Scan Man Meets Tara, Tara Meets Scan Man

At last, they meet: Scan Man and Tara (as the title of this entry already suggests), the little black and white girl of the many measurements, and her friend of the great many concerns. We had received an invitation for a "chat about your recent pregnancy" weeks ago, had made a note in our family diary and arrived well on time at the antenatal reception desk. We were promptly issued with the appropriate paperwork for the next pregnancy (but NO! wrongwrongwrong!) and ushered into a private little waiting room. Bad move! Jose had been all calm up to just then but when he saw a box of tissue sitting on the table, and I suggested that we would now learn the results of the chromosom analysis, the poor man grew all nervous again. A hospital habit, it seems - unjustified, as hindsight has it.
We're not here for any diagnostic drama, there aren't even any reports about the chromosomal analysis in our notes as they were just fine. We're just here, as Jose realises with great relief, for a post pregnancy chat, cuddle (excluding Jose, which I'm sure he's also relieved about) and introduction. Aaaah, that's what I wanted to see, scan man keeps saying. The tissues do not get to play a role in today's meeting.
I think... well, I'm not sure, maybe I was a bit nervous as well and it's been a few days, but i think part of the conversation went something like this:
Scan man: You've had a very difficult pregnancy...
Alex (interrupts): The only difficult part of this pregnancy was you!
OUCH! Very rude, mother. Very German, in fact. Tara would surely be embarrassed if she had paid more attention to her mum. As it was, she was happily studying the ceiling, indulging in daddy and scan man cuddles.
Lucky for me, too, the good doctor seems genuinely unfazed by such behaviour - well, he's seen me about 14 times so has a rough idea of what I'm like (I'm sure everyone at work can relate) - and in the remainder of the chat about our recent pregnancy we learn that
1. scan man was a lot more concerned than he told us (actually, I thought so), and that
2. at the end of the pregnancy he thought we only had a 30% chance of having a healthy baby, and 70% of an unhealthy one, but that he (rightly!) didn't see a point in telling us and worrying us unnecessarily, and that
3. he is very glad to have been wrong.
So are we.
Thank you, DC, for looking out for Tara - our little 100% 30% baby hit. How good that you were wrong!

This blog needs a new villain then! The old one stands redeemed, and what would Tara's little universe be without a bad guy... of course there's always mummy who sits her in a corner daily and tries to do, scandalously, other things! Or daddy who persist in head lifting training and occasionally feels obliged to clean her ears or neck...


Tradition has it that we hit town and treat ourselves to a coffee after a visit with scan man. Mummy has coffee, daddy a sandwich and most of mummy's coffee (while mummy is having a chat with another mother about babies, birth and the difficulty of regaining one's pre-pregnancy figure... yeah, right), and Tarita Pumpunita has milk (free). As you can see from Tara's outfit, summer's over for good now, and even though i don't look it I'm pretty cold. So in preparation for the depth of winter, surely soon to arrive, we add a visit to TK Maxx to our agenda and introduce Tara to the world of sartorial vanity, budgeting while spending and bargain hunting. Jose is quite keen on the pink winter coat in the top right hand corner, but Tara either has a stiff neck from all the exercise he's put her through, or genuinely prefers the sight of the white fluffy one in her line of vision (she does like staring at the white ceiling at home after all, maybe that's just her fave colour?), but it's the white fluffy one we get her for a treat - she's been such a good girl, treating us to the 100% of the 30% she was given. In fact, why don't we just buy her the entire rack of baby clothing! But then, she's not really that much into clothes, fashion, shopping and bargain hunting yet...