At one point in my career, I worked for a facility that served the under privileged of our community. I had this young, beautiful couple come in with their first pregnancy. This couple was so in love, recently married and beyond excited for their first baby. First pregnancies for expecting families is one of my favorite experiences! That kind of pure joy and unbridled excitement is so rare to see in adults, but being pregnant for the first time and every appointment and scan that comes with it is like Christmas morning. The couple explained to me that they wanted me to write the gender down for them ( robbing me of my favorite moment!) but they explained that the only person more excited than them was Grandma, it was her first grandbaby. Grandma wanted to put on a big gender reveal surprise for them. The couple and I had the greatest time together, laughing until our cheeks hurt. Awing and giggling over each perfect little part of their baby I showed them, careful not to show the gender. At the end of the appointment, I had to secretly write down the gender, and put it in a sealed envelope to be delivered to Grandma to be ( who was more impatient then them)! Because our facility was what it was, we didn’t have the resources like a lot of offices with fancy cards and envelopes for such situations. Since the family was so spunky and fun, I decided to play a trick on Grandma. Using the sticky notes and plain envelopes I had to work with, I created a stack of sticky notes, each one I wrote one word at a time, adding as many as I could think of…. “ It’s…. a…..precious…..little…adorable… wonderful…sweet….b….a….b…y…….. BOY! “ I sealed that little sticky note flip book shut and sent them on their way.

Fast forward a month later, it’s a Sunday and I am in my sweatpants in Target ( as one does) and This tall long blonde haired woman with her husband and tow came running towards me Yelling, “ HEY! HEY!” It was her! She recognized me from doing her ultrasound, and she had recorded her mom opening the flip book I had made, Grandma cursed me a few times before bursting out in to tears of joy. They played me the gender reveal video. We hugged. It was such an amazing full circle moment. This would be the seed that planted and took roots for the idea that would later become Oh Baby Ultrasounds. The moment that made me realize this is what I love! Making that moment magical and unforgettable!

I have been scanning expecting families for over a decade, at any moment I can call up any one of the several hundred of clients and client families that left a mark on me. One that comes to mind at this particular moment is the one of a biological mother, her baby- and her surrogate.

The surrogate was local, but due to state laws surrounding surrogacy the bio mom was from over 700 miles away in a different state. The surrogate arrived first, it was just the two of us in the dimly lit cozy ultrasound suite. She wanted to know if we allowed recording, she asked me about the angle of the tv from the viewing chair. She new her role well, she was advocating for her bio family. She explained it was the bio mom’s first time getting to see her baby outside of a cellphone screen during doctor’s appointments. The bio mom had flown in for our appointment, it would be the first and last time before birth that the bio mom would get to be in the same room as her baby and see her baby in real time. The bio mom arrived. She wasn’t giddy with excitement. She arrived , calm, reserved and quiet. She remained this way through out the whole exam. I wondered to myself, if it had been the long journey to get here, the roadblocks, specialists, and bad news that had stolen the unquenchable hopeful excitement that I typically experience with expecting families.

Instead of highlighting that, I treated her exactly as if it where her on my bed. The dedicated surrogate played her part perfectly. I spoke directly to the bio mom. Bio mom sat on the side of the bed, where the surrogate had all but faded in to the bed, never looking away from my screen as I told her, “ this is your babies face, and this is his little feet”. Several times I held the probe still, just so she could watch her baby dance around, grimace his face or kick his foot. When he did kick, She would place her hand on the surrogates belly, She could see him kick while she felt it at the same time. I printed three times the amount of pictures I was allowed ( If you’re reading this, Sorry Jill!) and I have never regretted it.

When the appointment came to an end, I knew the three of us were all sad to see the end of such a magical time. We just spent the last 30 impactful minutes together, time had felt like it stopped. The surrogate’s hope to give the biological mom an amazing experience she felt she deserved, was achieved. As they left and I cleaned the room I thought about how the biological mom would be thinking about the time we spent together every minute for the next five months while she waited to finally hold her baby. It was then that I realized how special it was to me to be the stewardess of that moment, and the pride I felt having made it everything i could has stayed with me since.