The First Scan

I had my first scan when i was 11 weeks and 4 days. We had booked it for 09:50 in the morning. Great, I thought, plenty of time to get xavi’s son, Yain, off to school and then to get us on the metro and to the doctors. I forgot that if I am left in charge of any time planning, we are going to be late. It is best to leave it to Xavi, because that way we will get there early (sometime stupidly early, but better than ridiculously late!).

We were in the metro and we were stuck. The ticket man got on and I looked at his watch to notice that we had 10 minutes to get to the clinic. 10 minutes and we were stuck in a metro station, doors locked, train stationary. CRAP! I really could not imagine anything worse than being late to meet the baby that you are growing in your tummy! That would be the ultimate! We managed to get the doors open and ran up the stairs and out of the metro. Thank god we had to stop to flag down a taxi as the short run out the metro had left me with an almost asthma attack. I cannot believe how being pregnant knocks the wind out of you and tires you out so quickly!
We jumped in a taxi and noticed that the metro man’s watch had been quick, but I was still panicking. Thankfully Xavi took control and phoned the clinic, putting on his most charming catalan voice to let them know we would be late: thank god for him, if I had to attempt to speak spanish now, it would come out like soup!

Eventually we got there and rushed in, got pointed in the right direction, filled out all the paperwork and handed it in at the appropriate desk. Now I had heard that with the first scan, you had to have a full bladder. But none of the doctors had told me that, and as I needed the toilet, thought I should ask before ‘emptying out’. She said I did not need a full bladder . . . that could only mean one thing – this was going to be done internally! We sat down and I noticed about 3 or 4 other women waiting. ‘Well there must be more than one doctor’ I thought whilst I was checking out the other women to see if I could see how pregnant they were. Did they look good, or as worn out as I felt. Any other symptoms? Ah, a couple with a tissue there, perhaps we were all having nose problems. I noticed them doing the same thing of checking me out.

It quickly dawned on me that there appeared to be only one doctor. Our appointment was already 10 minutes ago, and nothing. Good god, were they serious! Was it really a good idea to keep nervous, hormonal first time mothers waiting for their first scan, their first chance to see their baby? Brave or stupid? I read the rubbish magazine I had picked up whilst running out the house. I started to tap my fingers, then my feet, then both. Xavi looked at me and took my hand (to be affectionate or to stop me from my tapping?) and told me to relax. The hunger set in and I managed to find a manky old babybel cheese in my bag . . . it would have to do! My appointment was now 35 minutes ago. A new women sat next to me with her partner. I don’t think I have ever seen a man look quite so scared in my entire life. Shame! She started talking and as she was american, I eavesdropped on her conversation. A short while later I wish she was speaking another language so I didn’t understand. She was going on and on to this poor scared man about everything from how she wanted to give birth, to names, to what kind of mother she wanted to be. I don’t think this guy managed to say more than ‘uh huh’, ‘yeah’ and ‘ok’.
The women who was waiting before us had just gone in to see the doctor. Wierd thing though, she went in with her partner and I guess her mother and father (or his?). Now call me old-fashioned, but would you really want your mother, let alone your father in the same room as you while you are having an internal scan?? Me and Xavi looked at each other in confusion.

The family emerged making comments about how they were not happy with the doctor and how she was not very friendly. Again, not sure how friendly I want the doctor to be whilst doing an internal scan? An hour after my schedule appointment, my name was called. Xavi whispered ‘hope we don’t get the same doctor then!’ We went through to the exam room (only one doctor, must have been the same) and I was very formally told to take of my jeans and my pants. I chose to remove my socks as well as there was no way I could gracefully walk across a room, past my smirking boyfriend, naked from the waist down with my socks on. I have a thing about leaving on my socks, it just looks dumb!

Up on to the table and it began. I wont go into detail describing this part because all you ladies know how it goes, and then men down really need to know the details! I looked up to the screen and hoped that I would be able to make out the baby and not just see a lump like all the scan photos I had ever seen before. I saw something move on the screen, and then I saw a head attached to a tiny body moving around. Oh my god! That was my baby. That baby was inside of me. I was really pregnant, there was a baby inside of me, and it was moving around having a whale of a time in my uterus! I got a lump in my throat which was very unexpected. I looked over at xavi and his eyes were shining. The doctor was a woman of few words, and she started to take measurements and screen shots whilst we watched our baby moving around, arms shooting out, moving around, in and out of focus, in total amazement. I then heard a ‘doosh doosh doosh’ noise. I asked the doctor if it was the heart, she smiled and said yes. Wow, the little dancing bean inside of me had its own heart and it was beating pretty rapidly! Again, total amazement and absolute relief when after xavi asked if everything seemed to be alright, she answered that everything was perfect. The emotions that I felt I did not expect to feel, as I had not felt that incredible strong rush of emotions up until this point. Perhaps because now I could see it was real! I had a little person setting up home inside of me!

The doctor gave us about 10 photos, and xavi is convinced that we got more photos than the other couples. And all the photos were for us! We expected that we would have to give them to the hospital, so like dumb and dumber we asked ‘all for us?’ We slowly walked out the clinic and past the glass doors that were the entrance of the clinic, and in the minute that we were out of sight I turned to xavi, jumped into his arms and he twirled me around while we laughed like school children. We were really going to have a baby together!

I got home and scanned the pictures into the computers. I printed one out, cut it down to size and placed it in my wallet. It might not be your conventional photo to carry around in your wallet, but hey, that is my baby and it makes my heart feel warm and my lips curl into a smile every time I look at it and i know that my little bump is safe and warm inside of me doing little flips, somersaults and cartwheels preparing to make the entrance into our lives . . .