The next scan

The twenty week scan (done at week 22-and-a-bit) was not as exciting as I'd hoped. The baby is too big to see all at once, so the whole process is a bit of here’s a cross-section of the head, here's the heart… kidneys, leg, other leg, toes, arm, hand, fingers. And spine. Lots of time going up and down the spine. All very useful and quite telling for a medical technician. But for a parent it's not so much a baby as a guide to its organs, like an X-ray on an adult. I had to just visualise in my head what the baby as a whole looks like: in foetal position, hands in front of face, sitting on my wife's cervix.

They did tell us the sex, though. It was the same thing we were told last scan, but with more certainty. So even that didn't phase us much – which I think disappointed them. Lots of it's a… and pauses for dramatic effect from the technicians , with just a slightly interested Oh, that's nice from us.

Also they kept saying things like do you want to know the baby's gender. I kept have to stop myself from correcting them No, I want to know the sex. I'll let the baby choose their own gender when they're old enough.