It's alive !!!

The very first ultrasound scan had to be repeated, as not all of the internal organs were visible due to the positioning of the baby. Alarm bells should have gone off then, but they didn't.

On Tuesday, 12th January, I went to the "next stage", as far as empathising with my unborn child goes - I felt him/her "kick"!

For Michele, they were strange fluttering sensations in the stomach but, for me, they were full on movements. Placing my hand hard on Michele's stomach, I felt something move, and it was incredible. One of the first thoughts I had, and one that would recur throughout the pregnancy, was of the film "Alien". John Hurt has an alien embryo implanted in him and, during a memorable sequence, the embryo bursts forth out of his chest, spraying the rest of the crew with blood and entrails. Did Michele have one of those too?

Time passed and I had a glimpse of my child's stubborn side. Whenever it moved, Michele would say "Mark, Mark, it's moving! Come and have a feel!" but by the time I got there and had a feel, the little beggar was motionless. And this happened again and again. One of Michele's favourite tricks was to lie down then put her lavender-infused teddy bear (called "Smelly Teddy") on her stomach. When the baby moved, the teddy moved too. Hours of endless fun, eh?

One day, the movements stopped. Michele had got so used to routinely feeling these "flutterings" that their absence was as conspicuous as their first appearance had been. Fearing the worst, but trying to keep a level head, we phoned the ante-natal ward. They said we should come up straight away.

The hospital we work at is in handy walking distance from where we live, so we walked in. As we did, we calmly discussed the "what if"s and "maybe"s of the situation. What if there was something wrong with our child? What if our baby had died?

The staff on Level 11 (the ante natal ward) tried to monitor the heartbeat, but couldn't find it on the portable machine. A Registrar performed an ultrasound scan and, to our immense relief, located the heart - all four chambers were pumping away as they should. Somehow, our baby had moved in the womb so that it's spine faced outwards. Any kicks it made would be towards the center of Michele's body, and therefore we wouldn't feel them. We were reassured that everything was fine, and that we did the right thing by coming in.

Remember those alarm bells I mentioned earlier? If I had remembered that baby was in a funny position for that first ultrasound scan, I could have made the same assumption now.

Even so, it's always better to be safe than to be sorry...