Nerve Endings Firing Away

The ultrasound technician flipped a switch and there he was, a hazy light brown hue, in 3D; moving around ever so gently. At first, he had his hands covering his eyes but a little nudging later, he moved them aside. The placenta made it a little blurry but there was no mistaking clear facial features and even signs of hair on his head. We held our hands and joked about whose facial features our son had inherited. We, or rather I, were hoping he get my wife’s nose (if you’ve met me, you would know why) and the nurse hesitatingly agreed that he may have; although quickly cautioning us that facial features have not yet full formed and may not even until couple of weeks after the baby is born. The ultrasound technician moved the sensor around for 10-15 minutes trying to capture every angle and profile of the baby. He seemed reluctant a little but soon relented to give us some great views of how he was faring inside.

No matter how many pictures you have seen of this amazing technology that is simply referred to as 3D Ultrasound, you cannot be prepared enough to see your kid in almost-lifelike colors. Weeks of seeing the dull black & white images of the ultrasound that the OB/GYN office lets you see, makes the 3D ultrasound a delightful treat. It is like going from the silent movies to the talkies. Mind blown. We had seen pictures of this seemingly new technology. We asked our doctor and she assured us that it was not harmful to the baby and we should do it if we wanted to. It wasn’t prohibitively expensive so we made an appointment with a lab in Houston and drove down one weekend when the baby was 30 weeks old (best times are between 28-32 weeks).

We received a series of photos on a CD including two 5 x 7 printed ones and video, set to music, of the entire session recorded on DVD. We uploaded the photos and video online and shared them with our families who were equally blown away by the images considering that in India, you aren’t allowed a ultrasound to prevent gender determination tests. For obvious reasons, I cannot share them here but the link to the pictures of generic ones above should give you a good idea. If you are pregnant or planning to be, you should definitely get a 3D ultrasound done even if its just for the coolness factor. This is something you cannot go back and do.

Now we wait for two more months to see how things finally turn out.