20 weeks - rescan needed due to baby position

[Jsh125]

Hi everyone, I had my 20 week scan on Thursday but the baby was lying on its tummy with its head down so they couldn’t really do anything apart from check it’s spine. They sent me off for a drink & something sugary, empty my bladder etc.. but it was still having none of it. She did manage to check between its legs to find out the gender, she was pretty certain but because she couldn’t see anything else I’m not taking it as 100%. She could see right between its legs & even I could see nothing there, how likely is it to be wrong? We already have a son so a daughter would be amazing but I don’t want to get attached to the idea to find out it’s wrong - a healthy baby is all we want.

So frustrating as I now have to wait over a week (I’ll be 21+1 by then) to go back and see if all is ok. Have felt movement but not a lot so am a bit paranoid I’ll go back again & it still won’t play ball.

Does anyone have any tips on how to try and make sure baby is moving / has moved before the scan?

Thanks!

I had three attempts at my 20 week scan (they usually only do 2 just to warn you). I had three as I have a (almost certainly genetic) heart condition and one thing they couldn't see each time was the heart.

First scan got most measurements, baby was lying on its side. Second attempt baby was in a similar position to yours and despite every trick in the book, couldn't get it to budge. Sonographer said she'd arrange a third scan but baby is likely to be in the same position...and it was, and was not budging.

What they've said to me is that they will try and look at the missing views in subsequent scans (I am having one every 4 weeks from here) but as baby gets bigger it gets harder to see things. Whats most likely to happen is a paediatrician will check baby after birth rather than a midwife to assess the missing bits of info.

Thanks so much for the reply. So is it normal for them to only do two then? Would rather know if there was something wrong than wait another 20 weeks to find out! I know it’s not their fault but it’s not mine either!!

Will have to try everything to make sure it’s awake and moving next week.

Two attempts seems to be standard. I think it's a fine line between baby being developed enough to and getting it done before the legal termination limit.

Just our (husband and I) opinion but we weren't too fussed, we went into this knowing about my heart (if a parent has it, it's 50/50 the child will) and also at this stage I personally couldn't terminate even if there was something catastrophically wrong and baby had no chance of surviving after birth. Following that logic, if there is something wrong with baby, we'll accept our lot and deal with it when the time comes.

As it happens, each scan I've had has ticked a few more things off the list and the only things missing are views of the top right side of the heart, nose and lips (but profile view looks fine)

I had to go back for a second scan. Our son wouldn't left his head up so couldn't see one arm, face or do the brain checks. The second one we managed but had to apply quite a bit of pressure.

I have had to go back for a second anomaly scan in all 3 of my pregnancies (and had 2 dating scans with each too). I have awkward babies!
The only thing they couldn’t see properly first time with this one was the heart. When we went back he’d moved into a perfect position to see.
With regards to the sex, I’d probably wait until your next scan before thinking too much about it! It’s not far away. Hopefully they’ll get a better view next time.

I went for my 20 week scan on wednesday and same thing happened. Have to go back in 2 weeks!

Dont worry about it, your baby is just stubborn and comfy in it's position just like mine!

Kept putting it's hands on the ears to tell us to go away!

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the replies!

Anyone who’s had a second scan, did you do anything beforehand to try & make sure it moved? If it was at least lying on its back that would massively help but not sure how to encourage that!

I tried sugar and caffeine 30 minutes before both times, and ice cold water immediately before. Absolutely nothing! The second scan I got sent away to get more sugar, caffeine, empty bladder, run up and down stairs, did star jumps, cold water. Absolutely nothing. She said it's just how baby likes to lie and will probably be in the same position next time. It was!

And we still don't know the sex ....!

I had a sugar drink and cold water before i went in but didn't help much. The pressure and prodding eventually managed to make him move. We found out the sex as he was lying with his legs apart and couldn't miss it.

Babies just do exactly what they want don’t they! If it refused to move did they manage to do any of the checks & measurements? She couldn’t see it’s face at all or it’s heart properly or pretty much anything else so didn’t do any of the scan, just re booked for another time.

They couldn’t see the baby’s heart at our first scan but his penis and testicles were more than clear to see... the sonographer said she’d tried to hide it in case we didn’t want to know but failed!

Ps no I didn’t do anything to move the baby for the second scan. He’s very active anyway so who knows what position he was in just prior to it. If I’d tried to move him I might have ended up moving him from a favourable position to a non favourable one.

We had to have a second scan. Baby was to comfy and chilled to move. So they couldn't get back and bum measurement. Didn't do anything for second scan. Did really enjoy getting to see baby again and getting more pictures of him :-)

My trust will only attempt the anomaly scan twice. I had one at 20 weeks then the rescan at 23 weeks. They tried and tried everything to get him to move but still, after two scans, were unable to obtain one spinal measurement. They said everything was fine though and they weren’t worried. Honestly, I was jumping up and down, walking up and down stairs, dancing, doing bridge pose on the bed, rolling onto my side, given a wedge pillow under my bum, drank a sugary drink and had chocolate.. he would not budge and in fact, just did a yawn .

I was told it’s easy to mistake a boy for a girl but not the other way around as boys parts are very obvious, girls not always so much.

DC1 made us have 3 anomyoly scans and we still didn't get much....DC1 had found a sleeping position he was comfy in and that was that. He never moved out of it. We tried everything and the sonogropher even tried to poke my tummy and juggle him about but all he did was roll over and yawn 😂

They gave up in the end, and said we have brain and we've listened to the heart so that's the best we're going to get.

I had a re-scan at 36ish weeks to check my anterior placenta had moved upwards, which it did and they managed to get some more information, DC1 was a perfectly healthy baby.

We had to have a second dating and anomaly scan, and then later on had to have extra growth and Doppler scans! Turns out baby was just extremely awkward, and ‘sleepy’ she was delivered at 34 weeks due to lack of growth and reduced movements... she certainly no longer has reduced movements 😂

The guy doing our first 20 week scan was a little impatient (possibly hangry as it was just before lunch) and bordered being rude (can’t complain as it was a medical procedure) he seemed to want us in and out as quickly as possible and told us he could see a left hand but no left arm 🤨 and then could also not do the heart measurements. Went back 2 weeks later and had a lovely technician who quickly got all the measurements and then had a bit of a ‘play around’ and showed us all the different parts of our baby (apart from genitalia as we were team yellow)

Thanks so much for all your replies everyone, I really appreciate it.

Fingers crossed next time it’ll be in a better position so they can at least check for major issues. Will try to just wake it up a bit before we go in. All the kicking & movement is still down low so am not convinced - my son was super lazy & was head down from the time they started checking & never moved!d

Hopefully she got the gender right, we would have been happy either way but am now used to the idea of a girl!!

You could check out the website Spinningbabies. That shows you different positions to get in to encourage a baby to move.