Waking baby for anomaly scan

[CharlieAndMoose]

FTM here, looking for advice. I have my 20 week scan tomorrow and I've heard that the process is easier if the baby is awake during the scan. Does anyone have any tips for things I can do beforehand to perk him or her up?! At my 12 week scan the baby was fast asleep and I had to do a lot of wiggling and shaking, which was very uncomfortable with a full bladder 🙈 Thanks in advance!

Not much you can do sadly! When they are wriggly it can also be hard for the sonographer to capture.

If they need baby in a different position they might send you for a walk or sweet drink to help them move. I also had to do a lot of hip shaking and star jumps!

Congratulations and all the best for the scan!

My DD was hardly moving during one of my scans so they couldn't take all the measurements they needed, so they told me to drink and can/bottle of full sugar coke and it did the trick.

Baby will do whatever baby wants to do i'm afraid!

My first baby was moving too much at the 20 week scan to the point the sonographer couldn't get the measurements she needed and I had to go back 2 weeks later.

Second baby was fast asleep in an awkward position that made it really hard to see everything. That time I was able to have a cold sugary drink and dance on the spot a bit and she moved enough to get what we needed.

Mine was asleep, half way through he told me to go to the toilet to empty my bladder and it might wake the baby up. It didn’t. Luckily it did help to move enough that he managed to get all the measurements eventually.

I have heard some people drink fizzy pop beforehand. I only drank lots of water and water did nothing for mine.

They sent me to have a wee, drink a cold fizzy lucozade and walk round the block a few times!

I was told to go for a walk and eat a banana 20 mins before coming back in. Seemed to work. Maybe coincidental.

I think I’ve done it all - hip wiggles, awkward turns, star jumps, cold drinks, having a full bladder, having a wee, sweets… DD1 was a pest in scans! Like PP say, sometimes they’re too wriggly anyway, so I wouldn’t do anything beforehand. I had to go back for a second round of measurements with DD1 and took some haribo just in case, but didn’t need them. Sonographer recommended going for a hot chocolate which didn’t help but I was quite pleased with it!

Have a sugary drink before, orange juice apparently is what a sonographer told me to do

when it happened to me I had to turn over on to my side a couple of times, then I had to go out, walk around the block and have a sugary snack which seemed to do the trick! Good luck with the scan!

Can of Coke and some star jumps.

Thanks for all the tips and feedback. I'll take a sugary drink with me - if nothing else it's an excuse to indulge! Though really I just hope everything is normal and developing, it's a nerve-wracking point to reach in the pregnancy.