For those who want an honest and realistic picture of pregnancy, birth and raising three kids, then take a look at my #pregnancydiary and feel free get in touch with any comments, questions or suggestions.
- My baby at 20 weeks
What you having?
As soon as people started noticing I was pregnant the first thing they said, after congratulating me, was “do you know what you’re having?”. Obviously they were referring the gender of the baby and my instinct was to respond like this: “I just found I was pregnant the other day, and who cares whether it’s a boy or a girl? Isn’t it enough that I’m just having a baby FFS!”
That’s a tad impolite so I controlled my raging pregnancy hormones, smiled politely and shook my head. I guess they were just trying to show an interest in my life, or be damn nosy, depending how you look at it.
Finding out
The question that followed was “are you going to find out?”. The closer it got to my 20 week scan the more people would go on about “finding out” the sex of the baby. These people ranged from family members to mums in the playground. It was as if the whole purpose of the scan was to find out the gender of the baby. It’s called an “anomaly scan” for a reason. To find out if the baby is developing properly.
With my previous pregnancies my husband and I never asked about the sex of the baby. We wanted it to be a surprise and our main concern was whether everything was ok with the baby.
This time we weren’t agreeing on any baby names so thought why not find out this time. It will be our third and final baby so why not do things a little differently this time? Just for the novelty factor.
More like a human
We ended up taking two very excited little girls along to the scan. This was partly because we wanted the kids to be a part of the whole experience and have a better understanding of what was happening in Mummy’s tummy, and partly because it was during half term and we never got round to organising childcare!
I was a bit worried that they would get a bit boisterous in the scan room but they behaved well and the Sonographer was a lovely lady who explained everything to them. It was amazing to see how much the baby had developed since the 12 week scan. It looked more like a human than an alien now. The Sonographer asked us at the beginning of the scan whether we wanted to find out at the end if the baby was a boy or a girl. My husband and kids answered “yes” for me!
It's a...
The scan was around twenty minutes long and I got so absorbed in looking at how all the baby’s organs were developing that I forgot that we even wanted to know the sex of the baby until the Sonographer asked the girls if they wanted a brother or sister. They both said brother while my husband replied “I know it’s a girl” and I wasn’t sure. It turns out hubby was right! Another little miss is on the way. Girl power!
How’s baby?
Baby is now around 26 cm long from crown to heel. A whitish coat of a slick, fatty substance called vernix caseosa begins to cover baby, protecting her skin whilst in the amniotic fluid. There’s still plenty of room in the womb so she’s still able to jump around freely in there for now.
