetite, I had nausea but hadn't been physically sick, and I was still absolutely exhausted. My scan was booked for 9:30am or something like that, so I was still tired, hadn't thought about breakfast because I felt nauseous and I wasn't hungry in the slightest, and my bladder was full to the brim in preparation to get a good look at baby. I expected that it would take 20-30 minutes so I could last with my bladder being so full, but in total it took well over an hour.
I didn't realize (and I don't know if it's just a Canadian thing?) but my husband wasn't allowed to come into the room with me until the very end, and this was the case for every ultrasound I had, at various locations and at different points of my pregnancy. It was a little off-putting, mainly because I had somewhat convinced myself that something would be wrong with the baby, especially since it had felt like forever since I'd seen it last.
When I first laid down on the bed I felt pretty good, apart from the nerves. The ultrasound technician immediately asked me if I wanted to know the sex of the baby, and Fraser and I had decided not to, and although I was sorely tempted I said no. She started doing her thing (whatever it may have been, I'm sure it was all very important!) and since she had the screen turned away from me I sort of just stayed there in silence, answering occasional questions and making some small talk. The room was dark and very warm, at first being so tired and coming in from a cold, Canadian November morning I found it to be really comfortable and relaxing. About 30 or 40 minutes in I started to feel really hot, sweaty and very uncomfortable. I tried to distract myself, and kept thinking that surely it would all be over shortly. The ultrasound technician noticed, asked if I needed a break, and suggested I try to pee just a little to empty just a small amount of urine from the bladder which felt like it was touching my lungs at this point. I refused the offer to go and pee, I figured if I started I wouldn't be able to stop and I'd never get the dreamy pictures I'd prepared for, but I did walk to the bathroom, splash water on my face and told myself in the mirror to pull myself together.
I headed back to the room, and in the hallway my husband gave me a concerned raised-eyebrow face and I embarrassingly shrugged and went back in. 10 minutes back into the ultrasound I couldn't take it anymore. I vomited for the first time in my pregnancy- not once, but twice. Once graciously into the garbage pail which the ultrasound tech swooped up just in time, and once back in the bathroom (afterwards I did pee a little because at this point I was desperate for something to help ease the nausea and maybe that would do it) and even more embarrassingly had to return to the room for the second time, this time my husband was a little less subtle with his raised eyebrow look. I tried to mouth "I threw up!" but I'm not sure he realized until I vented about it afterwards. The very lovely sonographer said she had most of her measurements and asked if I wanted to reschedule to complete the test, and I refused saying I felt much better (I was lying but I'm a stubborn brat). She got me a cold washcloth to put on my head which made me feel 100x better, but also made me feel like a sicky, pompous little prick who couldn't handle pregnancy very well, despite me reassuring her that this was the first time I'd actually thrown up since being pregnant and her nodding and saying that it was all okay.
Finally, about another 10 minutes or so later my husband was called in and it made the whole experience so, so worth it. The baby was moving around so much (which is why it took forever to get the measurements) and we even got to see it's little heart beating away. She couldn't tell us much, but assured us we'd know all the results at my next doctors appointment, but what she did say was that the heartbeat looked perfect. I was completely over the moon. We got to see it kicking and wriggling about, we saw it's little hands and feet and even noticed that it had a cute nose! For the short amount of time that we got to see it, it totally changed my view of pregnancy and made it feel so real. Seeing our baby actually looking like a baby was incredible, and despite vomiting halfway through it was totally worth it.
I really hope my weird (and now actually rather funny) experience doesn't make it sound daunting- the ultrasound was actually really lovely, and one of my most cherished pregnancy experiences.
WHAT TO EXPECT FOR THE 20 WEEK ULTRASOUND
The 20 Week Ultrasound, or the "Anomaly Scan" is an ultrasound done between 18 and 20+ weeks, midway through your pregnancy. At this ultrasound your ultrasound technician or sonographer will check to see that you're just having one baby (particularly if you haven't had an earlier dating ultrasound), and take an overall look at your baby, placenta and uterus in general. This is also the ultrasound where you may be able to find out the sex of your baby! This isn't always an option, apparently some hospitals have policies where they don't tell you just in case a mistake it made, or perhaps your baby isn't in a good position to be certain.
WHAT I EXPERIENCED AT THE 20 WEEK ULTRASOUND
Before I begin this story, I should start by saying at this point in my pregnancy I was still feeling a huge loss of appetite, I had nausea but hadn't been physically sick, and I was still absolutely exhausted. My scan was booked for 9:30am or something like that, so I was still tired, hadn't thought about breakfast because I felt nauseous and I wasn't hungry in the slightest, and my bladder was full to the brim in preparation to get a good look at baby. I expected that it would take 20-30 minutes so I could last with my bladder being so full, but in total it took well over an hour.
I didn't realize (and I don't know if it's just a Canadian thing?) but my husband wasn't allowed to come into the room with me until the very end, and this was the case for every ultrasound I had, at various locations and at different points of my pregnancy. It was a little off-putting, mainly because I had somewhat convinced myself that something would be wrong with the baby, especially since it had felt like forever since I'd seen it last.
When I first laid down on the bed I felt pretty good, apart from the nerves. The ultrasound technician immediately asked me if I wanted to know the sex of the baby, and Fraser and I had decided not to, and although I was sorely tempted I said no. She started doing her thing (whatever it may have been, I'm sure it was all very important!) and since she had the screen turned away from me I sort of just stayed there in silence, answering occasional questions and making some small talk. The room was dark and very warm, at first being so tired and coming in from a cold, Canadian November morning I found it to be really comfortable and relaxing. About 30 or 40 minutes in I started to feel really hot, sweaty and very uncomfortable. I tried to distract myself, and kept thinking that surely it would all be over shortly. The ultrasound technician noticed, asked if I needed a break, and suggested I try to pee just a little to empty just a small amount of urine from the bladder which felt like it was touching my lungs at this point. I refused the offer to go and pee, I figured if I started I wouldn't be able to stop and I'd never get the dreamy pictures I'd prepared for, but I did walk to the bathroom, splash water on my face and told myself in the mirror to pull myself together.
I headed back to the room, and in the hallway my husband gave me a concerned raised-eyebrow face and I embarrassingly shrugged and went back in. 10 minutes back into the ultrasound I couldn't take it anymore. I vomited for the first time in my pregnancy- not once, but twice. Once graciously into the garbage pail which the ultrasound tech swooped up just in time, and once back in the bathroom (afterwards I did pee a little because at this point I was desperate for something to help ease the nausea and maybe that would do it) and even more embarrassingly had to return to the room for the second time, this time my husband was a little less subtle with his raised eyebrow look. I tried to mouth "I threw up!" but I'm not sure he realized until I vented about it afterwards. The very lovely sonographer said she had most of her measurements and asked if I wanted to reschedule to complete the test, and I refused saying I felt much better (I was lying but I'm a stubborn brat). She got me a cold washcloth to put on my head which made me feel 100x better, but also made me feel like a sicky, pompous little prick who couldn't handle pregnancy very well, despite me reassuring her that this was the first time I'd actually thrown up since being pregnant and her nodding and saying that it was all okay.
Finally, about another 10 minutes or so later my husband was called in and it made the whole experience so, so worth it. The baby was moving around so much (which is why it took forever to get the measurements) and we even got to see it's little heart beating away. She couldn't tell us much, but assured us we'd know all the results at my next doctors appointment, but what she did say was that the heartbeat looked perfect. I was completely over the moon. We got to see it kicking and wriggling about, we saw it's little hands and feet and even noticed that it had a cute nose! For the short amount of time that we got to see it, it totally changed my view of pregnancy and made it feel so real. Seeing our baby actually looking like a baby was incredible, and despite vomiting halfway through it was totally worth it.
I really hope my weird (and now actually rather funny) experience doesn't make it sound daunting- the ultrasound was actually really lovely, and one of my most cherished pregnancy experiences.
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| Our baby at 21 weeks! |
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