It was so exciting today when we went for our twelve week scan! I diligently drank the required litre of water first thing in the morning and then Tim and I sat patiently and waited in the maternity building for our scan. My eyes were wandering around the room, trying to compare tummy sizes, and quite relieved that there were women there for their 20 week scans who were definitely showing more than my 12 week belly! Waiting for the scan was the hardest part. I was desperate for the loo and kept looking across at the toilet where they had posted a prohibitive sign “DO NOT USE BEFORE YOUR SCAN”. That’s all well and good, but they were running about an hour behind schedule and my bladder was at bursting point! I think all the women were feeling the pressure. Every time someone in uniform came into the waiting room all eyes turned expectantly and gave the uniform their full attention.

One pregnant lady came back into the waiting room looking a bit dazed. She sat down. “I’m having twins!” she whispered. A midwife sat with her for a little while. “She’s had a little bit of a shock” she explained. Finally, it was our turn. We went into the room and the sonographer put the gel on my tummy. She started to do the scan and then told me that my bladder was too full. “Goodness, you must have good bladder control,” she said. “Can you go and half empty it?”. Hmm, not sure how much is half empty when it comes to one’s bladder. It’s a lot easier when you keep filling your glass up from a 1 litre jug of water – but there were no helpful markings on my bladder. I went to the loo and achieved what felt like semi-relief. When I returned, Tim was telling the sonographer how I was in the habit of nibbling Bitesize Shredded Wheat (without the milk) in bed. I’m not sure what else he’d told her about my pregnancy! I plonked myself back on the couch, half expecting to see little Shredded Wheat floating around inside my stomach – but instead we could see our little baby! “Just the one in there” said the sonographer (who had just diagnosed the twins). I kind of felt a sense of relief, mixed with concern that I’d been so hungry just because of one tiny little baby.

We could see the little heartbeat but our baby was very chilled out. “It’s asleep” said the sonographer, looking disappointed. “Let’s try and wake it up a bit!” she said as she bounced the thing up and down on my tummy. Thank goodness I’d just gone to the loo. Our little baby wasn’t so keen on moving about, so after a while they took pity on me. The tummy pummeling stopped and the scan was officially over. They said our baby was 11 weeks 6 days old which tied in well with what I thought (11 weeks 4 days). It was a wonderful feeling to have the pregnancy officially confirmed and to see our little alien-looking baby on the screen.