Thoughts from the 16 week ultrasound scan
Oh my did the radiographer just say what I thought she said? She's going to check for the heartbeat first before turning on the scan screen. Well, of course, there's going to be a heartbeat. Right? Right? What if there isn't? Oh, but there will be! But...what if there isn't? Why isn't she turning on the screen yet? Why is this taking so long? Turn on the screen, woman! Turn on the screen turn on the screen turn on the screen Oh my God if you don't turn on the screen right now I'm just going to die right here right now so turn on the screen turn on the...
Oh!
Okay, there is a heartbeat. This means it's alive! Oh my word, I hope there's nothing wrong with it, there could be just so many things that go wrong during the developmental stages and didn't I just go on holiday 8 weeks ago oh shoot oh shoot all the radiation from the flight and I ate multivitamins as well with vitamin A in it before that and I only just started taking folic acid. I don't drink enough milk, though. All those horrible pictures of malformed foetuses in jars in my embrology textbook why did I eat that pate on holiday and play with those stray kittens I'm such a bad bad bad person...
Oh!
The baby has a head and four limbs. And fingers. Five. Toes too. Two. I mean, five. The bones look all in the right place and so is the spine (bifida? bifida?) which is plumb normal thank God thank God for spinach. It's got skin and the skin goes...all around the whole body oh good the stomach and intestines are on the inside of the baby the heart has four chambers and it's beating and the blood is going the correct direction there's a brain on the inside of the skull and and oh the baby looks so perfect look it's waving at me and kicking and I can't believe how big it is at 16 weeks and and...
I'm a mother.
Oh!
Okay, there is a heartbeat. This means it's alive! Oh my word, I hope there's nothing wrong with it, there could be just so many things that go wrong during the developmental stages and didn't I just go on holiday 8 weeks ago oh shoot oh shoot all the radiation from the flight and I ate multivitamins as well with vitamin A in it before that and I only just started taking folic acid. I don't drink enough milk, though. All those horrible pictures of malformed foetuses in jars in my embrology textbook why did I eat that pate on holiday and play with those stray kittens I'm such a bad bad bad person...
Oh!
The baby has a head and four limbs. And fingers. Five. Toes too. Two. I mean, five. The bones look all in the right place and so is the spine (bifida? bifida?) which is plumb normal thank God thank God for spinach. It's got skin and the skin goes...all around the whole body oh good the stomach and intestines are on the inside of the baby the heart has four chambers and it's beating and the blood is going the correct direction there's a brain on the inside of the skull and and oh the baby looks so perfect look it's waving at me and kicking and I can't believe how big it is at 16 weeks and and...
I'm a mother.
posted by tscd at 9:41 am
6 Comments:
Reminds me of the time I waited excitedly for my mom to bring home ultrasound pics of my new little sister. "We can see her head, and her toes!" she told me.
When she got back and I snatched the pictures from her, I stared for a good five minutes before I petulantly said, "This. Is a Black and White BLOB."
:D
Congratulations on your beautiful black and white ultrasound blob (although evidently you're able to make much more sense out of the pictures than I was). Your baby is going to be just wonderful :)
nice narrative.suddenly feel doctors can be panicky and anxious like patients too..wishing you joy in the cming weeks.
Been following yr blog, love your writing, and hope at some point to actually meet you... Congratulations to you & hubby on a bouncing beautiful baby! :)
On account of having no Internet connection at the mo, Shyamala asks me to post a congratulations message to you on her behalf :)
JoBeth: Well you know, I did take a course called "How to be a doctor in 5 Easy Steps". ;) But seriously, I'm pretty good at reading ultrasound scans. I think it's because I have quite a good spatial imagination which helps me to interpret visual images.
Anonymous #1: I think perhaps doctors know a little bit too much sometimes! We make awful patients.
Anonymous #2: I think I'd be quite intimidated if one of my patients happened to be my blog reader!
hi, Shyamala here (a.k.a. anonymous #2, haha). Fear not, i'm not a patient of yours. I am a pharmacist tho... and a friend of Jobeth's, who introduced me to your blog a while back :)
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