June 17, 2007
BY GLORIA CARR Staff Writer

"Awesome," says Patano, watching his unborn child yawn and appear to smile.

Michelle Lackowski, owner of Prenatal View Ultrasound in South Elgin, scans over the stomach of Cameo Patano during a three-dimensional ultrasound, whose image is displayed on the wall.

It's a phrase he repeats, over and over again throughout the 50-minute live ultrasound.

The tiniest details -- from the baby's nose, which grandma Joanne Patano says looks like Jim's when he was a baby -- are clearly defined with the state-of-the art ultrasound equipment.

"There's the heartbeat," says Michelle Lackowski, owner of Prenatal View Ultrasound. The South Elgin facility is one of only five in Illinois providing three-dimensional or four-dimensional views.

"It's so cool," Patano says, grasping his wife's hand and leaning closer to look at the television monitor.

Cameo Patano is delivering the couple's first child in September. Cameo, 30, is a teacher at Lowrie Elementary School in Elgin; husband Jim, who turns 34 today, owns a construction company. The two met 10 years ago, dating on and off, until becoming engaged two years ago. They got married last July.

The couple decided to try to start a family right away. Cameo says she began feeling differently in late December. On Jan. 2, the couple bought a pregnancy test.

"We actually held the test way too long," she laughs. "We were waiting and waiting. We found out and we were ecstatic and crying ... we had every emotion. We were up until 2:30 in the morning. We were excited about the whole adventure."

Patano heard the baby's heart beat the first time in March.

"We both cried, it was just amazing," Cameo says.

Making it 'more real'
The 4-D ultrasound made "everything more real," she says. "It's like, wow, this is really our child. That's our baby's face, it make it real and alive."
Lackowski says the 3-D or 4-D ultrasound operates like the normal ultrasound. The difference is the sound waves are interpreted, via computer software, she says. The result is an image with more details -- such as skin, facial features and hair, she says.

She now provides "sonostream" live, which allows clients to share the experience live in real time with relatives via a private Internet site. Images are processed through a dedicated web server and streamed to a relative's computer. The video stream also is recorded so it can be viewed on-demand, she says. There also are packages that include a DVD recording of the 4-D session set to music, along with black-and-white still photographs.

Ultrasounds are done between the 26th and 34th week, she says. It is not a substitute for a diagnostic ultrasound, done earlier in the pregnancy.

She finds new dads sometimes cannot relate with the pregnancy.

"The moms are pregnant and feel the baby move around. The dads don't know what that feels like at all," she says. But, "when they come in and see the baby, they can relate more ... this is real."

Questions and gratitude
Parents have the same questions for Lackowski.
"They always ask is the baby OK," Lackowski says, and whether it really is a boy or girl.

She sees about 25 clients a week. More and more, she has pregnant women whose husbands or boyfriends are serving in Iraq. The fathers are able to see the ultrasound images via the Internet, she says.

Lackowski gets a lot of gratitude from her job. She recently had a client who pleaded to have her appointment changed to an earlier date so her father could come and see the ultrasound. The man was scheduled to undergo extensive surgery and his daughter wanted him to be able to see the baby.

"A week and a half later, she called saying she was so thankful. Her dad ended up passing," Lackowski says. His daughter was grateful that he was able to see his unborn grandchild, she says. "I was just in tears talking to her."

A family affair
The Patano ultrasound was a family affair -- Lackowski is Cameo's aunt.
Different angles caught the baby almost posing, putting its hands on the side of its face then stretching.

"Look at those forearms, it's gotta be a boy," Patano says, generating a laugh from family members.

The baby's gender is a secret, since the Patano's do not want to know. Says Cameo, "we really wanted to wait. I just want the excitement."

"The baby has some hair," Lackowski says, as the picture shifts again.

"How cool is that? You can see the fuzzy hair," Cameo says.

"Jimmy had a lot of hair, it was strawberry blond and he had this peaches and cream skin," Joanne Krauter says.

Krauter has five grandchildren but this is the first time she has seen the 4-D ultrasound. She was joined by Cameo's mom, Debbie Lackowski and other relatives. Krauter says she is amazed at seeing the baby's fingers and seeing it suck its thumb.

Her son stares at the screen, rarely taking his eyes off it.

"I gotta say, it looks like me there," Patano says.

Fatherhood will come naturally for Patano, his wife says later.

"He is a caring, fun, humorous person," Cameo says. "He will be patient, caring and giving. He's just excited to have a little one to teach and look after and cuddle. I think he will be wonderful."

Patano says the experience of viewing the 4-D ultrasound was incredible.

"It definitely makes it real," he says. "You see that little face and you get the realization it is not much longer."