We See You!
Today we got another peek at Peach – at a local 3D ultrasound clinic. For the equivalent of about 100 cups of coffee (plain coffee here, not a latte but your choice of size and shop) we spent 30 minutes with an ultrasound sonographer watching our baby-to-be inside Becoming-a-Mom’s belly. We opted for the additional DVD and CD package that gave us copies of the whole 3D ultrasound captured as a movie and about 55 snaps of individual frames.
It was a nice experience. The clinic was a combined spa and 3D ultrasound clinic, so the decor was very relaxing and tastefully geared towards expectant Moms. She got up on the table and received a warm dollop of the ultrasound conduction gel and then the sonographer started up the system.
There was a nice big HD TV stuck on the wall on which we watched the whole process. First thing was locating the baby’s heart using regular 2D imaging and recording the sound of the heartbeat for several seconds. Then Peach’s head was located so we could see its face – but Peach was bent double with its feet right up in front of its face. And then its hands too were at either side of its head as though shielding from being seen!
The first few 3D images were confused and I couldn’t make out what was what. The feet and hands prevented the ultrasound from building a proper 3D image so it looked quite eerie. Then finally with a bit of prodding and Mom rolling over on to her side, Peach finally moved hands and feet away a bit so we could see the face.
Peach was very definitely recognizable as a tiny human with fully-formed facial and body features – eyes, nose, mouth, ears and chin along with arms, hands and feet. Depending on the view Peach has big cheeks! Its eyes were closed most of the time and it was obviously asleep, not moving much at all despite Mom moving her belly and trying to prod Peach into a bit of activity. No luck there.
Time passed very quickly but we were able to get some better shots of Peach resting with its head on one of its arms. A couple of times Peach opened one eye and appeared to be staring directly at us – spooky! Mom was able to get confirmation that the umbilical cord was not wrapped around Peach’s neck and that Peach did not have a cleft palate. I’m not sure why but she was very concerned about both the umbilical cord being around the baby’s neck and the possibility that Peach might have a cleft palate. But baby is fine.
Then it was over. Mom-to-Be got cleaned up and then we took our DVD movie and CD of images home.
Oh yeah – remember the number 13? It’s popped up again without any effort on our part – the day we see Peach in 3D is December 13.
Say Hi Peach!
3D Ultrasound Image of Baby Peach
