Are you bringing your other children to the ultrasound?

[bluedaisy]

Assuming you're having an anatomy scan around 20 weeks, are you bringing your other children?  DD will be 2 1/2 and I think she would be interested in seeing the baby and being there when they tell us if it's a boy or a girl.

On the other hand, I'm concerned she might be a little scared of the big u/s machine or might be confused by the pictures of the baby that look nothing like a baby!

I'm definitely leaning toward bringing her though so she can be a part of it - she is pretty timid in new situations so I have a feeling she would just sit with DH and observe.

[1blueheron]

DD has been with us for two u/s so far, and will be there for the anatomy scan too.  Last time she was concerned about what the tech was doing to me, and kept handing me toys.  Such a sweetie!  :)

I don't think she quite grasps what we're looking at, but I don't think it's going to hurt her and with Dh there I don't really have anyone to leave her with anyway.

[ElaynesMom]

I'm pretty bummed that the hospital we're having our scan at does not allow children at appointments. My dd is four and I know she'd love to actually see the baby moving around on the screen, but she'll have to settle for just the ultrasound picture we get to bring home. We had a choice of two places, but I think the other place has the same policy.

[hildare]

we have a few times and have gone without dd, too.  she's not quite 2.  and i've had quite a few u/s already. 

it's kind of a pain to take her b/c she starts getting restless and demands attention and i cannot multitask or carry on a conversation with the ob or ask questions when two people are talking at me.  i'd prefer not to take her but we don't have too many options most of the time.  i do like to let her look at the u/s video though.

[parsley]

I invited DD to come with me and DH to the anatomy scan and she said she wants to.  She might still decide against it but I think it will help her feel like things are more real.  I'm planning to take her to my midwife appt that same afternoon as well so she can hear the heartbeat. 

I suspect she might be a little worried, impatient, etc... but I figure that a) this might be my last u/s; b) it will make her feel more invested in the news and believe it is real; c) be a good test to see if I can have her around during labor (ie: hospital setting not my behavior!). 

In general, I prefer to go to my appts alone as I like to have a little privacy sometimes... so I schedule appts for when she's in school. 

[frogautumn]

No, I'm pretty certain that we will not bring either kiddo.

We brought DS1 to my anatomy scan for DS2, and my poor DH spent so much time toddler wrangling, he didn't really get to watch and enjoy. 

[Adaline'sMama]

DD was with us for the last one, but Id like to leave her for the anatomy scan. The reason being because when did her anatomy scan, they found a problem with the kidney (which was later totally resolved, but scared me). I wouldnt want DD to be there if I had to deal with any unexpected issues. She is a handful, and DH took her out to the car as soon as the ultrasound was over. She did think the ultrasound was awesome though. She seemed a little worried about me, why I was lying up on a table, and such. For the first few minutes she just said "Mommy? Mommy? " over and over again like she didnt understand why we were sitting in the dark and some weird lady was touching me

[SeekingSerenity]

My 8-year old and 5-year old (who will be 6 by then, lol) really want to come.  However, they're in school that day and my cousin and her daughter (who's 17) will already be there.  My kids already miss a lot of school due to therapy appointments, so I am hesitant to pull them out or keep them home for this.  Plus, with the 8-year old being an Aspie, he'd likely lose interest by about the 3rd minute of the scan, and be bouncing back and forth through the exam room, humming to himself distractedly.

I promised to take pictures for them, so I'll probably record the scan with my Droid so they can watch it later.  Then again, to accomplish that, I may need my little genius there... he's so much better at using that dang thing than me.  Ha!

[linnea27]

I had one ultrasound at 8 weeks, and brought my son to it (age 3)- I'll bring him to the next one as well. I think it's nice for kids to see the baby and makes things more real. For my son, though, it was important to me that I brought him because he had some health issues when he was younger and had to have several ultrasounds. He hated them, and a year later was still talking about how horrible it was that mommy held him down for "the camera machine". I wanted to bring him to show him that other people get ultrasounds as well, not just him, and show him that they're nothing to be afraid of.

[Mushy1127]

I bought my then 20ish month old to my second babies ultrasound.  I still can't remember it.  I was really focused on LEO and not the baby.  He was really interested in the monitor, so I spent the whole time talking to him, explaining things, etc.  Prior to that I worried about him, was he running around, annoying the tech?  You know, mom stuff.

This time around I left the boys with my mother and I was so glad I did.  I swear it was the clearest most amazing ultrasound EVER.  I felt like the pregnancy was made more real, I connected with the baby.... there is really a baby in there!  A REAL one.  A HUMAN Even!  Amazing!

There is also the off chance something could go "wrong" and I didn't want to get the news with my other children there.