This morning J and I made a trip to Holy Name Medical Center — where I plan on giving birth — to have our nuchal translucency (NT) scan.

The NT scan, otherwise known as the first trimester screening, is a combination of a sonogram and blood tests to identify risks of chromosomal abnormalities (e.g. Down’s syndrome) in the baby. It is usually recommended for women over 35 who are at higher risk of having babies with birth defects; however, our OB advised that I should get one considering my history and I happily obliged.

One of the many reasons I chose Holy Name is for their polite and amiable staff, and today was no exception. Our ultrasound tech was warm and friendly, answered all our questions, and printed out a total of five images for us to take home!

So without further ado, here are the first pictures of our baby…looking like an actual baby!

The heartrate was strong and steady at 165 bpm. There is one head, two arms and two legs…what more can a mother ask for?

When the scan first started, the baby was clearly sleeping. However, it soon woke up and started moving around like crazy! In the picture below, you can see it sucking its thumb.

The ultrasound tech said that our baby is very active — it was bouncing, stretching, and twisting away like a happy little peanut. I asked her if an active baby in the womb leads to an active baby after birth, and she said that this is true in most cases! If she is right we’re sure to be tired parents.

The baby was such a ham. It almost seemed to enjoy the spotlight, stretching and posing for the camera. I have heard many friends lamenting their “shy” babies who turn their backs on ultrasounds, but this was definitely not the case for us. In fact, our baby turned to face us more than a few times, and I could’ve sworn it was waving “hi!”

Here is a full limbs shot, where you can see both an arm and a leg. We were able to see the bottom of its little feet for a split second, and I just about died.

I really think that the baby already has a few of J’s features — face shape (mine is round while J’s is heart-shaped) and profile of the nose. However, in the picture below, its profile reminds me of my dad!

The funniest part of the ultrasound was at the beginning, when the scan had just started and the baby was still sleeping.

What amused us was not the fact that the baby was sleeping, but how it was sleeping; it was sleeping with its arms thrown over its head. And this is the exact position I am known to sleep in, starting from the time I was a baby myself!

When I told my parents this news they couldn’t stop laughing. “The baby’s already taking after you!” they exclaimed. It’s too bad that we didn’t get a picture of this.

We will not know the full results of the NT scan for another week, but the ultrasound tech told us that everything looks great from the sonogram alone, including the measurements of the nuchal fold.

The last thing we did before leaving the hospital was to schedule a full anatomy scan — where we’ll find out the sex of the baby (I’m thinking that it’s a boy) — for May 13. That’s just two days after we return from our babymoon…it’s sure to be an exciting week!