2.0's 3D Ultrasound

Today I am officially 31 weeks pregnant and we had our 3D ultrasound for 2.0 this afternoon! When I was 30 weeks pregnant with Dagny I had my first 3D ultrasound ever. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s because it’s a fairly recent development to be able to have this elective procedure. Basically you pay out-of-pocket so you can get a sneak peek of your baby in the womb. There is no medical reason for having one, it’s purely for entertainment and some controversy exists as to whether this is a good idea. To read more about the technology I suggest checking out the Wikipedia article. I believe the technology was developed for diagnosing and monitoring fetal anomalies, but someone got the genius idea to set up an office where people can get them done on a whim for a fee. It costs in the $150-$200 range for a session that lasts around 20-30 minutes. You also get several printed images from the session, a CD of still images and a DVD recording of the whole thing, including some video of the baby moving in 3D.

As soon as we found out that its fairly reasonably priced and used the same technology as 2D ultrasounds, there was no way we were going to pass up the opportunity during our first pregnancy. The idea of seeing the baby’s face while it’s still in the womb is mindblowing to me! Both times that I’ve had this experience it has totally blown me away. Once the decision was made to see Dagny in utero, it pretty much locked us into having one for every pregnancy if we wanted to be “fair.” So we scheduled one up for 2.0 several months ago and I’ve been impatiently waiting ever since!

Now, the Pittsburgh area only has 2 outpatient centers that do 3D ultrasound as far as I could tell. One of them ONLY does medically necessary 3D ultrasounds and the other is of the entertainment variety. They are called Insight Imaging, Inc., they are located in Monroeville, and that is where we went today. They were fantastic! I have to say that this time around I enjoyed the experience a lot more than the first time.

The first time around we were living in Denver and we went to the Westminster office of FirstView Ultrasound. Granted, we paid a little less that time. But this time we also got the live online video feed, which was an extra $25 charge. Anyway, at FirstView there was one guy and he checked us in and he was also the ultrasound tech. The office was super small, like shoebox small. It was evening after a long day at work for us and we just didn’t click with him the way we did with our guy today. The first guy was definitely friendly and we definitely got our money’s worth, but for some reason this time was just more pleasant.

This time we were greeted by a friendly receptionist and there was a whole different person who was the ultrasound tech. He was great! He was very friendly and answered all of our questions. He was great at narrating what we were looking at and the amount of time we spent looking at the baby seemed like forever! I remember thinking the first time around with Dagny that it was over so soon, but this time I kept wondering when we would be done. We got so many great shots of 2.0 and were able to get lots of very clear images of his face. I think you’ll agree from the images below that 2.0′s images are much clearer than Dagny’s. I’m sure there are a gazillion factors that play into that, but it was just one more thing that I noticed was better this time around.

We also got a very clear image of his…equipment. He is unequivocally a male of the species. So we’re on the right track with our name list which is good. No, I am not going to share that one with anyone until Prom 2029. Or maybe I’ll save it for his wedding slide show. I can’t decide.

One thing that was very striking to me is that although 2.0 was moving around like Mexican jumping bean, and my stomach was even looking like he was trying to break out of there through my belly button…the video really didn’t capture the craziness that I was feeling. He was rolling around a little bit, but to me it felt like he was doing some insane break dance moves in there. Don’t know what break dancing is? Where have you been?! Check out this adorable kid on Ellen.

But back to the ultrasound! Here are the much-anticipated pictures. First I’m including some from Dagny’s 3D Ultrasound for comparison. I think they look similar in some of them.

Pictures from Dagny’s 3D Ultrasound:

First, here is Dagny in the womb at 30 weeks. She still looks like this when she’s sleeping.

This picture of Dagny was taken when she was 1 month old and I think its the best shot showing how accurate the 3D ultrasound images were.

Thanks to this image of Dagny in the womb, we called her “clown mouth” for several weeks.

Here’s a great shot from Dagny’s 3D ultrasound that compares really well with the images from 2.0′s ultrasound today.

Pictures from 2.0′s 3D Ultrasound:

I think he looks a lot like Dagny in this one.

He is going to be such a cute little baby! I’m in love with him already!

About these ads