18 Week Ultrasound

It’s Ultrasound day! We went to the hospital to have the 18 week ultrasound that’s part of our standard prenatal health checks.

Since I didn’t attend the nuchal screening ultrasound a few weeks back I had no real idea what to expect. Sure, I’ve seen ultrasound machines and the pictures they create, but I haven’t been part of an ultrasound procedure before. It’s not the sort of thing guys would normally have.

So I was a bit keyed-up to find out what we’d see and what sorts of things they would look for.

First off our ultrasound technician was a guy. Friendly and professional, but I was expecting the staff to be all women for some reason. Don’t know where that preconception came from but it was immediately dispelled.

Her Pregnancy got up on the bed and exposed her belly as instructed. Sheets were carefully arranged and tucked in to preserve her modesty then some pre-warmed gel was squirted rather unceremoniously across her belly. It reminded me of the way mayonnaise or mustard is squirted out of those squeeze bottles on a sandwich at the local sub shop.

I took a seat in a chair placed at the end of the bed, in front of a TV screen that was at the foot of the bed so we both could see the pictures. Before he started the technician asked if we wanted to know the gender – she immediately said yes, and I was surprised that the technician specifically asked me if I wanted to know also. Otherwise he was not allowed to tell us and would have blanked out the pictures before showing us as not to give any indications to us. I toyed briefly with saying “no” to irritate the Pregnant One but quickly realized this would be taking my life into my hands. I gave the affirmative.

The technician took the wand and spread the gel over her belly. Immediately outlines and shapes of parts baby Peach jumped around the screen – an arm, torso, head, foot – as the technician focused the ultrasound and tried to isolate the parts he needed to measure.

I can’t remember everything, but he measured the length of the feet, length of the upper arm, length of the femur, circumference of the torso and circumference of the head. He also examined the head – both sides of the brain were there, but as he said “I can’t guarantee it’s going to be smart!” The heart also was shown with the four chambers. A quick picture of the umbilical cord and placenta (I have no idea what was what on the screen) confirmed all was good there, and then I believe he took an additional picture of the genital area but as I have no clue what things look like on an ultrasound I’m not certain.

We paid to have three pictures printed – a profile of the face and head, the soles of the feet, and a three-quarters view of the face. Due to the narrow plane of focus of the ultrasound the baby’s face view was kind of frightening – like a Halloween mask. Neither Her Pregnancy nor I liked that picture much, but the feet and profile were nice.

All through the session the ultrasound technician kept up a steady stream of friendly banter and chatted with us about France, his girlfriend and various cities we both lived in. Ms. Preggy was enthralled by the pictures and afterwards told me she just wanted the guy to shut up so she could enjoy seeing her baby-to-be.

At the end we hadn’t gotten any confirmation of the baby’s gender so we asked – only to be told that he was not allowed to tell us himself! He had to pass the result to a physician who would then make the interpretation and tell us. Pregnant One was not amused and grumbled to me about this and his chattiness on the way home.

So Peach, we know what you look like and we know you’re fine. We just don’t know what sex you are yet! Not that it matters really. We’re just happy to know that you’re healthy and are developing normally.