to be SO terrified about 12 week scan?

[Cathycomehome]

Next week. I don't know what's the matter with me. I can't sleep with anxiety about it, and what might go wrong, and I keep seeing terrible stories on the internet without even consciously looking for scan type threads.

I've almost talked myself into believing this is some kind of awful premonition. Am I going quite mad?

I hate to sound clichéd, but I expect it's pregnancy brain. The hormones do odd things that make your more logical side take a back seat and you are all full of protective instinct. I had horrendous nightmares before my first scan with DS, and I was in tears on the morning of the 20 week scan, convinced they were going to find something horribly wrong.
Expecting DC2 now, and after a miscarriage inbetween, I don't even want my scan for fear of what might turn up.
Try to relax, do you have any relaxing type tapes, like natal hypnotherapy to have a listen to before bed. Leave the internet stories alone and try to surround yourself with nice positive stories. It will be fine in the end, whatever happens.

this time next week you will of had your scan and everything will be fine. i worried too its normal :)

Thanks FutureNannyOgg, I'm sorry about your miscarriage, and congrats on new pregnancy.

I think I need to stop thinking about it altogether, but it's really difficult (and have realised Google is not my friend but seem drawn to internet forums like a moth to a flame!).

Oh - and ToughTed, missed that! Not one for wishing my life away, but really wish it was next Wednesday and the waiting and worrying was done.

I was convinced that something was going to go horribly wrong with my pregnancy when I had DS. (ICSI baby, second attempt following early miscarriage).

I simply knew it. I wasn't just worried, I had absolute certainty. My anxiety wasn't so bad at 12 weeks, but oddly it got worse the closer I got to term. So even a week or two before delivery, when I'd even had late scans due to breech baby, I was utterly certain that there was going to be something terribly wrong.

There wasn't anything wrong. DS was delivered just fine and is now 9. He turned out to be my one and only and is all the more precious for that.

I wish I'd been on MN at the time, as I'm sure that knowing other people felt the same would have helped me.

thank you dearprudence - your post rang really true for me - so glad your son is healthy.

This is my second pg - I have an eleven year old son - but I can't remember feeling anything like this last time, I think I was the opposite and assumed everything WOULD be OK for some reason. It's all silly I know, as there's nothing I can do, but I feel on the verge of tears a lot of the time!

oh it's just your mind! it's so common to have mad anxieties before scans...and then before birth...and then when you get home...you know it is really!

It's fine...I also think that number 2 tends to make you fret more...because you know more! Stop thinking about it and look at nursery decor instead.

Through mumsnet (or any internet forum) you can get a slanted perspective of how common the sad stories are. So you are just as likely to read about someone having a bad scan as a good one - yet in real life, most scans are good.

I think once you have one child, you realise how precious they are, and how lucky you are to have them, sometimes it's hard to imagine you could be that lucky twice. Also, you know more, so are more aware of what might go wrong, you just have to remember that the bad stuff is really rare.

Thanks people. Last time I was young and maybe a bit more blase about it all (and I didn't have the internet!). I am going to try and pretend nothing is happening at all ( I do sometimes also have this weird idea that I am not, in fact, pregnant at all, and will find this out at the scan - that bit is really mad, isn't it?)

I was just the same. When I got to the checking in desk, where you buy your token for the scan pictures I burst out crying, couldn't buy the token invade it jinxed it. I was so embarassed and couldn't go into the waiting room in case I scared all the other people waiting who would think something awful had happened as I was a snivelling wreck

So strange

I think partly it was that I'd been feeling really ill and my first pregnancy was so touble free, and such a happy time I couldn't believe I'd be lucky enough to have a second trouble free pregnancy (I did DD is 4 months old)

Good luck

I was the same, crying before every scan. I took preg tests every 2 weeks till I could feel the baby move too. Hideous paranoia that really made the pregnancy a fraught and miserable time! I'd had mc before and tried for years and years and years to get pregnant again so I think I just expected the worse.
I wish I could tell you some magic secret that made it all better, but there isn't one.
I used to envy friends who really looked forward to scans. I just felt cold dread.
I know I was preparing myself for the worst, really. I wish I could have just gone with the flow.
I look forward to reading your update next Weds, in which you tell us all about the lovely healthy baby you've seen!!

I didn't really have any pregnancy symptoms with DS1 (and absolutely hated all those bland reassurances that morning sickness meant you had a 'good, strong pregnancy' - grrr, that sort of thing made me jibber with terror) and was utterly convinced that the scan would show there was nothing there. There was, of course , he's now very nearly 6. I also had tons of nightmares about all sorts of bad things happening to the baby - still have nightmares, but usually about crazy DS2 (3.11), now - but am trying to convince myself it doesn't mean that he will meet a sticky end. Just the anxiety of motherhood coming out at night. Gah!

Forgot to say, good luck!

I was fine withwhen pg with DS. A jibbering wreck with DD.

The diffrene ....I didn't have a laptop

Google is NOT your friend at the moment but it's like catnip for pg women. Step away - it'll be fine.

FFS! I can spell, honestly!

Just to add my bit, with my first it felt like it took ages to get pregnant (it didn't really but we tried a bit, had a break and lifestyle change, tried again and it happened) then when I was 11 weeks with the pregnancy I got a tummy bug (no big deal now, god knows I've had plenty since I had kids but I hadn't puked since about 1994!!!) - so I chucked up for a day then spent 3 days in bed (probably due to pregnancy, I didn't recover as quick) and was convinced nothing would be there and the baby was dead.

So they scanned me and there was this cheeky little spindly thing bouncing around inside my womb (for some reason I didn't realise it would be in "real time", I thought it would be stills), just boing boing boing, bouncing off my womb.

So cute!!! So lively!

(He's 4 now and he's still the same!!!)

Thanks for reassurance..will stop looking at any preg related internet content from henceforth, and keep fingers crossed.