Not only have I changed my mind about many things while being pregnant, but since I’m completely indecisive about the 3D/4D ultrasound, I need your opinion.
My whole pregnancy I have been against doing the 3D/4D ultrasound because I think that it’s creepy. I have thought that it would be the biggest waste of money and that I would not enjoy it.
Well now that I’m 34 weeks pregnant it’s a whole other story.
The 3D/4D ultrasound popped into my head yesterday and now I’m torn about it. Maybe because I’m nearing the end of my pregnancy and I’m getting anxious to meet him. Maybe I just want to catch a glimpse of him sucking his thumb or yawning. I don’t know.
I do know that after he is born I will have no idea what to do with the pictures and the DVD. I mean, I’ll have him in real life and won’t need to see a window into my stomach anymore. And remember I have about 30 regular 2D ultrasound pictures that I never look at…
The creepy factor: Yes, I have always thought that they were scary-looking. But I’m guessing that I’m not going to think my baby is scary-looking. I mean, c’mon, it’s my baby.
It’s like seeing another baby or a kid. Sorry if this offends you, but there are plenty of children (babies included) that I do not think are cute. No matter what mine looks like though, I’m pretty sure that I will think he’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It’s just how it works.
The money factor: It’s $135 for 15 minutes, complete with a DVD set to music (big deal, right?), 6 black and white 3D pictures, 3 colorized thermal prints of your baby, CD with 20 pictures to email others, and a few other things that I completely do not care about.
To me it seems like a lot of money still, just because I don’t know if he’ll be facing the right way or just cooperating in general. Plus, I figure it’s a smart idea to not make too many frivolous purchases this soon to the baby coming. I hear that diapers get expensive. Ha, ha.
What my husband think: He’s not really onboard with the 3D/4D pregnancy ultrasound. He is sticking to his guns about not wanting to see his son looking creepy. Plus he thinks that we could save that money or at least spend it on something a little more worthwhile.
That being said, he said that if I really want to do it, we can, which is nice but doesn’t really help to solidify anything.
What my mom thinks: She’s not a fan either. She has seen many of these pictures and thinks they are all alien-like. She thinks that I will freak out seeing my baby like that. She said that if the only thing stopping me is the money, then she would pay. I told her that wasn’t necessary.
What I think: I think that if I don’t do it, I would regret it. If I do it and he doesn’t cooperate, I will be annoyed. If I do it and he cooperates and I think he’s creepy looking, I will be okay with this (I really can’t see myself thinking that my own child looks creepy though.)
The only thing stopping me is my husband. I think I would feel bad spending money that he doesn’t want to spend. It’s like the whole guilt-trip kind of thing: ”Sure, we can do it if you really want to”, but you know that secretly he is hoping I come to my senses and don’t want to do this.
Where you come in: I would love to hear your reasons for doing the 3D/4D pregnancy ultrasound or for not doing it. Anything that can help me make a decision would be absolutely lovely.
You might also want to read:
= a post from Mommy Jane 
= a post from Daddy Tarzan
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
DH and I got 3d/4d ultrasound pics during each trimester. They are FABULOUS!!! The baby looks just like a real person, and the last set (during the 3rd trimester) he looks exactly like he does now. It’s so cool, yet eery at the same time, how you can get a sneak peak at your baby!
Now the deal is this: We were fortunate in that my insurance covered the 3d/4d ultrasound pics. So we didnt have to pay any extra for it. My sister and her husband, on the other hand, would have had to pay extra (we’re talking hundreds extra!) because their insurance only covered the basic ultrasound.
As exciting and fun as it was to get them, if we had to pay for them i wouldnt have done it. Too expensive, and not really worth it. If anything, MAYBE once in the last trimester. But otherwise, naaah…. even tho i wasnt super impatient to meet/see my baby, i think thats too much money. There are too many other pregnancy related expenses to worry about, and that shouldnt be one of them
Our 3d/4d ultrasound pics: http://www.girlyhomewebzine.com/photos/chases_ultrasounds/index.html
Post where I talk about getting 3d/4d ultrasounds: http://www.girlyhomewebzine.com/our_first_baby/2009/05/words-for-moms-to-be.html
“even tho i wasnt super impatient” That should say I “WAS” super impatient, lol.
We opted not to do the ultrasound, but I was tempted, let me tell you.
In the end, it came down to one simple thing. And surprisingly, that one simple thing wasn’t the creep factor. We just felt like we’ve already waited THIS LONG to meet the baby and we wanted all of the wonder and fascination of MEETING the baby to be fully intact. When we see our baby for the first time, we want to see our baby FOR THE FIRST TIME, you know? I don’t want anything to be familiar or to diminish my excitement at seeing my child, holding my child, at his or her birth.
That and the place near us costs $150 and I preferred to save that money for all the expenses we’ll probably incur when the baby comes.
But if you aren’t sure, I’d say go for it. I cannot imagine that you’ll ever regret seeing your baby or that you’ll ever be too creeped out by the images, and I don’t think your husband would regret seeing the baby or spending the money either. Just because it isn’t for me doesn’t mean it’s not for you. And you only get one stab at this, so why not give it a go?
I would have never done it, but our ultrasound technician showed us the video and gave us some pictures for free (My pics are here –> http://pregnantjamie.blogspot.com/2009/05/19-week-2-day-ultrasound.html). I know you’re getting anxious to meet your little one but the 4D really isn’t meeting him anyway! I’ll have to agree with Tarzan on this one and say that you should just save that money for something more useful
I think they are pretty creepy….
I’m not sure if you would see if differently or freak out, but if you’ve always thought it was creepy, I would think twice about having it done.
Of course, if you think you would really regret not doing it, have it done and just keep in mind that it may look like an alien! You know that your baby will not look like it does in the scan because it’s inside you and once it hits ‘outside’ will probably immediately look different. (especially since it’s ‘real’ 3-D)
But – it’s up to you! Let us know what you decide!
I know some people compare the 3D/4D pictures of the face to the baby after its born and say oh wow he/she looks like the picture and get a thrill, but other then that I think you will see your baby soon enough and take many many pictures of him yourself for free. Of course you want to get as close as possible to seeing him, but its still not the same as in person and so I think the 4D experience will fall short of quenching your need to look at HIM and hold him.
I say don’t do it. It will make his arrival that much more special. I didn’t do it with my son, but my cousin did it with hers. We were do at the same time and her thought of her son at first was, “yea, he looks like he did in the 4d”. That comment made me glad that I opted not to do it.
I opted to do the u/s…although I did it at just shy of 28 weeks. It sort of helped me “pass the time” until my 32 week u/s. One of my biggest reasons for wanting to do it was to get reassurance on the gender. We were told we were having a girl, and we didn’t want any “surprises” at the time of delivery! The 3D u/s was one way to really know for sure, as they are much more accurate for gender verification.
Initally it was my husband’s idea. I had no interest. Then I wanted to do it, and he wanted to save the money by not doing it. We “compromised” and did what I wanted in the end. Ha! Hey, he planted the seed of thought into my maleable brain…his fault, right?
Our baby was NOT cooperative for the u/s, but the tech worked really hard to make sure we got the pics we wanted. She had me moving all around and was rubbing my belly to get the baby to move. Not too easy considering she was in the “Frank breech” position at the time…but we got it done. Some pics are a bit “creepy”…but also so interesting and sort of “lovely”!!! I got to see my daughter stick her foot into her mouth. That was pretty funny having on “film”.
Overall, I have to say that we are thrilled with the decision we made. It was very fun and worth the extra money…to us, anyway.
Good luck!
I am 25 weeks and we decided to skip the 3d/4d and spend what we save on good pictures once our son is here. I was a little concerend about the creepy factor and I know I will enjoy professional newborn pics so much more. That is our reasoning.
I’m going to get mine tomorrow so I will come back and tell you how I feel about it after the fact. I am 28 weeks pregnant….I had been told that this is the best time to do it. If you wait too long the baby is more “squished” and you don’t get as good of quality of photos. The place I am going is $135 for 25-30 minutes. You can bring up to 10 people so my parents and brother and sister in law are coming along. I think we’re all ready to see this baby (and like I mentioned on Twitter, we need name help) that we all agree this is something fun to do. Like needing to know the sex, I want to take advantage of the fact that I have to option to see what he looks like before he comes out. That being said, I have had nightmares about the appointment the past few nights, so I am also anxious about it too. What if he has something wrong and I see it in front of everyone? My husband jokes that we are doing this to make sure he doesn’t look like a cat or Cyclops. But that makes me nervous too (not that there is a chance he could look like a cat!). Anyway, I’ll comment again after to let you know how it went.
We are definitely doing ours at about 7 months. I can’t wait to see what the baby looks like and I want to be able to show him the image later and say “here’s what you looked like when you were in mommy’s tummy!”
Of course, we also have photos of the 2 embryos we transferred on this IVF cycle, one of which is now 18 1/2 weeks closer to birth. So we can show our child what he/she looked like almost from conception!
On a funny note, we recently went to a 4d movie at Moody Gardens. It was a selection from the Planet Earth series, and every time there was a fly-over, wind blew on us. When there was a wave, we got splashed with water. So when we talk about getting 4d pictures of the baby, my husband joked that maybe the picture would spit up on us !
My bradley instructor told me sonograms sound like banging pots and pans for the baby, because it emits sound waves. either way, i wouldnt do it. its extra money, and youll be seeing him soon enough!
We didn’t do it and I have no regrets about it. I had a good reason to want to (he was diagnosed with cleft lip and palate) and I kept wondering how he would look. BUT, it was fine. I wanted to see him for real, not stress about a picture and how it might or might not look like him. You’re so close, I’d just wait for the real thing.
By 34 weeks, your baby may be too squished to get a good picture. I know we can’t get a good one of the twins at all. It was best around 24-28 weeks. I wouldn’t waste the money. Yes, it was cool getting face pics of the girls, but it was entirely lucky. The tech just happened to get them without hands in their faces and facing the right direction. Every u/s we’ve had since then, she’s tried and it’s just not going to happen.
Thought I’d pass this link along..
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30192274/
Basically, to summarize, Tori Spelling had one and it gave her a bunch of additional anxiety of her baby’s looks since it appeared he had a disproportionate nose in the 3-D ultrasound.. It turned out not to be the case, but they can provide additional distress if you’re prone to it.
Best of luck, whatever you decide!!
I did one at 20 weeks because my doctor didn’t do gender determination u/s and I wanted to know. You’re right, it was expensive, but after I did it, it was SO worth the money. My husband took me for my valentine’s day present (since it was two weeks before that). Even then, he didn’t look alien like, and I was super surprised at that. I liked the fact that I could show the pictures to my dad and he didn’t have to keep asking me “what the hell am I looking at here?” because it was all pretty obvious. It is the COOLEST thing to watch it on the video, even now that I have the baby (just this past Sunday!). Having the DVD of it really helped pass the time while I was stuck on bed rest too, reminding me what I was working towards. Honestly, if you’re not creeped out by traditional ultrasounds, you won’t be by this one. Plus, it’s your kid
It’s always different then.
I never really had a desire to do it, so I’m not very helpful in making the decision from a personal point of view. Someone I know got a package where they did the u/s’s twice during her pregnancy though and she said that the earlier set (around 25-28 weeks) was way better than the later round (around 34-36 weeks) because her baby was too squished and couldn’t move much in the second one. Not sure if that’s helpful…she also said that her baby looks exactly the same now as when she saw him in the u/s’s which was really cool.
On the $$ front, this is something I believe you and Tarzan need to be able to work through b/c the issue will not go away anytime soon. Every couple is very different in this regard, but I think it’s important for you to each respect each other’s interests in things which it sounds like Tarzan is doing so I would take the $$ part out as much as you can in making the decision. Good luck!!
Ok…I just got home from having mine done and I can’t decide how I feel! It was definitely cool to see the 3D images and know that “There’s a foot!” “There’s the hand!” but on the other side, I almost think the photos of our baby look just like all the other ones on the wall at the place. Babies look like babies. So…I guess my advice to you is to maybe wait. Like a few of us have said, you are pretty close to being too far along to make it worth while and he’ll be here soon. Plus was it worth the money? I don’t know. We bought the DVD which added cost, so we walked out spending $170. On the flip side, the fun part was watching him trying first to stick his fingers in his nose, then shortly after trying his toes! We also got a VERY clear shot of his “manhood.” No mistakes that we are having a boy! Unfortunately we are no closer to a name though! Hope this helps some!
creepy
I really wanted to get a 3D/4D ultrasound. I can’t even explain why, I just do. It is significantly cheaper in our area though–about $85 for a 10 minute session. Since this is my last child, I thought that would be a great thing. Plus, he had a marker for Down’s and I’m curious to see if indeed in 4-D the marker showed up. Does he look ok? Is he ok? I want to know, but I don’t want to know.
DH is like–no. It won’t be that much longer until we see him for real.
We’ve agreed to wait until then. No 3D/4D u/s for us.
Wow, thanks for all the comments and feedback! After looking more into it, I decided not to do it. Reason is that I heard from many of you that once you are as far along as I am the baby will look squished. I think the ideal time to have it done is 24-28 weeks and I’m clearly past that point.
I’m glad that it was that easy to make a decision and hopefully I’ll think more about it in enough time when I’m pregnant the next time around!
At 34 weeks we coun’t see that much. I guess there is less water in there at this point so the ultersound doesn’t bounce off enought. She was already head down so her face was hard to get to. It isn’t creepy when it’s your little baby in there, but why spend the money if it may not work.
You could alway so it next time!!!
We loved it!! I also shopped around. There is a website online where you can search by state. http://www.4d-ultrasounds.com/texas.htm and look to see what options are in your area, then I did a comparison of what you get by price and what I cared about and didn’t care about. I found a place that had a special going on so we were able to get a deal on ours. We also went to a place that lets you bring others, so in addition to my hubby, I included my mom, sister, and her two kids.
i loved it but you should check with the 3d place since it may be too late to do it (once the baby gets too large then the 3d is hard to see). check out my post about my experience:
http://blog.gracobaby.com/2009/05/22/a-peak-inside-rubys-world-my-3d4d-ultrasound-experience/
i say do it
I was never offered one, and never wanted one. I thought it would take away from the surprise of seeing all my son’s features when he’s finally born. They’re VERY detailed and it’s like your actually looking at your baby. I like not knowing, and finally seeing how beautiful he was after he was born. And yes, if he wasn’t as attractive and you’d hope…Maybe you’d feel strange. I personally do not like the 3D-4D ultrasounds.
Anyone who thinks a 3d ultrasound is creepy is out of their mind! How can you say that seeing your baby in that great detail before he/she is born is creepy!! The place I went to brings you back at no additonal fee and will redo the entire session until they get a good scan! So many factors can affect a 3d ultrasound like the tissue content of the mother, which can make the picture quality choppy. Or fluid level surrounding the baby and/ or baby’s postion. In the ideal position these things can be absolutely amazing. Not taking advantage of it doesn’t make sense. Without insurance they are so affordable. $135!!! If you can’t afford to spend that, then maybe you shouldn’t be having a baby in the first place. how would you afford anything else.
ours was free at every appointment. sorry you have to pay!
it’s deff worth it though!