Yesterday I had to go for an ultrasound on the baby, since somehow the results from my 18 week ultrasound have been lost. Everything looks great, and it was amazing to see the little one looking so big. We got a great shot of the baby’s face and George certainly is looking adorable.
Overall though, it wasn’t quite all sunshine and flowers. The baby is a-okay, but this morning, my poor tummy is all bruised and sore. The ultrasound technician I had appears to be new, or a trainee, or something like that — after 45 minutes of poking around, she finally had to call in help to get a few basic shots. Apparently the baby was as fed up as I was, as he/she curled up in a ball and refused to come out for the rest of the ultrasound.
This technician is actually the same one I had for my six-week ultrasound, a very early peek just to date the baby properly. That time, she was so new to the system that she didn’t know how to work the computer, let alone the ultrasound wand thingy. She couldn’t find the embryo (granted, it was like a tiny white dot the size of a rice krispie on the monitor, in the end), so I wound up having to have what they call a probe ultrasound, and if you don’t know what that is, I suggest to you, keep it that way.
So now that I’m 29 weeks along, she’s worked there for at least 23 weeks, yet still with the stabbing and wandering and ineptness. Grrr. This little event has me thinking of adding “ultrasound technician” to my list of possible alternative post-kids careers, because I definitely think I could do a better job, and it can’t possibly require that much schooling if this other woman made it through.
Plus, I’d get to see babies all the time, without actually being exposed to any smelly poo or mysterious goo or unexplained crying. Now that would be sunshine and flowers.
TurtleHead 
Oooo, so sorry you had to suffer at the hands of the inept. I hate the inept! Grrr…
Ultrasound technician sounds like an excellent post-baby career move. Here’s a program, and although the school is in Toronto, it can still give you an idea of what’s involved.
Ooo, and check out this handy list of medical careers that don’t require going to med school.
Cool! That’s the school my mom went to when she trained to be a respiratory therapist. It used to be called the Toronto Institute of Medical Technology back then (~1983). It was tough going back to school at 40, especially when most of the other kids in her class were between 19 and 25, so I’m very proud of her for getting through it. She retired last year, but it was a job she really loved doing.
Yes, the “probe ultrasound” is a favorite technique at the infertility clinic — in fact, it’s the only one that’s used there. Imagine my shock when I show up for my first ultrasound. I was thinking of all the ultrasounds I’d seen people get on tv shows, and when the doc explained to me what he was going to do, it was like … wtf? After several months of having that done 2-3 times per month, though, you kinda get used to it. 😦
On a much nicer topic, glad to hear that baby George is doing fine!
Hey, that’s great to hear! I hope turtle_head reads that. I think she’d really enjoy going back to school and doing another career.
Actually I do find this news really exciting, and inspirational. Since I had the kids I’ve been really regretting not becoming a doctor — I think it is a career that I could have been good at, and also, been a lot more passionate about than engineering. But of course, it is much too late to go to medical school — the debt and time commitments alone are out of the question, let alone the years of study involved.
But these supporting careers actually look kind of interesting, and I see that the school offers a “remote” option where you take twice as long to do the course from a different town — very flexible! And it really helps to know that your mom made it through the program at 40, which is about when I think I’ll be ready to start committing to a new career. I’ll definitely be checking this out.
My six-week ultrasound with this baby was definitely my first time with the probe. I guess in the end it wasn’t too bad, but you are exactly right — when they are first explaining what they are going to do, it’s like….ooooookaaaaay, I guess.
Shivers!