The First Scan

My little alien 

The 12 week scan is the defining moment in a pregnancy. It's (for most people) the first time you will see your baby and it all seems real. 

But for me it didn't. 

I felt like I was watching a TV screen and watching what I've seen on the telly hundreds of times. It didn't feel like that little wiggly thing was in my tummy.

My favourite thing about the scan was that S and I did it together. It was the first time we had done anything 'baby' together and it was special for S to see the baby I've already grown close to. 

The 12 week scan was pretty straightforward for me. We were asked if we wanted the tests for Downs, Pataus and Edwards, which we did, so I had the scan, got my prized photo, was weighed and then had my blood taken. Nice and simple. 

We had expected a wait for the scan so I hadn't quite had enough to drink by the time I went in. To test for the anomolies she needed to measure the length of the neck and our baby just didn't want to uncurl itself. I was jumping around, wiggling... all sorts but it just didn't want to stretch out. The sonographer did have to press quite hard to try and get the nuchal measurement and I did feel bruised for a few hours afterwards. 

The scan dated the baby, flicking back and forth between 11 weeks and 6 days and 12 weeks exactly, giving our little one a due date of January 4th 2018. After weeks of using the dating apps that didn't give a definitive answer, it was so lovely to have a day to aim for.

While I was there they again confirmed that I should be a low risk pregnancy and birth and referred me to the local Midwife Led Unit for some of my appointments. 

I actually visited the MLU the Saturday after the scan (more on this later) and found out that my blood results were fine. The results for the anomoly tests came back after about a week and reported no risk so now it's another waiting game until the actual 20 week anomoly scan.