Week 12

This week I had my first scan! My midwife had put my dates down wrong on my paperwork, so an appointment came through for April, by which time I would be 18 weeks pregnant, so I phoned the Ultrasound department and got an appointment for the following morning at 8am!

Scott and I arrived at the Princess Anne Hospital nice and early (me with a full bladder as per the rules - it pushes the uterus up so you get a clearer scan - and found the department easily. The sonographer showed us straight in and immediately put hot conducting gel on my tummy, and there it was - our baby, for real, with two legs, two arms and a head - yes, a head! I have to admit to shedding a tear or two - it's truly amazing to see that little life so perfectly formed already. The baby was asleep, so the sonographer 'woke' it up with a gentle prod. Seeing the tiny arms and legs bobbling about was awesome. I don't think I really believed I was pregnant until that moment. Scott held my hand throughout, transfixed by the images onscreen.

Chimmy Chalmers (no proper name yet) measured 58mm from top of head to bottom, and had a 5cm waistline and 7cm head diameter - what a bighead! The heartrate was about double mine, at 164 bpm. I've got five little photos of the little baby. Chimmy seems to have his/her hands up by the face, which is cool, because I reckon Chimmy's a little rocker throwing some devil horn shapes. Oh, and apparently at this stage the baby has sensation in the palms of its hands, so it can feel its face now. My new projected due date is 16th September, just a week after my birthday (and 8 days after Scott's). Apparently out of 6000 births in Southampton last year, only 30 were on the due date, though, so we could be looking at any time in September really. 09/09/09 has a nice ring to it!

I've been feeling really good this week, and have been on jury service (although it's all a sham really - I've not sat on a single trial yet - here's hoping something comes up next week!). I did have a bit of an emo day yesterday, with the whole "I want to go out, I don't want to go out, Why are you making me go out? Shall we go out?" thing going on. Scott must have the patience of a saint!

Shopping-wise, I bought my first baby related item - a Baba Sling. It was reduced in TKMaxx, so I figured, why not? I also bought a black and white spotty maternity dress (again reduced) from Mothercare. Oh, and I bought teething rails for a cot, as our friends have offered us their son's old cot. I love hand-me-downs and bargains!

I think that'll do for this week. Next week should be fairly quiet, so we'll see what happens...