Seeing baby for first time

Today I had my first pregnancy scan. I finally got to see my baby for the first time.

My friend was able to come with me, and I was glad. I am not sure I would have contained my emotions otherwise!

I have a cold and keep coughing and sneezing. This in itself is no major problem, but I needed to drink a litre of water and keep it there for at least an hour before my scan! I kept imagining all sorts of comedy errors. F (my great friend) also did her best to create one by making me laugh. 

I was really nervous, although excited to see the baby for the first time. We got into the suite and the sonographer quickly got down to business. No sooner than I had lied back, she pointed to the screen and said 'there's the baby's heartbeat'. 

She told me that she needed to get some measurements then would show me. I was having a combined screening test, which is the usual dating scan plus measuring the nuchal fold for Downs syndrome and other problems. She was quiet for some time, then asked me to cough in the hope of the baby moving, because she could not get the nuchal fold measurement. 

Unfortunately, she could not get it. She asked me to go to the toilet and remove some of the fluid, but not all. Again she went back to trying. It was very painful, due to my weight, she had to push hard to get measurement. Still baby was playing shy or just awkward. 

She asked me to wait outside whilst she saw the next patient. Outside I started to panic something was wrong. If F wasn't there I would probably have run!  

I went back in and after some more digging around, the sonographer finally got it.

And then she turned the screen to me and my friend. She pointed out the arms, legs, etc. To be honest, I was not really listening, I was feeling quite tender and painful. She told us everything is normal and matched my dates exactly. 

I had some bloods taken, saw another doctor, and made more appointments. It has been quite a challenging, long day!

But here s/he is...