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Did you take your older child/children to your ultrasounds? We are thinking of taking DD to the Morphology Scan next Friday as DH will be there and most of my appointments I go by myself so don't take DD as it is too tricky.
She is pretty good sitting in the pram and I think it would give her a good chance to see the baby.
How did they cope or did they kind of understand?
DS1 came to all my appts with me and scans. DH only came to my 2 scans and I think 1 OB appt.
DS1 got a bit wriggly but they were pretty quick doing scan so wasn't bad and in waiting room at scan and OB there was toys.
DSD came to my morphology scan, she's 5 so wasnt too hard to get her to sit and watch, she loved it :D
We have had to take one or the other each time as they are never in daycare together. Dd1 got bored but was happy when she had a firemans hat. Dd2 was fine in her stroller with milk. Neither really understood what was happening. The sonographer was fine about them being there too.
My 20 week will be during school holidays and I am thinking of taking my DS4 and DD7 (all my usual babysitters will be away!!). My only fear is how we will deal with it if something abnormal is picked up on the US. I think back to the 20 week US with DS (we were told he was 'non-viable') and I don't know what I would have done if DD had been with us. On the other hand, I think it would be really special for them to see their baby brother or sister while still in mummy's tummy! Your DD is younger than my two... I'm not sure if that makes it easier or more complicated!
I'll be interested to hear what other people think.
We always take our 2 kids (DD 3 years and DS 17 months) as we never have a babysitter. They are bit little to understand but I love having them there with us!
All the best!!!
We took DS with us - age 3. He and DH stayed outside during the medical bit (measurements etc) and then came inside in time for the 3-d and to see the baby.
I've always had DH & the older kids with me for the morph scan, but this time DH had just started a new job & there was noone to have DS, so he had to come with me alone.
I was worried about what would happen as the morph scan takes around an hour sometimes, but I got lucky! He fell asleep in the car on the way over & stayed asleep while I got him out of the car & I laid him up on the other bed in the room & he slept all the way through.
I would've liked him to see it, but he can be a handful, so I'm glad he slept. I showed him the DVD pics when we got home though :)
Thanks for sharing I would like her to be "involved" as such :)
Mine will probably go longer then normal as well as they have to do uterine dopplers and a cervical length (internal), requiring changing into a gown, going to the bathroom etc , but I think they only usually only take another 5 min each or so and DH can always take her out when we get to that point anyway...
If your DH is there you'll be fine :) On your own is a bit harder.
I don't take DS to my ob appointments as I often have to wait for some time and at 2.5 he wants to playing constantly and my blood pressure would rise trying to appease him lol. but for the scans DH comes and I like to include DS in this as well. At the 20wk scan he called his brother a monkey lol had us all laughing and the one most recent (due to possible placenta previa and high risk pregnancy - high blood pressure at 38wks with DS) his brother was a koala lol.
I take my DD's to all of my appointments. I have no other choice. My ultrasounds go for a long time (usually 2 hours) as I know the sonographers (and my mum is the manager there), so they spend extra time on me. DD's are usually pretty good with all appointments. DD1 is particularly interested as she has some kind of understanding on what's happening in mummy's belly. DD2 really couldn't care lol
I took DD and DS this time, they were fine for a while and then got bored, but by then we had all had a look so DH took them out into the waiting room to wait for me. DS was not really interested, he spent most of the time trying to switch off the computers.
Ds comes to all of my appts with me as it's hard to find a babysitter in the middle of the day. When I went to my U/s I asked if it was OK to bring him and they said not to unless someone else came to watch him. That was fine when DH could make it but for one of my scans DH was out of town and the one person I thought could maybe babysit was sick. So I brought him anyways and sat him in a chair with some snacks and he was really well behaved. He enjoyed seeing the baby too and probably helped him understand a little more too.
we took Miss B to the NT scan and she was only 18mths - and as soon as she saw bub on the big screen she jumped right off DH's lap and ran to the screen saying "Spud" and "Baby" she was soooo excited and it was so cute - we are taking her again to the Morph scan, she is pretty excited about new bub! not sure how much she understands exactly but she keeps saying baby in mums tummy and lifts my shirt up and gives spud a kiss everymorning!
My DD was a bit older but she came to all mine.
I didn't think she took much in.
When I was 34 weeks with DS I had to have a growth scan, and DH was working so had to take DD on my own. She was happy with a packet of biccies and a drink, chatting to the lady. I didn't think she listened much or took anything in as the lady really didn't direct any info actually to her, but I found out that we were having a boy that day.
We had discussed and decided on two names (boy and girl) when we thought we were going to deliver at 24 weeks - so 10 weeks prior to that but hadn't discussed it since, and later after the scan I asked her if she knew what we were having. She answered yes she was getting a brother and his name was going to be Nate......I nearly fell over.
I had no choice because DH didn't come to mine and I had no baby-sitting options.
TBH if I had a choice - no. If there was something wrong I would want time to digest that before I had to explain it
Took ours to the 12 week one (at around 2yo), she practically screamed the house down. We got a close park to the hospital, made the mistake of taking her in her stroller, and we're just not allowed to take her for such a short walk in the stroller apparently. The ultrasound person was NOT happy.
So we didn't take her to the 20 week one.
I also don't take her to my regular checkups, we do sometimes take her to the doc when we both need to go for something, but she really hates the doors in there being closed on her so you have to wait 5 minutes for her to stop screaming and (literally) hanging off the doorhandles before you can speak. She's getting better now she's older - we had a reputation at the hairdresser too, it took 2 of us holding the screaming toddler down to get her hair cut, and she needs her hair cut quite often. Now she just happily sits there and everyone comments on the cute ball of golden fluff.
Needless to say, there's a darn good reason I don't want her at the birth - I want the doors SHUT and she really has an objection to strange places with closed doors.
We took our just over 2 year old son to the 12 week scan and he was awesome. He sat with my H and got a little restless at one point but my H gave him an apple (our failsafe quiet tool) and he ate that while watching the screen the whole time- it was gorgeous.
We'll be taking him to the 20 week scan too and hopefully he'll be able to actually notice the recognise the baby this time but I guess we'll see. It's a longer scan so my H and I have agreed he'll take him out for a bit if it gets too much for him to be quiet.