Meet Samuel Aaron, due August 30.
We saw him bouncin’ around Saturday for about 15 minutes on a big ol’ screen, courtesy of Before the Stork, a 3D/4D ultrasound center.
My baby daddy shed a tear or two. While I feel Sammy kick and punch and flip on a daily hourly basis, his dad only sometimes feels a weird bump or two. But to be able to see how our little one has mom’s pouty face and chubby cheeks, and dad’s nose and maybe even a matching widow’s peak — well that surely was enough to make Sam as real as real can be for dad.
The experience was rather astounding. We were given a DVD of the whole session (set to some corny Celine Dion lullabies), but the disc has caused me an embarrassing amount of frustration, trying to burn/convert/share the damn thing without having to physically transport it to everyone’s living room.
We also got a CD of about 20 pics, which I can definitely share with my parents, whose living room is four hours away. The two photos here are the most clear, mostly because the little guy is apparently very much in love with his own hands, and rarely moved them out from in front of his own face. The blurriness could also be caused by the extra padding on my own belly — the kind that isn’t baby. Hubster is sweet enough to deny this for me, but it actually does make a bit of a difference.
Before the Stork, I must say, was a bit hard to deal with at first, though. Getting someone to answer the phone was much more of an ordeal than it should be, and making an appointment was almost like pulling teeth. But there are surpisingly few 3D/4D ultrasound centers in Orange County — in fact, the only other one I found was Picture an Angel.
All in all, it was definitely a fun, once-in-a-lifetime experience, no matter how cliche that sounds. And I think the best part will be showing Sam his own images in a few years.
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I swear he is smiling in the top photo!!! Oh look he is happy to be your baby already! I am so happy for you both…..such an awsome time in your lives. Insane, crazy with back pain….but still killer awsome to be at the BEGINNING of something great. Something called Samuel!
I have no problem with the 3D/4D ultrasounds, we did one too. It was the moment my husband said to himself “that really is MY baby!” He was incredibly excited.
We went to Pacific Coast Ultrasound in Los Alamitos. The difference between PCU and Before the Stork or Fetal Foto etc, is that Pacific Coast Ultrasound is a full service radiological office and they do other ultrasound work as well. They don’t specialize in boutique ultrasounds. The staff are all licensed and certified and whatever other credentials needed to just do sonography and ultrasound. There’s an interesting article about boutique ultrasounds on the Merchant Blog, and then the Blog of Small Wonders Imaging LLC. I’d put a link here but it’s terribly long.
Anyway, for those looking for 3D/4D ultrasounds, be sure the center is fully licensed and that the technician is as well. In Orange County there are several, they just disguise themselves as regular old ultraound facilities.
Roxanne–
WOW! That must have been an amazing experience for you both. He’s lovely! I too see evidence of a widow’s peak…it will be so interesting to see if he has one at birth.
Martha,
Thanks for that info. I think 3D ultrasounds are so cool but I do worry about inflicting unnecessary procedures on the belly. Knowing that the staff is licensed and trained would make me feel better. Maybe I will take the plunge should I have another baby someday.
Amazing! He’s as cute as you!
Marcy — It does look like he’s smiling!! And in one of the other photos, he very much has a pouty face that resembles his momma’s.
Martha — great info! Before the Stork says on their web site that they are, in fact, registered technicians, but I’m sure there’s a huge difference between the “boutique” kind and the more certified centers.
Erika, Jenny — It really was amazing to see the little facial expressions and especially his cute little hands, despite the fact that he kept covering his face with them! He’s adorable already, and I cant’ stop looking at these pictures!
Aww, how sweet! We did a 3D ultrasound too & after our baby was born, I was shocked to see that he looked like he did in the pictures! I don’t know why - but I was. Two years later, his lips & cheeks look exactly the same
Aw yay! I can’t wait to see him for real. I can definitely see his dad’s nose and my pouty face, so it’ll be fun to see if it ends up that way once he’s born.
cuuute.
I too had a 3D ultrasound, about 4 1/2 yrs ago, when I was pregnant with my 4th and last child. We did ours at this small 2 room office by a ultrasound tech student, (found the add in some newspaper) so all we had to pay for was the DVD they gave us a the end. It was great to see how much our baby looked like daddy - and he still looks just like him!
Thanks to that ultrasound we found out our baby was a boy… I was 7 1/2 months pregnant and had been told by my hospital’s technician we were having a girl. I can remeber the student’s words “you know you’re having a boy, right?” My husband and I looked at each other shocked and said “no, we didn’t!” - so it was a bittersweet moment - but i’m glad we found out before buying everything pink!!
Ohh how cute! He is smiling at mommy!!! I need to figure out how to post pics up here… hehe..
My fiancé and me had one done at 3DBabyFace Sonography in Westwood and our junior just refused to cooperate. They insisted on scheduling another apt because they felt that they can do much better! All free of charge including validated parking. That’s on top of friendly and certified staff.