In particular in the States, but now also more and more in Europe, a new generation of u/s has made its appearance: 3-/ and 4-d ultra scan. With this new technology it is possible to gain a more plastic picture of the growing baby, which not only has a high medical value - but it also gives the parents-to-be (and all their friends and families!) and the child itself (later, of course!) a wonderful memory of beginning of life.
Only few doctors offer this still new (and expensive!) technology in Europe. I managed to track one down in Zurich, who not only offers it, the equipment used is the best on the market and he himself (Dr. Villars, ZH) is highly skilled. I decided to go for it at 28w0d. It was amazing! First he explained that the quality of the pictures naturally depended on how the baby's positioned. And sure enough, a first look confirmed a major problem: the cord made a nice wall in front of our baby's face...!! What a bummer! Fortunately the very patient doc didn't give up that easily and ended up with some amazing pictures of the face. I had a few other things clarified on the occasion too. The gender was confirmed (now that the cord was in front of the face and not between the legs...!), the expected date of delivery was confirmed through measurement of the brain (right on target), and baby's position was explained... breech with stretched up legs (how uncomfortable can it be??). That explains the movements and hard parts behind my belly button - that's where its head and legs/feet and hands are at the moment. Hopefully it will turn in the next few weeks. Fluppi kindly suggested doing hand-stands...!
Below you'll see two examples of the 3-d pictures as well as a nice 2-d shot (like the others in the gallery). The b/w picture to the left is a static 3-d, whereas the sepia-colored one to the right is a 'frozen' print screen of a 4-d video-clip (on which the baby doesn't move, it's just one shot that moves so you see it from different angles). On all pictures you can see the legs stretched out in front of the baby's face. We have great 'gender-determination' shots too, but you'll have to wait till November to get to see those!
