How much to drink?

[Stimpy]

I'm going for my first scan this Friday, and have been told to drink lots of water before I go (and not go to the toilet - aarrggghh!).

My question is, exactly how much do I need to drink? just till I feel my bladder is full? if an amount of glasses, how many glasses???

Apart from that, I really can't wait but I'm slightly nervous they'll find something wrong.

[bundle]

just drink a small bottle full/two glasses on your way there/when you get there..I had to pee some out first time but got the hang of it second time around. good luck!

[breeze]

I was excited about my scan, and also concerned, but when you see your baby on the screen it like nothing else in this world.

As for peeing, be prepared because you know you cant go to the loo, it makes it 10 times worse, i drank about a litre of water and was told i did well. To make matters worse after the scan i rushed to the loo, only to find that they were shut having maintenance work done so i had to go round the other side of the hospital. Good luck

[PamT]

My hospital used to say 'drink a pint of water at least one hour before your appointment'. Which is fine, but they never ran to schedule and had a fish tank bubbling away in the waiting room. My last scan was late by about 30 minutes and then an engineer turned up to service the scanner - meanwhile I was crossing my legs and turning an odd shade of red in the face. The Sonographer sent the engineer packing, did preliminary measurements and then sent me to do 1/2 a wee!!!!! so that I was more comfortable.

Take a bottle of water with you just in case you haven't drunk enough. Our unit used to put a jug of luke warm tap water out for top ups. Yuk!

[Meid]

When I received the date for my first scan they enclosed a leaflet telling me how much water to drink. So I drunk the required amount (can't remember now how much) and was in agony in the waiting room only to be told by the sonographer that there was no need to have drunk and I should go and have a pee.
On my next scan I therefore followed this advice and didn't drink beforehand and they didn't say a thing.
I would therefore ring the hospital to ask what their advice is, you may find that you don't need to drink water beforehand.
Hope the scan goes well - enjoy!

[jessi]

I agree with Meid, I have had 2 scans and didn't drink anything out of the ordinairy beforehand and no-one mentioned it either!

[Mines]

Don't do what I did - queen of the overkill I drank a 1.5 litre bottle of water 1 hour before my scan and then (inevitably) had an hour's delay after my appointment time.

Couple that with a trainee sonographer who took 45 minutes to run over the basic checks (nice actually, much more baby viewing time than normal) and I can tell you my pelvic floor had the most thorough work out it has ever had

[Caroline5]

They told me I didn't drink enough before my first scan - the baby was lying in the wrong position for scanning, so I had to sit in the waiting room and drink lots so that my bladder would push the uterus into a different position. I guess you can't win, perhaps drink a normal amount (a glass or two??) and then you won't have to drink much more when you're there or be too uncomfortable.

[Stimpy]

Thanks for all your advice everyone - I actually dreamt about it last night and they wouldn't let me in until I'd drunk a certain amount, and it had be before a certain time, and if I hadn't drunk it before that time I couldn't have my scan!!!

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow although I am nervous!

Love Fi.
xx

[bundle]

how did you get on Stimpy?