My Pregnancy – The 20 Week Scan
I’ve decided that I’ll leave these posts in diary form, so they read better. Today I’m looking back at my diary entry for our 20 week scan…
The 20 week scan, also called the anomaly scan, has been the single most magical moment of our pregnancy so far.
It seemed like a lifetime since the 12 week scan (even though we had two!) and we were both so excited to meet our little bean again. I didn’t have the same anxieties as I did for the first scans, so it was altogether a more pleasurable experience…
The 20 Week Scan
The midwife/scanner we had was very kind and explained that this scan would be a bit longer than the first one and she’d be quiet, concentrating on reviewing the scan. She reassured us that this quietness was necessary and for us not to worry or presume that meant something odd was happening. The lights were dimmed and I was asked to lie on the bench in preparation for the scan.
Straight away our little foetus was up on screen and apparently “chilling out”. It was so sweet, it looked like it was just lying back relaxing in there. We were so excited to meet it again and as we both watched the scan intently, the little one yawned! I couldn’t believe it! It bought a tear to my eye and suddenly everything seemed very very real.
The midwife then turned the screen back, so she could begin her inspections. Tipping the bed back further, to encourage the baby to move around a bit.
Now we were adamant that we didn’t want to know the gender of our little one. It was the first thing I said when we went in, as I didn’t want any slip-ups or revealings. I thought it would be an easy thing to spot, but the midwife assured us that you have to really look for it to be able to tell! So she didn’t explore in that region and didn’t see for herself. I felt reassured that hubby wouldn’t see it just pop-up on screen (so to speak!).
This scan was a bit more involved then the last one, with the midwife putting more pressure on my stomach and manipulating around the baby so she could check its organs, brain and abdomen etc. As far as she could tell, everything looked normal and as expected, which was lovely to hear.
We also had a trainee midwife in our 20 week scan, who was finishing her training, so had a “little go” herself, which we didn’t mind as we got to spend longer with our little one, watching it on the screen.
We left with a few brilliant snap-shots of our baby and couldn’t believe how much it had grown and developed in just 8 weeks! WTF!!
We left the 20 week scan feeling so excited to meet our little baby and I felt like I could finally let myself relax and really enjoy the pregnancy and whole experience.
For me, 20 weeks was when I knew I’d let myself enjoy the pregnancy a bit more. Up until that time, I didn’t want to buy anything for the baby or get too excited as I felt it was like tempting fate. I didn’t want to talk about the sex or potential names, as I didn’t want it to become too real…
Did anyone else feel like that after their 20 week scan?
