4D Growth & Bonding Baby Scan

So at 32 weeks (I'm now 34wks) we went for a private 'bonding' scan to see what all the fuss was about with 3D pictures. For some bizarre reason (that we never did find out) they call it a 4D scan. Weird. Anyway, its just like a normal scan but the machine has the function to be able to select an area and show it as 3D at 90 degrees (so the normal looking scan is profile where the same area of the baby is from the front in 3D). Below are a couple of the photos that I liked. Of course the baby was moving around constantly and not being very helpful. Little hands and feet in front of her face. We did get to learn that she's going to be bigger than we'd hoped (Asian babies are often around 6lbs but she's already albs and a bit so looking likely she'll be around the 8lb mark when she comes out - eek). As you see from the top of the scan they managed to spell my name wrong - doh!

The black bits are where the sphere of view of the scanner are making shadows so not thick black hair or anything. And the fuzzy shape obscuring her face a little on the left of the picture is the placenta.

Originally we went for the Babybond 4D Growth Scan (basically the cheapest level) but the next level up had a dvd included so we upgraded to...

Babybond 4D Bonding Scan Option II 

Primary purpose of the scan: 

Babybond well–being check of fetal heartbeat and movement, bonding, reassurance and fetal growth report, ideally between 24 – 32 weeks gestation (20 – 26 weeks for multiple pregnancy). Includes: 

• 30 minute extended diagnostic appointment
• Babybond well-being checklist
• Growth report with fetal weight estimation
• Complimentary sexing of your baby if requested
• 2D and 3D b/w prints taken throughout your scan in sleeve
• 1 x colour gloss 3D scan print
• DVD recording of scan in sleeve with your choice of white, blue or pink Babybond bag, to take home.

The dvd was around 9mins long, basically a film of the screen we were looking at when we were there. I re-edited it (took off the music for a start) so now its down to just under 3mins. I might stick it up on vimeo when I figure out why my final cut pro isn't exporting.

The one colour print seemed a bit dark to me. The black and white little ones seemed brighter. We also forked out for a USB stick with the photos (about 17 or so which was nice), they were remarkably small (only 800px wide, as you see above). It was not possible to have the DVD on a USB stick because their sticks weren't big enough. Luckily we still have a dvd drive in an old laptop we were able to convert it ourselves.

One of the best things about it was that we could arrange it for close by to where I work in London and I didn't have to have yet another day working from home. All in all I thought it was expensive (well, the extras were expensive for what they were) but worth it to have the record of the little one waving around.