Today Mrs Nobody and I went to get another scan of our work in progress.
Unlike previous scans which were free and routine NHS proceedures to check for problems and to gauge the growth of the baby, the one we had today was by our choice and cost over £100. (Mother-in-law paid for it, her ‘baby shower’ gift to us.)
What made this scan even more different to the NHS ones we had before was the technology used. Rather than the flat monochrome ‘slice’ through the baby’s body showing internal organs and an x-ray-like vaugeness of image, today’s scan showed a fully formed real-time three dimentional image of our wriggling baby in his bag of juice with his lifeline attached to his placenta.
The images aren’t perfect because there isn’t a lot of room in there and there’re plenty of things to get in the way of the imaging ‘lens’- the placenta, the cord, baby’s own hands and feet, Mum’s organs and so on. But with a little perseverance and an ice cream for Mrs Nobody to get him wriggling we got some lovely shots of his face, hands, feet and yes, confirmation that we have a son on the way!
We also got a DVD of the whole session. About 20 minutes of our son punching and wriggling, smiling, hiccuping and pulling at his umbilical cord. Bloody marvellous.