Yesterday we had our 32-week check up scan. It more than made up for the 20-week scan. From the moment we walked in I felt more confident, more comfortable. I knew everything was going along well and I was excited to see our baby. The day before I was pretty sure that the baby had dropped. At first I thought this too early but apparently it can happen anytime from 28-30 weeks. I felt a real change in my pelvic pressure and all baby’s movements feel much lower and deeper down. As a result I need to pee about every five minutes but on the up side the tiny feet have finally dislodged from under my rib. The scan can’t tell if bub is ‘engaged’ or not but yes he/she is definitely head down.

On the check-up side of things:  baby is spot on for all measurements – pretty much exactly on the normal line for everything. There is a good amount of fluid, the cord looks good, the placenta looks good and is attached high, it’s little lobe is still attached well and out of the way. So all in all – perfect in my book.

On the exciting side of things, we got really good views of our baby. It was magical to see tiny hands over their face, to see fingers curl and uncurl like a tiny wave. It is so easy to imagine all the movements bub is making all the time. We could see their chest move up and down practicing breathing and a little mouth opening and closing. It is all so real. It was funny to see the movements I have been feeling transferred on to the screen at the same time.

Bub again was a little stubborn and kept putting hands up or tilting away so the radiographer couldn’t get a great shot. I couldn’t help but think that bub didn’t like it too much and I should ask her to stop. We didn’t need a perfect picture, so long as everything was fine we should just leave him/her be. I was so engrossed in seeing the movements though that I didn’t ask her stop, after all it’s safe right?

Later on I got to thinking about whether or not we can tell personality traits this early. I have my suspicions. For starters, bub has pretty much always been in the same position. He/she doesn’t like moving when prodded or poked around by scanners. Stubborn maybe? Bub is also really active. I have nothing to compare it to but I’m sure this is an energetic baby. Sometimes I feel like the knees are going to push so hard they will just come out! I bet there will be no stopping him/her. Baby has a sleeping pattern like their Dad which is pretty much the opposite to me. I know often people say that the baby becomes active when you rest as you are not rocking it by walking etc. but it’s not just this. I am early to bed early to rise. But this little one is a night-owl. Eleven pm and its soccer time but come 5 am when I am lying awake in bed, thinking about life, and want to feel bub – not a movement – sound asleep like Dad.

Baby certainly has liked to make it’s prescence felt. I was showing really early, so there was no chance keeping the secret very long. Now days as I am slowly learning to navigate my extra belly around things I still forget and lean on benches or over cupboards. Does the quiet accommodating baby just move out of the way slightly? No way – I get huge big kicks against whatever the offending piece of furniture is!

Todd was really good at getting his hand in between baby’s feet and my ribs and push down for  minute to give me some relief – inevitably though baby would kick back against his hand! So adorable but I can’t help but think we are going to have a personality here!

As I said I’m not totally sure that we can forsee these things or whether we are just trying to imagine our baby. I did start to wonder about the whole nature/nuture thing and if we thought that this was what our baby was going to be like – would we somehow make it reality? I guess only time will tell and I won’t try to predict too much.

We’d decided that if everything was looking good this was the last scan and we would leave bub and Mother Nature to do their thing for the next few weeks. So next time we see bub they will be venturing out into the big world, and some of our questions will be answered. I can’t wait.