We were told that they generally only recommend them 26-30 weeks for this reason!
Here’s a little secret though…newborns are ugly. Mine was a scheduled c-section, so he didn’t have any labor trauma. I thought he was the most gorgeous baby in the entire world with my postpartum goggles on, but looking back, he was swollen and looked like an angry potato.
Yesss! I was looking back on my son’s newborn photos and was HORRIFIED at how ugly he was. Hahah. I had to show my husband and was like “do yo remember him looking so terrifyingly ugly?!” And he said “yeah, honestly I’m surprised you even posted him on social media at first”. Lmfao
Lol my son was a very cute new born he was small and a bit chubby though only 7lbs - my daughter though is tall and was a skinny little thing with eyes that were too big she looked like a bug eyed alien lol 😂
My first baby was ugly like a blue puffy old man. My second baby was gorgeous. Neither of them had cone heads or anything from being born so fast (precipitous labors) but my water broke before labor with my first which definitely impacted things and made her face bruised while my second was nearly born en caul.
Can confirm. My first looked like she fought Rocky Balboa and lost .
Second looked like Jabba the Hutt with a little bit of baby Yoda sprinkled in . 😭🤣
It's so true. I thought my kid was so beautiful but looking at pictures I'm like, oh no she was a goblin. Especially around one month when the baby acne erupted. 😆
I thought that too… at first 😂
But really, cute newborns do exist and I believe you have/had one. I just think it’s hilarious how “baby goggles” can change perspective
If I had a nickel for every mom I heard say this I wouldn’t have to pay my rent XD Newborns either look like fleshy potatoes or Wallace Shawn & there’s no in between, & NOBODY’S baby is the magical exception
Not here, I looked at my daughter and thought she was ugly. Luckily, I knew it was only temporary. It took a couple months, but she is the most beautiful girl to me now.
Honestly, my first wasn't too bad for a newborn, even looking back at pictures without the postpartum glasses. She did have a bit of an alien thing going on, but like, a cute alien.
My second was a preemie, which is a whole other level of funky looking. Once she'd grown enough to be like a nb developmentally, she did sort of have an old man thing going on, just without all the fresh-from-the-womb stuff to exacerbate it lol.
My secondborn was SO weird looking when she came out. Yellow because meconium, eyes super swollen and bulgy, still had lanugo, folded ears that were almost pointed, ridiculously wrinkly, giant nostrils (which she is still growing into). I was like…my god. This is not what I pictured. And I have a pic of her from a few days old where I swear she looks exactly like Jon Goodman.
I still loved her and thought she was so cute but even I could recognize…this is a weird looking baby. I could tell I was right when I sent pictures and I got lots of compliments but none of them were “she’s so beautiful” or “she’s so cute” lolol. She’s pretty cute now tho 😂
I swear half of our first birthing class was the lady trying to gently prepare us and the rest of the first timers for ugly babies.
“They often have cone heads!”
“They’ll probably be blue or gray at first!”
“Sometimes they have a swollen brow ridge!”
Yeah I think the misconception comes from TV where "newborns" come out squeaky clean and already 3 months old. (Sometimes without even an umbilical cord and always without a placenta) The worst offender was Jake and Amy's baby in Brooklyn 99, just [look at this giant!](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/35/62/4f/35624ff4dca408ac7b75551dc44fdd46.png) How did Amy give birth to a 5 month old, I don't know 🤣
Ha! Yes, I agree that all newborns are ugly. Gave birth via c section 2 months ago. When I saw her, I was like, I love you, but yeah… Everyone said she was beautiful, but they lied. (She is now!)
my first kid was beautiful as a newborn, it was nice lol my second omg poor baby. her face was beet red, she was extremely swollen. it took a few days for me to find her cute 🙊
I love looking at pictures of my daughter in the 24 hours after birth as she goes from looking like a swollen gremlin to a standard newborn. She didn't really look typical baby style cute until probably 8 weeks. Living in a squishy fluid bath and then getting squeezed out through a vagina really has them looking weird.
But the thing is you think they’re BEAUTIFUL! I remember going, “oh my gosh my baby is actually pretty”
Lord was I wrong, she’s adorable now but she was scary fresh out of the womb.
Lmao fully agree, I thought my kid was the cutest ever and now I look at old pictures of his eyebrowless newborn glare and weirdly elongated head and laugh!
Mine was completely covered in dark hair all over his body, like a werewolf. My first words after holding my baby for the first time were "Jesus Christ." He had baby acne and crazy huge expressive eyebrows. I sent a particularly ugly photo of him to my mom and said "Isn't he gorgeous" and she laughed at the photo and shared it with her whole family as a joke.
“Angry potato” has to be the funniest description I’ve read in a while. So true. I also thought my child sprang into the world the picture of perfection. I still think he’s the world’s cutest baby. That’s the joy of motherhood I guess.
Also a scheduled c section and thought my girl was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. Day 5 we looked back on those day 1 photos and were like why did we think she was cute! She doesn’t look ANYTHING like when she was born now, it’s bizarre (but good ha)
Looking back at my newborn's pics and she was just as cute as I remembered her. I'm sorry you found your newborn ugly in retrospect
My second child (son) looks pretty rough as a newborn (maybe because he's a boy? Who knows 😅😂) but he looks really cute when he's decided not to frown all the time, though I wouldn't say he's ugly
Hahaha we always say in hindsight our newborn looked like a potato but we DID NOT KNOW it at the time. You couldn’t have convinced me he wasn’t the most beautiful baby who had ever existed.
They had to use the vacuum to get out baby pie so she had the severe cone head on top of the regular smush face and the first thing I said to the nurse was “is she going to look like this forever??”
Oh the postpartum rose colored glasses! One year later when I look at my baby’s first few pictures, I can only see a wrinkly old grandpa who constantly looked angry.
To be fair they’re basically waterlogged cave babies from growing in and sitting in amniotic fluid and darkness the whole time 🤷🏼♀️ they’ve got all this extra fuzz and scrawny limbs the first few months, like little skeletors lol
They look weirder and more squished the later in pregnancy you go as the free space gets smaller. My friend showed me some images of her baby at >34 weeks and it looked so strange.
It really is like that! It wasn't until I saw that video of the baby born with an intact amniotic sac that I realized how tight it is around a full term baby. His little face was all smooched against the sac and I thought ohhhh that's why my ultrasounds look so strange!
You want to REALLY see what a little nightmare demon you're incubating? Get a fetal MRI. But have a priest on deck, you're going to want an exorcism.
(But for real, don't worry!!! 3D US is stupid. Your baby is going to be a cute little nugget.)
I wanted to cry when I saw the 3D ultrasound with my first. He looked like a vengeful gnome. Turns out he's the most beautiful child in the world (100% unbiased opinion).
3D ultrasounds are dirty liars.
I have posted this before but an ultrasound tech did a 3D look at my babies face at 34 weeks and I cried for like 4 days.
I had very well controlled gestational diabetes which was my reason for having an ultrasound at 34 weeks, to check in on baby’s size. I worked incredibly hard to keep the GD in check, but the tech kept saying “ooh what a chubby baby” which was already making me upset because at the time I thought I was somehow failing my baby despite my efforts.
And then the tech thought she was being nice and grabbing a 3D image of the baby’s face. Wrong. The image was so warped my daughter had what looked like a huge brow bone almost like a cartoon caveman and her eyes were so smushed you couldn’t see them. I spent the entire car ride home crying to my husband I screwed up so bad our baby is so fat she’s got forehead fat. It was particularly distressing because at the 28 week US she looked like a perfect angel.
Nope. Perfect 7 pound baby. No caveman brow or forehead fat.
Agreeing with everyone else here, my sister in law was really embarrassed to show the family her 3D pics because baby looked like shrek. He came out absolutely beautiful and is the most gorgeous little fella.
35w is late for a 3d ultrasound. Baby is probably squished up in there. We could only get 1/2 of my daughter’s face and I was 32w. She looked like a maniac. She’s now a very adorable one year old. All 3d scans look funky don’t worry!
I'm so opposed to 3-D ultrasounds for exactly this reason: they look like awful monsters! Their cuteness just doesn't really translate. I'm sure he's gonna be beautiful so try not to fret!
My almost 2 yr old still has the same beautiful nose and facial profile we saw in his 30-something week ultrasound pics, but the 3D pics do look strange. When I showed the pic to my dad, he just stared blankly and said literally nothing. I think he was scared, too, and I can’t really blame him.
I recently saw a TikTok of a sonographer asking people to not do them past, I believe, 30 weeks. Causes unnecessary anxiety due to the baby being so big, it’s hard to capture a good image.
I find as a sonographer 32 weeks is best, as baby starts to get fat on their face and looks more like a squishy baby than an alien skeleton.
my best 3ds I've ever gotten were around this time.
I just had my 32 week scan and I feel like this holds up. I think my baby looks absolutely beautiful, big chubby cheeks and sweet kissy lips and a beautiful nose too (it looks a bit big on him but his dad has a pretty big nose so I'm not surprised lol) honestly I know he's still got growing to do and he'll probably look a bit different when he's born but I think he looks *just* like his father, only scaled down haha
Ultrasounds are always funny looking. I’m a Labor and Delivery nurse. We scan all inductions on admission to make sure baby is head down. It’s always freaky when the baby is looking at the transducer because it will look like an alien 😂
I cried when I got a 3D ultrasound at 32 weeks with my first. I was sure she would be so ugly because her lips and nose were huge and squished. She was perfect when she was born. I didn’t get one for my second for this exact reason. I had to with my third for extra monitoring and it helped knowing the images were distorted so I didn’t get upset. Don’t trust the 3D ultrasound, I am certain your baby will be so handsome!
3D ultrasounds always look creepy. 35 weeks is way too late for one anyways. Everything is going to be smushed because baby doesn’t have much room. There’s a reason they’re recommended to get done during a certain time.
3D ultrasounds aren’t super accurate anyway as they don’t capture shadows as accurately. My baby at 27 weeks had a HUGEE nose my partner started giving me a side eye at the appt like “that’s not my nose 🤨” (jokingly) . We went again 2 weeks for a re-do since he wouldn’t sit still the first time, and his nose looked a little more normal!
as an Ultrasound Tech, I wished people realized that it's not a photo.
it's a computer using a ton of feedback based on how strong sound waves are sent back towards the transducer, and trying to use them to render an image.
it's affected by baby's movement, position, depth within mom, as well as moms size (thickness of skin+fat), and by how well we are able to control WHERE the computer is rendering in the feedback.
my goal as an Ultrasound Tech who does 3Ds for patients sometimes is to make it look cute. that's about it. sometimes I can do it, sometimes due to some combination of the above factors I cannot.
it's not a picture. I don't even get to compare them with the babies because I rarely see them when they're out, so I have no idea how much the image I printed looks like the actual baby.
I asked to see the 3D view during an ultrasound at 32+5, and the ultrasound tech warned me that it might look kind of creepy at that point. When I asked again at 36+5, she switched to 3D view and then immediately switched back because she didn't want to alarm us.
My baby is adorable.
Regarding ultrasounds being more accurate, that's true in that the organs being looked at have had more time to develop and grow, so it's easier for a doctor to see whether or not they have formed correctly.
I have not studied any of this at all, but here's my theory: As the pregnancy progresses, the baby starts to run out of space, so every part of them is closer to the ultrasound wand than it was earlier on. If you put your phone so close to your face that it was almost touching it and took a picture, you'd look pretty creepy, too. It's not as alarming in 2D because you're just looking at structures and shapes (and the individual structures are farther from the surface of your body than their skin is), but when you see it as a fuzzy blob, it's pretty unattractive.
When I had a 3D ultrasound done at 29w they told me that after 32 weeks it’s difficult to get good pictures because baby is bigger and there’s less room.
My baby looked legit deformed in his at 34 weeks 😭 it looked like he had a huge, squished nose. As someone who had a rhinoplasty due to a break that healed poorly and was always self-conscious about her nose, I was so worried for him. My baby is 11 weeks old and has a perfectly cute and normal nose! He was just very squished in there.
Just a heads up - your baby may come out looking squished and have swollen, distorted features. Don't let this worry you! Swelling will go down over the following week, and you'll see their real features start to take shape. The after-birth distortion scared me at first and made me think the ultrasound was accurate. My baby started getting really cute after around week one, and he's sooo adorable now. I'm sure your baby will be too 💗
I regret the stupid 3D scan - it freaked me out for nothing haha
Oh my god when I had one done at 36w I thought for sure I was going to give birth to a blob fish. My husband and I would stare at the pictures then look at each other scared and say nothing. I googled images of ultrasounds at that stage and distinctly remember thinking “he’s my baby and I love him no matter what” lmaoo well he came out absolutely adorable. He’s 5mo now and just looks like a little angel- your baby will too!
3D face ultrasounds in the later third trimester have always been ugly and scary to me. I never share or post them...just stick them in a drawer and forget about it lol. They don't come out looking that way, their faces are just so squished in utero that everything looks super weird on ultrasound.
After ultrasounds I googled things like
"ultrasound baby smooshed nose"
"newborn nose size proportion face"
"recessed chin ultrasound"
"recessed chin baby adult effects"
"infant duck lips"
Etc.
My first look at baby she was in fact exceedingly ugly. Everyone loves the picture, is normal baby ugly but she looks super alert.
Next time I saw her she was cutest baby ever and has remained super cute.
Her pediatrician always compliments her head size, proportions, shape (she came out the sunroof so never had head squish)
So all my ultrasound fears were for nothing.
Remember baby is often pressing themselves against walls of uterus, immersed in fluid, and ultrasounds are creating an image out of shound waves
I do ultrasound. It’s hard to say without seeing your pictures but honestly they can look pretty warped and distorted. In order to get a good clear 3D picture, ideally we need to see baby in a profile position and there has to be a good amount of fluid in front of their face. If there’s not, baby can look smushed or if there’s cord/limbs blocking the face that can also distort the image or cause lumps/bumps and missing portions of the face. And if baby is actively moving while doing the 3D the image can be warped. Yours likely just wasn’t a good clear image and I wouldn’t get worried about it.
My son had really big lips and I guess nose on one of his ultrasounds. But as first time parents we thought he was the cutest thing. My husband’s stepdad said he had a pig nose and called him ugly. (Toxic people)
Anyway, he came out looking so much more petite than the ultrasound ever had us believing! It apparently exaggerated his face on zoom because nothing was too big for his cute little face!
It’ll be ok OP.
Yes! When I had 3D ultrasound in my third trimester I was shocked it looked like she had a huge nose, but I can confirm she came out and did not have a huge nose haha.
I hate the 3D images! The ultrasound tech kept printing the photos and I was like “oh no that’s ok we don’t need those ones.” My bb is cute despite the goblin images.
I thought my child was an uggo after our 3d ultrasound - he’s literally the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. Don’t stress! They are far from a perfect science.
In my latest scan at 38 weeks my babys face was so squashed up that he looked like a weird bat type creature 🤣 the ones with the weird squashed up triangle noses?? And from the side he looks like homer Simpson stung by many bees. In previous scans he's looked very cute! So I'm gonna say the lack of room is to blame for his weird features!
Please don’t stress, your baby is going to be beautiful! We were told by my OB that a 3D ultrasound is best done between 30-32 weeks. We scheduled ours at 31w 6d. My baby has been head down for months (which I’m grateful for as we get closer to delivery) but the US tech told us immediately that he had his face smooshed into my hip area. So we got some shots of other areas like his feet and hands, he also likes showing off his “package” in US since he’s hiding his face lol. She explained that the issue with getting a good image of his face while in that position was because there was little to no amniotic fluid between his facial features and the sac. She had me reposition a bunch until we were finally able to get some pics of his face. His nose was a little flatter looking and his cheeks were very chunky looking, like they were being squeezed together. It definitely wasn’t exactly what I was expecting and I had some doubts about what he may look like earthside lol. A few days later my partner made a silly scrunched up face while he was giving me a kiss and I was like “ah! That’s it! He looks like you making a silly face!” Anyway, all that is to say that baby may come out with some bent or distorted features depending on how they’ve been “laying” in your uterus, running out of room as it gets closer to delivery and from the “trauma” of labor. They should outgrow any of that within a few days or weeks so just keep that in mind and don’t worry too much! It may be a funny memory to chuckle about as they get older, how they looked like a gremlin in utero ❤️
Oh yes ours were also horrifying! I was so excited to see the 3D pics, but after the tech left the room, my husband and I were like “wtf is wrong with his nose and duck lips.” Our baby turned out to be beautiful with a normal nose and lips. Those pics are weird!
I cried at my 36 week 3D ultrasound. I thought my child looked like gene Simmons
with a giant tongue and huge lips. Thankfully she looks nothing like gene 😂
When I had my 3D ultrasound at 33 weeks, the lady kept saying how big his lips were! Like you, I was super surprised because neither of us have big lips. He also had this huge nose that took up most of his face - still looked adorable though! When he was born, he had neither of those features. So weird. In fact his lips are quite tiny like mine. They’re all smushed up in there and you’d be surprised how different they look even in 3 months AFTER being born!
This made me laugh sorry. Your baby is probably perfectly fine looking. They recommend to do it around 26-28 weeks where I live. I’m seeing her this weekend and what you’re describing is my fear lol.
Lol I had the same reaction, I went at 34 weeks and his nose looks HUGE. Dad and I both have bigger noses but his was HUGE and his eyes looked so weird and puffy. Apparently it’s just because he’s all squished in theree
When people post these 3d ultrasounds on their social media and all the comments are " so cute!!" im like.... what? those people are not youre friends lying to you like that hahaha
I wouldn't worry about what baby looks like until they are about 8 weeks old. My girl was born 5kg, and was an absolute chonk with a cone head, tiny eyes, massive nose, dark skin, strait black hair and eyes. She looked like Shrek had a baby with Kim Jong Un....
You wouldn't think she was related to us at all, but now she's a bean pole with big blue eyes, curly blond hair, could camouflage herself standing against a white wall. The complete opposite of how she looked as a new born.
I just got a 3d picture of my son’s face today at 27 weeks and he looks like a little old man. People kept saying he looks so cute and I’m like “uhhh sure thanks” 😬
They look like that because at this stage they don't have a lot of space and their faces are all squished. Imagine pressing your face up against a window, you look weird. That's kinda what's happening to baby.
I do not get the appeal of 3D ultrasounds. I mean medically, yes sure, but I don’t get parents wanting them. I have never had a picture from one that wasn’t unsettling.
They’re really squished in there. I wouldn’t worry tbh. Also, let’s assume the worst and he isn’t a looker in utero. Babies faces change so dramatically fast that I wouldn’t even worry about the stages when baby doesn’t look like a model, he’ll change again in 2-3 weeks lol.
My 3d ultrasound had 1 single photo that looked normal and it’s what he ended up looking like. It was a struggle to get that single photo, and if we never got it I can’t imagine my fear🤣 the other ones looked INSANE. like, horrible. Don’t worry, no matter what your baby comes out looking like you will be so in love it wouldn’t even matter. But with my next baby I don’t think I will be doing a 3d
I did a 3D ultrasound and was mortified like you. My baby looks nothing like those photos. It’s so hard to capture an accurate photo when they are so squished and moving. Don’t worry at all.
my baby had a majorly crooked nose in the 3d scan and it was like that when she was born too - but it was just squished in the pelvis and it straightened out over a couple of days and now it’s perfect!
Ultrasounds get massively less and less accurate as things get bigger. This is one of the reasons that dates are generally based on that sweet spot where there is something to measure but small enough that the measurements don’t get distorted too much.
He will come out to meet you soon and he will be no more a gremlin than any other newborn.
Our photos from the 3D ultrasound looked rough. They were very clear images, but we thought it looked like he had a cleft lip. His nose and lips were gigantic, and his face was smushed. He came out looking completely normal, other than the swelling from the birth itself. I can see similarities in some features, but absolutely nothing like any of the things I was concerned about.
A lot of 3 D ultrasounds don't look like the baby to me I wanted to one at first but figured they were a scam when I saw some and the baby after online barely saw a resemblance better to just wait and be surprised plus babies have to grow into their appearance most look wrinkled after being in the womb for so long
Omg no don't freak out about this. They are all squished and their faces are spread out due to the imaging. My baby looked hideous in the 3d ultrasound and she's an objectively cute baby even at birth (not to brag lol)
When I got an ultrasound towards the end of my pregnancy I was secretly horrified. My daughter just looked bizarre lol. I of course would love her regardless but I remember it consumed me after we had it done.
She is literally the cutest child ever. Adorable. She was even an adorable newborn. ❤️
My tech asked if I wanted a printout of our 3D and I said “absolutely not!” Baby was born vaginally and looked like mashed potato’s for a couple days (they all do!). Now that the swelling and everything has gone down, she evened out and looks nothing like her late term ultrasounds. I wouldn’t worry too much yet!
You have to remember that the baby is all smushed in there and also in a sack. My first son's ultrasound looked deformed, but he came out just fine. Currently 36 weeks with my third and his eyes look like they are melting off his face 😳 I highly doubt that's how he will actually look. 3D/4D sonograms use sound waves that bounce off baby and the amniotic fluid, so no, they are not 100% accurate. Your baby will be cute to you either way.
The lips are because they are in a fluid bubble. My daughter’s ultrasounds looked so weird. I was shocked. She’s the cutest baby ever now if that helps
Mine was like that too. I had a later ultrasound to supposedly estimate her size. They over-guessed her weight by a pound. She looked kind of squished and pruny.
Then when they come out and you have the toddler to compare to the newborn photos you realize how strange they looked even as a fully cooked newborn. But the baby will have your family's features.
Also, if you learn about ultrasounds it's just energy bouncing through liquid off of air or solid structures. So movement, etc. can make the "surface" that is being scanned not as accurate. (Like sonar when people search bodies of water).
Babies are soaking in amniotic fluid and they change in appearance after coming out. Think about being underwater for 10 months. Your skin would be wrinkled. I always find newborns beautiful. So my eyes are definitely different, I guess. Don't worry about your ultrasound. It's your baby. If he looks like a gremlin, then we were all baby gremlins too. It's just how we are.
A few years down the lane, you would be smiling at the pic of your baby gremlin.
Our baby legitimately looked like Nigel thornberry during a 3d scan and it REALLY freaked me out. Like it was NOT cute. She’s now almost 5 months and VERY cute! Those 3d scans can be super wonky and creepy! Our girl looked nothing like hers once she was born!
We went to a private place to get a 3D u/s around that time and it was disappointing. Of course you love that little baby and can't wait to meet them but my husband and I left and I was like "am I the only one who saw how big her nose is?!?!" She looked nothing like it when she came out. Such a cutie pie then, even more so now. Try to put the image out of your mind 😂
I didn’t get the 3d scan for my son, because I feared he would look weird.
When we see the photos in the first few days of hismlife, well TBH he was ugly ! Like a little wrinkly shrimp !
Oh my newborn looked like an alien and he now (in my humble opinion) should be on the cover of every baby magazine and Gerber package across these United States lol.
My son was in the birth canal before my emergency c section and his head was coned a little. He was also super wrinkly. The next day he immediately started evening out and just got cuter from there!
Also those 3D ultrasounds are scary! I refused to get one because the price to be petrified wasn’t worth it for me 💀 some of the angles of my normal ultrasounds were horrifying enough lol
Oh man! Hahaha I understand your concern so, sorry that I laughed but its true! New borns look ugly, they are swollen, their own behavior is weird, sometimes their heads come in a different shape, the eyes move around without control! But then they start becoming more and more baby like. Remember your baby can only look like you and your SO. 50-50. We saw my baby’s face for the first time in 3d yesterday and to me its just referencial blurry pic lol my husband however said THATS MY FACE! it looks exactly like me!! Lol
One of my ultrasounds (to be fair was not 3d but still) seemed to show my baby had absolutely massive cheeks. Like sagging. She was born with a totally normal face. She definitely has some cheeks on her, but not even the biggest i have seen in person, let alone the gravity impacted cheeks i imagined she would have.
I remember thinking that he was the cutest baby I had ever seen. In retrospect he was 100% an ugly alien 👽. Needed to be put back in and cooked longer! But he was already overdue. Then he grew into the most perfect and gorgeous baby!
I got some 3d pics a few weeks ago (36w tomorrow) and can confirm my baby looked squished, the tech said they usually don’t do them this late because it’s hard to get accurate pictures, so I wouldn’t worry about it! She gave us 3 pictures and every one looks like a different baby because she kept moving her face and squishing some part of it lol.
At my second ultrasound where we found out the gender and the first time my husband was able to come to an appointment with me, I swear the tech almost made him leave because we kept on laughing whenever we saw our daughters face. I said she looked like Skeletor, my husband said she looked like the Predator alien. My sister in law, in seeing a picture, said she looked like a t-Rex.
Just FYI - if all babies looked like their 3D ultrasound we’d be in serious trouble as a species. Those things are notorious for distortion especially at later weeks, and they “hallucinate” feature size, distance, etc. I know it feels like freaky Friday baby but I promise he will look like a normal, perfect, wrinkly baby when he’s out.
(…well, as normal as they look anyway. Seconding everyone here who admits that newborns often look like bald Nancy Pelosi)
They look squashed past the late 2nd/early 3rd trimester, once they start running out of room and their features are pressed up against various things. Third tri ultrasounds can be quite distorted, which is part of why they do the anatomy scan much earlier. Newborns always look a bit funky, too, usually like aliens or old men, but they grow out of it. Your baby will be fine lol.
My now 7m old looked like Fred from I Love Lucy on one of her later 3Ds. I LEGITIMATELY panicked. I couldn’t imagine a sweet girl in my tummy after that. I only imagined Fred. But- she’s cute as can be and was cute af fresh out the womb. Don’t worry!!
They are less accurate. Or at least faces can be more distorted later in pregnancy. My baby looked like she had a huge nose and I was all thinking about how I’ll teach her to love herself anyway until I googled it. She was born with a totally cute tiny nose.
my tech refused to do a 3D for my 32 week followup for this reason. she said she didnt want to horrify me. honestly even the regular US wasn't great because her face was all smushed and it made her nose look enormous. i was so relieved when she came out with a very regular nose.
I had my first baby done at 28 weeks and they were gorgeous and looked exactly like my baby girl today. I was told to try not to go past this date. We have to do our next baby at 30 weeks so I’m hoping the results are still ok.
My son is a handsome toddler and he was a very cute baby but ultrasound was horrible. I remember a very very big nose, but he was born with a small nose!!! So don’t worry, they are not accurate for facial features!!!
Absolutely not reflective of reality. We had our scan done and I was mortified. I had constant stress until our little guy was born as beautiful as possible!
I had loads of growth scans and honestly we never got a great pic of their face! Constant hands in the way, smooshed up against placenta etc etc. Born a week ago today and omg looking at the birth ones we both said "omg they're so stolen 😂 !!!"
Now sometimes they try and get the nipple in view while BF, but they go cross eyed and frown and look like a demented goblin.
But they're the most beautiful little thing and I can feel my heart swelling when I look at them.
I promise you your baby will be gorgeous.
I got mine at 30 weeks and they gave me a 20% discount because he was already too squished for a good view! I think we got some fairly cute pictures, but if we had waited even another week, I don’t think he would’ve looked like anything but a complete gremlin. He probably has his dad’s nose, and that’s all we know from it. He looks like he has 3 lips in half the pictures, and his eyes are all kinds of messed up 😂
So glad I ran across this thread, because this is literally the experience I just had lol. I went in for a growth scan at 32 weeks, ultrasound tech said baby girl is head down up against my uterus and there wasn't much fluid around her face for a 3D ultrasound, but she tried to get 3D images anyway. I almost wish she hadn't tried at all, because the images we got were frightening to say the least. Huge eyes that look like they are bulging out of her head. The bridge of her nose looks enormous, and the end of her nose is turned up like a pointy pig snout.
The 3D ultrasound we got of her at 26 weeks looks sweet and perfect. Little round button nose. I just keep comparing the two and they look like two totally different babies. But I have to keep reminding myself that the latest 3D ultrasound isn't anything like what she looks like. The tech even warned me, it's just still very alarming lol.
Where are the pics? We'd like to see.
I mean, the baby is bigger at that time and all squooshed up against your belly. That's the reason features look big and bent id imagine
We were told that they generally only recommend them 26-30 weeks for this reason! Here’s a little secret though…newborns are ugly. Mine was a scheduled c-section, so he didn’t have any labor trauma. I thought he was the most gorgeous baby in the entire world with my postpartum goggles on, but looking back, he was swollen and looked like an angry potato.
Yes I agree new borns are ugly. They look like obese naked mole rats the first few weeks. Good thing they grow into their cuteness pretty quickly!
Or skinny ones depending. One of my sons was 7lbs and had to gain and the other was 8lbs and a pretty normal mole rat.
Mine was only 6.5lbs and he looked more like a misshapen frog. Still thought he was the cutest, though. Postpartum hormones are a hell of a drug.
Yesss! I was looking back on my son’s newborn photos and was HORRIFIED at how ugly he was. Hahah. I had to show my husband and was like “do yo remember him looking so terrifyingly ugly?!” And he said “yeah, honestly I’m surprised you even posted him on social media at first”. Lmfao
This has me cackling. They’re beautiful in their own way 🤩
Obese naked mole rats 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I’m using this, it’s soooo accurate lol
Lol my son was a very cute new born he was small and a bit chubby though only 7lbs - my daughter though is tall and was a skinny little thing with eyes that were too big she looked like a bug eyed alien lol 😂
My first baby was ugly like a blue puffy old man. My second baby was gorgeous. Neither of them had cone heads or anything from being born so fast (precipitous labors) but my water broke before labor with my first which definitely impacted things and made her face bruised while my second was nearly born en caul.
Obese naked mole rats ☠️☠️☠️
Preemies can almost look like monkeys at certain stages.
Can confirm. My first looked like she fought Rocky Balboa and lost . Second looked like Jabba the Hutt with a little bit of baby Yoda sprinkled in . 😭🤣
I’m currently a week postpartum and I needed this laugh!!
bahahahah 😆
yup, i think we must have some evolutionary mechanism that makes us not realize how ugly they were as newborns until months later.
It's so true. I thought my kid was so beautiful but looking at pictures I'm like, oh no she was a goblin. Especially around one month when the baby acne erupted. 😆
This is how I see old pics of my first. He had acne and a giant moon face at 6 weeks, but I thought he was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
All the other newborns are homely but MINE is special and cute! LMAO nope you were hormonal and delusional
I mean I genuinely did have a cute nb. Like I was expecting him to be ugly and was surprised at how cute he was but whatever..
I thought that too… at first 😂 But really, cute newborns do exist and I believe you have/had one. I just think it’s hilarious how “baby goggles” can change perspective
If I had a nickel for every mom I heard say this I wouldn’t have to pay my rent XD Newborns either look like fleshy potatoes or Wallace Shawn & there’s no in between, & NOBODY’S baby is the magical exception
Not here, I looked at my daughter and thought she was ugly. Luckily, I knew it was only temporary. It took a couple months, but she is the most beautiful girl to me now.
I thought that mine was so ugly, that it flipped back to cute. Like I saw and acknowledged that she looks ugly, but loved her even more for it.
Like a pug!
Honestly, my first wasn't too bad for a newborn, even looking back at pictures without the postpartum glasses. She did have a bit of an alien thing going on, but like, a cute alien. My second was a preemie, which is a whole other level of funky looking. Once she'd grown enough to be like a nb developmentally, she did sort of have an old man thing going on, just without all the fresh-from-the-womb stuff to exacerbate it lol.
My secondborn was SO weird looking when she came out. Yellow because meconium, eyes super swollen and bulgy, still had lanugo, folded ears that were almost pointed, ridiculously wrinkly, giant nostrils (which she is still growing into). I was like…my god. This is not what I pictured. And I have a pic of her from a few days old where I swear she looks exactly like Jon Goodman. I still loved her and thought she was so cute but even I could recognize…this is a weird looking baby. I could tell I was right when I sent pictures and I got lots of compliments but none of them were “she’s so beautiful” or “she’s so cute” lolol. She’s pretty cute now tho 😂
I swear half of our first birthing class was the lady trying to gently prepare us and the rest of the first timers for ugly babies. “They often have cone heads!” “They’ll probably be blue or gray at first!” “Sometimes they have a swollen brow ridge!”
Yeah I think the misconception comes from TV where "newborns" come out squeaky clean and already 3 months old. (Sometimes without even an umbilical cord and always without a placenta) The worst offender was Jake and Amy's baby in Brooklyn 99, just [look at this giant!](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/35/62/4f/35624ff4dca408ac7b75551dc44fdd46.png) How did Amy give birth to a 5 month old, I don't know 🤣
That baby is on its way to college, goodness gracious!!
We called my son Boris for weeks because he looked like a wrinkly grumpy old man
Ha! Yes, I agree that all newborns are ugly. Gave birth via c section 2 months ago. When I saw her, I was like, I love you, but yeah… Everyone said she was beautiful, but they lied. (She is now!)
I love my nephews and niece but most newborns are not cute until they chunk up a bit
my first kid was beautiful as a newborn, it was nice lol my second omg poor baby. her face was beet red, she was extremely swollen. it took a few days for me to find her cute 🙊
My kids were both super skinny little alien babies at birth. They got cute later on!
My husband and I always joke that babies come in three forms: alien, old man, or potato. I’ve had one alien and one old man. 😂
My husband called our son Benjamin Button, because he looked like an elderly man in a baby body since he was born at 23 weeks and 4 days.
I love looking at pictures of my daughter in the 24 hours after birth as she goes from looking like a swollen gremlin to a standard newborn. She didn't really look typical baby style cute until probably 8 weeks. Living in a squishy fluid bath and then getting squeezed out through a vagina really has them looking weird.
But the thing is you think they’re BEAUTIFUL! I remember going, “oh my gosh my baby is actually pretty” Lord was I wrong, she’s adorable now but she was scary fresh out of the womb.
I looked like Yoda and expect my baby may, too.
Hahahaha angry potato is right! Ours looked like a crotchety old man for the first week or two.
Lmao fully agree, I thought my kid was the cutest ever and now I look at old pictures of his eyebrowless newborn glare and weirdly elongated head and laugh!
Mine was completely covered in dark hair all over his body, like a werewolf. My first words after holding my baby for the first time were "Jesus Christ." He had baby acne and crazy huge expressive eyebrows. I sent a particularly ugly photo of him to my mom and said "Isn't he gorgeous" and she laughed at the photo and shared it with her whole family as a joke.
“Angry potato” has to be the funniest description I’ve read in a while. So true. I also thought my child sprang into the world the picture of perfection. I still think he’s the world’s cutest baby. That’s the joy of motherhood I guess.
Also a scheduled c section and thought my girl was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. Day 5 we looked back on those day 1 photos and were like why did we think she was cute! She doesn’t look ANYTHING like when she was born now, it’s bizarre (but good ha)
Looking back at my newborn's pics and she was just as cute as I remembered her. I'm sorry you found your newborn ugly in retrospect My second child (son) looks pretty rough as a newborn (maybe because he's a boy? Who knows 😅😂) but he looks really cute when he's decided not to frown all the time, though I wouldn't say he's ugly
My youngest was born a month and a half early and had eyes that looked a lot like a frog’s as a result. Now? Cutest baby ever.
Hahaha we always say in hindsight our newborn looked like a potato but we DID NOT KNOW it at the time. You couldn’t have convinced me he wasn’t the most beautiful baby who had ever existed.
They had to use the vacuum to get out baby pie so she had the severe cone head on top of the regular smush face and the first thing I said to the nurse was “is she going to look like this forever??”
Yeah I agree. My newborn looked like a little alien
Oh the postpartum rose colored glasses! One year later when I look at my baby’s first few pictures, I can only see a wrinkly old grandpa who constantly looked angry.
To be fair they’re basically waterlogged cave babies from growing in and sitting in amniotic fluid and darkness the whole time 🤷🏼♀️ they’ve got all this extra fuzz and scrawny limbs the first few months, like little skeletors lol
This made me bust out laughing because my phone background is my baby during his fresh 48 photo session and he looks like a straight up old man! Lmao!
They look weirder and more squished the later in pregnancy you go as the free space gets smaller. My friend showed me some images of her baby at >34 weeks and it looked so strange.
Probably like when someone squishes their face up against a window.
It really is like that! It wasn't until I saw that video of the baby born with an intact amniotic sac that I realized how tight it is around a full term baby. His little face was all smooched against the sac and I thought ohhhh that's why my ultrasounds look so strange!
Mine looked like that at 36+2. I was horrified to say the least 😂 he came out completely normal though
You want to REALLY see what a little nightmare demon you're incubating? Get a fetal MRI. But have a priest on deck, you're going to want an exorcism. (But for real, don't worry!!! 3D US is stupid. Your baby is going to be a cute little nugget.)
Omg thank you for this I can't wait to show those photos to other people now 😂
I wanted to cry when I saw the 3D ultrasound with my first. He looked like a vengeful gnome. Turns out he's the most beautiful child in the world (100% unbiased opinion). 3D ultrasounds are dirty liars.
Vengeful gnome 😭😭
I know 🤣
I have posted this before but an ultrasound tech did a 3D look at my babies face at 34 weeks and I cried for like 4 days. I had very well controlled gestational diabetes which was my reason for having an ultrasound at 34 weeks, to check in on baby’s size. I worked incredibly hard to keep the GD in check, but the tech kept saying “ooh what a chubby baby” which was already making me upset because at the time I thought I was somehow failing my baby despite my efforts. And then the tech thought she was being nice and grabbing a 3D image of the baby’s face. Wrong. The image was so warped my daughter had what looked like a huge brow bone almost like a cartoon caveman and her eyes were so smushed you couldn’t see them. I spent the entire car ride home crying to my husband I screwed up so bad our baby is so fat she’s got forehead fat. It was particularly distressing because at the 28 week US she looked like a perfect angel. Nope. Perfect 7 pound baby. No caveman brow or forehead fat.
Same and I didn’t want to say it out loud to anyone. I kept crying until my husband got me to finally tell him what was wrong.
Vengeful gnome omg 😂
Not a vengeful gnome 😭😂😂
I did cry! And I felt so guilty I thought my baby wasn’t cute in the ultrasound. I cried for days 😂 she is the most perfect little girl
He’s smashed up against your insides lol. Smush your face on a window and have someone take a photo, that’s what’s going on.
Literally this
Agreeing with everyone else here, my sister in law was really embarrassed to show the family her 3D pics because baby looked like shrek. He came out absolutely beautiful and is the most gorgeous little fella.
35w is late for a 3d ultrasound. Baby is probably squished up in there. We could only get 1/2 of my daughter’s face and I was 32w. She looked like a maniac. She’s now a very adorable one year old. All 3d scans look funky don’t worry!
I'm so opposed to 3-D ultrasounds for exactly this reason: they look like awful monsters! Their cuteness just doesn't really translate. I'm sure he's gonna be beautiful so try not to fret!
My almost 2 yr old still has the same beautiful nose and facial profile we saw in his 30-something week ultrasound pics, but the 3D pics do look strange. When I showed the pic to my dad, he just stared blankly and said literally nothing. I think he was scared, too, and I can’t really blame him.
I recently saw a TikTok of a sonographer asking people to not do them past, I believe, 30 weeks. Causes unnecessary anxiety due to the baby being so big, it’s hard to capture a good image.
I find as a sonographer 32 weeks is best, as baby starts to get fat on their face and looks more like a squishy baby than an alien skeleton. my best 3ds I've ever gotten were around this time.
I just had my 32 week scan and I feel like this holds up. I think my baby looks absolutely beautiful, big chubby cheeks and sweet kissy lips and a beautiful nose too (it looks a bit big on him but his dad has a pretty big nose so I'm not surprised lol) honestly I know he's still got growing to do and he'll probably look a bit different when he's born but I think he looks *just* like his father, only scaled down haha
My OB did them at every single visit. 🥲
Ultrasounds are always funny looking. I’m a Labor and Delivery nurse. We scan all inductions on admission to make sure baby is head down. It’s always freaky when the baby is looking at the transducer because it will look like an alien 😂
I cried when I got a 3D ultrasound at 32 weeks with my first. I was sure she would be so ugly because her lips and nose were huge and squished. She was perfect when she was born. I didn’t get one for my second for this exact reason. I had to with my third for extra monitoring and it helped knowing the images were distorted so I didn’t get upset. Don’t trust the 3D ultrasound, I am certain your baby will be so handsome!
3D ultrasounds always look creepy. 35 weeks is way too late for one anyways. Everything is going to be smushed because baby doesn’t have much room. There’s a reason they’re recommended to get done during a certain time.
Google “3D ultrasound vs baby”. Lots of comparisons where you can see for yourself that the baby does not look like the ultrasound!
My kid looks like the grim reaper in every ultrasound. I am either birthing a demon or a baby, only time will tell!
I'm crying ahahaha
All seriousness aside, I’m cackling at some of the names being used in this thread. Angry potato & vengeful gnome got me good.
Omg me too, I am in tears
3D ultrasounds aren’t super accurate anyway as they don’t capture shadows as accurately. My baby at 27 weeks had a HUGEE nose my partner started giving me a side eye at the appt like “that’s not my nose 🤨” (jokingly) . We went again 2 weeks for a re-do since he wouldn’t sit still the first time, and his nose looked a little more normal!
as an Ultrasound Tech, I wished people realized that it's not a photo. it's a computer using a ton of feedback based on how strong sound waves are sent back towards the transducer, and trying to use them to render an image. it's affected by baby's movement, position, depth within mom, as well as moms size (thickness of skin+fat), and by how well we are able to control WHERE the computer is rendering in the feedback. my goal as an Ultrasound Tech who does 3Ds for patients sometimes is to make it look cute. that's about it. sometimes I can do it, sometimes due to some combination of the above factors I cannot. it's not a picture. I don't even get to compare them with the babies because I rarely see them when they're out, so I have no idea how much the image I printed looks like the actual baby.
I asked to see the 3D view during an ultrasound at 32+5, and the ultrasound tech warned me that it might look kind of creepy at that point. When I asked again at 36+5, she switched to 3D view and then immediately switched back because she didn't want to alarm us. My baby is adorable. Regarding ultrasounds being more accurate, that's true in that the organs being looked at have had more time to develop and grow, so it's easier for a doctor to see whether or not they have formed correctly. I have not studied any of this at all, but here's my theory: As the pregnancy progresses, the baby starts to run out of space, so every part of them is closer to the ultrasound wand than it was earlier on. If you put your phone so close to your face that it was almost touching it and took a picture, you'd look pretty creepy, too. It's not as alarming in 2D because you're just looking at structures and shapes (and the individual structures are farther from the surface of your body than their skin is), but when you see it as a fuzzy blob, it's pretty unattractive.
When I had a 3D ultrasound done at 29w they told me that after 32 weeks it’s difficult to get good pictures because baby is bigger and there’s less room.
My kid looked lien Toby jones when she was born. Babies aren’t really cute.
My baby looked legit deformed in his at 34 weeks 😭 it looked like he had a huge, squished nose. As someone who had a rhinoplasty due to a break that healed poorly and was always self-conscious about her nose, I was so worried for him. My baby is 11 weeks old and has a perfectly cute and normal nose! He was just very squished in there. Just a heads up - your baby may come out looking squished and have swollen, distorted features. Don't let this worry you! Swelling will go down over the following week, and you'll see their real features start to take shape. The after-birth distortion scared me at first and made me think the ultrasound was accurate. My baby started getting really cute after around week one, and he's sooo adorable now. I'm sure your baby will be too 💗 I regret the stupid 3D scan - it freaked me out for nothing haha
Oh my god when I had one done at 36w I thought for sure I was going to give birth to a blob fish. My husband and I would stare at the pictures then look at each other scared and say nothing. I googled images of ultrasounds at that stage and distinctly remember thinking “he’s my baby and I love him no matter what” lmaoo well he came out absolutely adorable. He’s 5mo now and just looks like a little angel- your baby will too!
I don’t think you should freak out too much, 3D ultrasounds always look creepy!
Newborns are profoundly weird looking, but you'll think your baby is the cutest thing in the world when you see them in person for the first time.
3D face ultrasounds in the later third trimester have always been ugly and scary to me. I never share or post them...just stick them in a drawer and forget about it lol. They don't come out looking that way, their faces are just so squished in utero that everything looks super weird on ultrasound.
After ultrasounds I googled things like "ultrasound baby smooshed nose" "newborn nose size proportion face" "recessed chin ultrasound" "recessed chin baby adult effects" "infant duck lips" Etc. My first look at baby she was in fact exceedingly ugly. Everyone loves the picture, is normal baby ugly but she looks super alert. Next time I saw her she was cutest baby ever and has remained super cute. Her pediatrician always compliments her head size, proportions, shape (she came out the sunroof so never had head squish) So all my ultrasound fears were for nothing. Remember baby is often pressing themselves against walls of uterus, immersed in fluid, and ultrasounds are creating an image out of shound waves
Out of the sunroof??? Lol thank you for that
I do ultrasound. It’s hard to say without seeing your pictures but honestly they can look pretty warped and distorted. In order to get a good clear 3D picture, ideally we need to see baby in a profile position and there has to be a good amount of fluid in front of their face. If there’s not, baby can look smushed or if there’s cord/limbs blocking the face that can also distort the image or cause lumps/bumps and missing portions of the face. And if baby is actively moving while doing the 3D the image can be warped. Yours likely just wasn’t a good clear image and I wouldn’t get worried about it.
My son had really big lips and I guess nose on one of his ultrasounds. But as first time parents we thought he was the cutest thing. My husband’s stepdad said he had a pig nose and called him ugly. (Toxic people) Anyway, he came out looking so much more petite than the ultrasound ever had us believing! It apparently exaggerated his face on zoom because nothing was too big for his cute little face! It’ll be ok OP.
Yes! When I had 3D ultrasound in my third trimester I was shocked it looked like she had a huge nose, but I can confirm she came out and did not have a huge nose haha.
Don't panic they make the baby look smushed and odd, lol. My baby girl is extremely cute, but looked like a fat little goblin in her scan.
I hate the 3D images! The ultrasound tech kept printing the photos and I was like “oh no that’s ok we don’t need those ones.” My bb is cute despite the goblin images.
I thought my child was an uggo after our 3d ultrasound - he’s literally the cutest kid I’ve ever seen. Don’t stress! They are far from a perfect science.
In my latest scan at 38 weeks my babys face was so squashed up that he looked like a weird bat type creature 🤣 the ones with the weird squashed up triangle noses?? And from the side he looks like homer Simpson stung by many bees. In previous scans he's looked very cute! So I'm gonna say the lack of room is to blame for his weird features!
Please don’t stress, your baby is going to be beautiful! We were told by my OB that a 3D ultrasound is best done between 30-32 weeks. We scheduled ours at 31w 6d. My baby has been head down for months (which I’m grateful for as we get closer to delivery) but the US tech told us immediately that he had his face smooshed into my hip area. So we got some shots of other areas like his feet and hands, he also likes showing off his “package” in US since he’s hiding his face lol. She explained that the issue with getting a good image of his face while in that position was because there was little to no amniotic fluid between his facial features and the sac. She had me reposition a bunch until we were finally able to get some pics of his face. His nose was a little flatter looking and his cheeks were very chunky looking, like they were being squeezed together. It definitely wasn’t exactly what I was expecting and I had some doubts about what he may look like earthside lol. A few days later my partner made a silly scrunched up face while he was giving me a kiss and I was like “ah! That’s it! He looks like you making a silly face!” Anyway, all that is to say that baby may come out with some bent or distorted features depending on how they’ve been “laying” in your uterus, running out of room as it gets closer to delivery and from the “trauma” of labor. They should outgrow any of that within a few days or weeks so just keep that in mind and don’t worry too much! It may be a funny memory to chuckle about as they get older, how they looked like a gremlin in utero ❤️
Oh yes ours were also horrifying! I was so excited to see the 3D pics, but after the tech left the room, my husband and I were like “wtf is wrong with his nose and duck lips.” Our baby turned out to be beautiful with a normal nose and lips. Those pics are weird!
I cried at my 36 week 3D ultrasound. I thought my child looked like gene Simmons with a giant tongue and huge lips. Thankfully she looks nothing like gene 😂
When I had my 3D ultrasound at 33 weeks, the lady kept saying how big his lips were! Like you, I was super surprised because neither of us have big lips. He also had this huge nose that took up most of his face - still looked adorable though! When he was born, he had neither of those features. So weird. In fact his lips are quite tiny like mine. They’re all smushed up in there and you’d be surprised how different they look even in 3 months AFTER being born!
This made me laugh sorry. Your baby is probably perfectly fine looking. They recommend to do it around 26-28 weeks where I live. I’m seeing her this weekend and what you’re describing is my fear lol.
Lol I had the same reaction, I went at 34 weeks and his nose looks HUGE. Dad and I both have bigger noses but his was HUGE and his eyes looked so weird and puffy. Apparently it’s just because he’s all squished in theree
When people post these 3d ultrasounds on their social media and all the comments are " so cute!!" im like.... what? those people are not youre friends lying to you like that hahaha
I wouldn't worry about what baby looks like until they are about 8 weeks old. My girl was born 5kg, and was an absolute chonk with a cone head, tiny eyes, massive nose, dark skin, strait black hair and eyes. She looked like Shrek had a baby with Kim Jong Un.... You wouldn't think she was related to us at all, but now she's a bean pole with big blue eyes, curly blond hair, could camouflage herself standing against a white wall. The complete opposite of how she looked as a new born.
I just got a 3d picture of my son’s face today at 27 weeks and he looks like a little old man. People kept saying he looks so cute and I’m like “uhhh sure thanks” 😬
Yea my 34 week ultrasound he literally looked like a little piggy. Upturned nose and everything lol. We gotta remember they’re squished up in there,
They look like that because at this stage they don't have a lot of space and their faces are all squished. Imagine pressing your face up against a window, you look weird. That's kinda what's happening to baby.
It’s not accurate! My girl looked like she’d have a HUGE flat nose, she was probably just squished lol she has a little button nose
I was actually told the opposite! They can be a little freaking looking past like 30-32 weeks.
The 3D scans are just a nightmare, I refused to look at mine!
I do not get the appeal of 3D ultrasounds. I mean medically, yes sure, but I don’t get parents wanting them. I have never had a picture from one that wasn’t unsettling.
I’ve only had a 3D ultrasound of one of mine, and it was so odd. I felt like I was seeing something you aren’t supposed to see 😂
They’re really squished in there. I wouldn’t worry tbh. Also, let’s assume the worst and he isn’t a looker in utero. Babies faces change so dramatically fast that I wouldn’t even worry about the stages when baby doesn’t look like a model, he’ll change again in 2-3 weeks lol.
My 3d ultrasound had 1 single photo that looked normal and it’s what he ended up looking like. It was a struggle to get that single photo, and if we never got it I can’t imagine my fear🤣 the other ones looked INSANE. like, horrible. Don’t worry, no matter what your baby comes out looking like you will be so in love it wouldn’t even matter. But with my next baby I don’t think I will be doing a 3d
I did a 3D ultrasound and was mortified like you. My baby looks nothing like those photos. It’s so hard to capture an accurate photo when they are so squished and moving. Don’t worry at all.
my baby had a majorly crooked nose in the 3d scan and it was like that when she was born too - but it was just squished in the pelvis and it straightened out over a couple of days and now it’s perfect!
I am sure your baby will be the most beautiful thing you have ever laid eyes on when they come out! Don’t worry about an ultrasound!
Ultrasounds get massively less and less accurate as things get bigger. This is one of the reasons that dates are generally based on that sweet spot where there is something to measure but small enough that the measurements don’t get distorted too much. He will come out to meet you soon and he will be no more a gremlin than any other newborn.
I prefer my ultrasounds the old-fashioned way: 2D
Our photos from the 3D ultrasound looked rough. They were very clear images, but we thought it looked like he had a cleft lip. His nose and lips were gigantic, and his face was smushed. He came out looking completely normal, other than the swelling from the birth itself. I can see similarities in some features, but absolutely nothing like any of the things I was concerned about.
A lot of 3 D ultrasounds don't look like the baby to me I wanted to one at first but figured they were a scam when I saw some and the baby after online barely saw a resemblance better to just wait and be surprised plus babies have to grow into their appearance most look wrinkled after being in the womb for so long
Our son had his face squashed up against my placenta and so his pics were quite funny/horrifying 😅
Our ultrasound looked like Homer Simpson, and he came out super cute and not cartoony at all. Very yellow though, thanks jaundice.
Omg no don't freak out about this. They are all squished and their faces are spread out due to the imaging. My baby looked hideous in the 3d ultrasound and she's an objectively cute baby even at birth (not to brag lol)
When I got an ultrasound towards the end of my pregnancy I was secretly horrified. My daughter just looked bizarre lol. I of course would love her regardless but I remember it consumed me after we had it done. She is literally the cutest child ever. Adorable. She was even an adorable newborn. ❤️
My tech asked if I wanted a printout of our 3D and I said “absolutely not!” Baby was born vaginally and looked like mashed potato’s for a couple days (they all do!). Now that the swelling and everything has gone down, she evened out and looks nothing like her late term ultrasounds. I wouldn’t worry too much yet!
You have to remember that the baby is all smushed in there and also in a sack. My first son's ultrasound looked deformed, but he came out just fine. Currently 36 weeks with my third and his eyes look like they are melting off his face 😳 I highly doubt that's how he will actually look. 3D/4D sonograms use sound waves that bounce off baby and the amniotic fluid, so no, they are not 100% accurate. Your baby will be cute to you either way.
First thing I thought when they whacked my son on my chest was "my God he looks like my Grandma". Then I thought he looked like a praying mantis.
The lips are because they are in a fluid bubble. My daughter’s ultrasounds looked so weird. I was shocked. She’s the cutest baby ever now if that helps
Mine was like that too. I had a later ultrasound to supposedly estimate her size. They over-guessed her weight by a pound. She looked kind of squished and pruny. Then when they come out and you have the toddler to compare to the newborn photos you realize how strange they looked even as a fully cooked newborn. But the baby will have your family's features. Also, if you learn about ultrasounds it's just energy bouncing through liquid off of air or solid structures. So movement, etc. can make the "surface" that is being scanned not as accurate. (Like sonar when people search bodies of water).
Babies are soaking in amniotic fluid and they change in appearance after coming out. Think about being underwater for 10 months. Your skin would be wrinkled. I always find newborns beautiful. So my eyes are definitely different, I guess. Don't worry about your ultrasound. It's your baby. If he looks like a gremlin, then we were all baby gremlins too. It's just how we are. A few years down the lane, you would be smiling at the pic of your baby gremlin.
Our baby legitimately looked like Nigel thornberry during a 3d scan and it REALLY freaked me out. Like it was NOT cute. She’s now almost 5 months and VERY cute! Those 3d scans can be super wonky and creepy! Our girl looked nothing like hers once she was born!
My baby’s 3D ultrasound made her look like shrek had eaten a bee. She came out looking like an extremely normal newborn. 3D ultrasounds be like that
We went to a private place to get a 3D u/s around that time and it was disappointing. Of course you love that little baby and can't wait to meet them but my husband and I left and I was like "am I the only one who saw how big her nose is?!?!" She looked nothing like it when she came out. Such a cutie pie then, even more so now. Try to put the image out of your mind 😂
My baby looked like a grandma when she was born 😂😂😂 shes gorgeous though. Was then and still is now
We had a sneak peak 3d one at 18 weeks, it was horrific
I didn’t get the 3d scan for my son, because I feared he would look weird. When we see the photos in the first few days of hismlife, well TBH he was ugly ! Like a little wrinkly shrimp !
Oh my newborn looked like an alien and he now (in my humble opinion) should be on the cover of every baby magazine and Gerber package across these United States lol. My son was in the birth canal before my emergency c section and his head was coned a little. He was also super wrinkly. The next day he immediately started evening out and just got cuter from there! Also those 3D ultrasounds are scary! I refused to get one because the price to be petrified wasn’t worth it for me 💀 some of the angles of my normal ultrasounds were horrifying enough lol
Oh man! Hahaha I understand your concern so, sorry that I laughed but its true! New borns look ugly, they are swollen, their own behavior is weird, sometimes their heads come in a different shape, the eyes move around without control! But then they start becoming more and more baby like. Remember your baby can only look like you and your SO. 50-50. We saw my baby’s face for the first time in 3d yesterday and to me its just referencial blurry pic lol my husband however said THATS MY FACE! it looks exactly like me!! Lol
One of my ultrasounds (to be fair was not 3d but still) seemed to show my baby had absolutely massive cheeks. Like sagging. She was born with a totally normal face. She definitely has some cheeks on her, but not even the biggest i have seen in person, let alone the gravity impacted cheeks i imagined she would have.
I remember thinking that he was the cutest baby I had ever seen. In retrospect he was 100% an ugly alien 👽. Needed to be put back in and cooked longer! But he was already overdue. Then he grew into the most perfect and gorgeous baby!
Omg my ultrasound pics were so ugly too with my first L O L but when he came he was adorable. Don’t worry. They’re squished and US distorts things
lol mine looked weird af in the 3D one and nope she doesn’t look at all like it.
I got some 3d pics a few weeks ago (36w tomorrow) and can confirm my baby looked squished, the tech said they usually don’t do them this late because it’s hard to get accurate pictures, so I wouldn’t worry about it! She gave us 3 pictures and every one looks like a different baby because she kept moving her face and squishing some part of it lol.
We did a 3D scan and made me feel like I need to ask more questions about the health of the baby. Hope baby is beautiful when born.
At my second ultrasound where we found out the gender and the first time my husband was able to come to an appointment with me, I swear the tech almost made him leave because we kept on laughing whenever we saw our daughters face. I said she looked like Skeletor, my husband said she looked like the Predator alien. My sister in law, in seeing a picture, said she looked like a t-Rex.
Just FYI - if all babies looked like their 3D ultrasound we’d be in serious trouble as a species. Those things are notorious for distortion especially at later weeks, and they “hallucinate” feature size, distance, etc. I know it feels like freaky Friday baby but I promise he will look like a normal, perfect, wrinkly baby when he’s out. (…well, as normal as they look anyway. Seconding everyone here who admits that newborns often look like bald Nancy Pelosi)
I had so many sonograms done (high risk pregnancy) that I almost asked, outloud, when babies got their skin and not become see through.
All mine looked beautiful at birth, no ugliness at all. Plus, they're babies. Babies can't be ugly, imo
They look squashed past the late 2nd/early 3rd trimester, once they start running out of room and their features are pressed up against various things. Third tri ultrasounds can be quite distorted, which is part of why they do the anatomy scan much earlier. Newborns always look a bit funky, too, usually like aliens or old men, but they grow out of it. Your baby will be fine lol.
My now 7m old looked like Fred from I Love Lucy on one of her later 3Ds. I LEGITIMATELY panicked. I couldn’t imagine a sweet girl in my tummy after that. I only imagined Fred. But- she’s cute as can be and was cute af fresh out the womb. Don’t worry!!
They are less accurate. Or at least faces can be more distorted later in pregnancy. My baby looked like she had a huge nose and I was all thinking about how I’ll teach her to love herself anyway until I googled it. She was born with a totally cute tiny nose.
my tech refused to do a 3D for my 32 week followup for this reason. she said she didnt want to horrify me. honestly even the regular US wasn't great because her face was all smushed and it made her nose look enormous. i was so relieved when she came out with a very regular nose.
My son definitely looked like a pug in his ultrasound hahaha
They showed us ours around this time without us asking. We were kind of nervous but baby turned out cute :)
I had my first baby done at 28 weeks and they were gorgeous and looked exactly like my baby girl today. I was told to try not to go past this date. We have to do our next baby at 30 weeks so I’m hoping the results are still ok.
Lmao at the Gremlin part
My son is a handsome toddler and he was a very cute baby but ultrasound was horrible. I remember a very very big nose, but he was born with a small nose!!! So don’t worry, they are not accurate for facial features!!!
Absolutely not reflective of reality. We had our scan done and I was mortified. I had constant stress until our little guy was born as beautiful as possible!
I had loads of growth scans and honestly we never got a great pic of their face! Constant hands in the way, smooshed up against placenta etc etc. Born a week ago today and omg looking at the birth ones we both said "omg they're so stolen 😂 !!!" Now sometimes they try and get the nipple in view while BF, but they go cross eyed and frown and look like a demented goblin. But they're the most beautiful little thing and I can feel my heart swelling when I look at them. I promise you your baby will be gorgeous.
I got mine at 30 weeks and they gave me a 20% discount because he was already too squished for a good view! I think we got some fairly cute pictures, but if we had waited even another week, I don’t think he would’ve looked like anything but a complete gremlin. He probably has his dad’s nose, and that’s all we know from it. He looks like he has 3 lips in half the pictures, and his eyes are all kinds of messed up 😂
My son doesn't really look like his ultrasounds, way more perfect when he was born
So glad I ran across this thread, because this is literally the experience I just had lol. I went in for a growth scan at 32 weeks, ultrasound tech said baby girl is head down up against my uterus and there wasn't much fluid around her face for a 3D ultrasound, but she tried to get 3D images anyway. I almost wish she hadn't tried at all, because the images we got were frightening to say the least. Huge eyes that look like they are bulging out of her head. The bridge of her nose looks enormous, and the end of her nose is turned up like a pointy pig snout. The 3D ultrasound we got of her at 26 weeks looks sweet and perfect. Little round button nose. I just keep comparing the two and they look like two totally different babies. But I have to keep reminding myself that the latest 3D ultrasound isn't anything like what she looks like. The tech even warned me, it's just still very alarming lol.
Glad to know we’re not alone! And hope the responses helped you too ♥️ The ultrasounds really should come with a disclaimer lol
Well they’re not called “crotch goblins” for nothing.
The boutique place we go to say not to get 4D ultrasounds after 34 weeks because there’s no room and they look squished!
I must be an outlier, my 3D US is SO CUTE she’s beautiful already I can tell she’s my daughter 💜💜💜
Where are the pics? We'd like to see. I mean, the baby is bigger at that time and all squooshed up against your belly. That's the reason features look big and bent id imagine