Epilogue - part 2

At the end of July, I was 12 weeks along & we had our 1st trimester screening ultrasound with the Perinatologist.

We first met with a genetics counselor who went over both our medical & family histories as well as what kinds of chromosomal abnormalities the tests they offer will be able to tell us. We were told that just based on my age alone, we have a 1:74 chance of having a baby with Down's & a 1:96 chance of having a baby with a Trisomy 13/18 abnormality. Not great odds :( Then we discussed what the Perinatologist will look for during the ultrasound & whether or not I was going to do the blood test that goes along with the screening.

Next was the ultrasound. The scan itself took all of 2 minutes. The Dr. looked at the baby at different angles, froze some images, measured the crown/rump length, showed us the head, face, arms & legs  & printed off 3 pics for our scrapbook. She said that everything looked great & she wanted to see us back in 8 weeks for a Level II ultrasound.

Here is a pic of Baby T :) You can clearly see the head, a little arm, the body & a leg. So amazing:

As of last Nov, they have a new blood test called the MaterniT21 test which detects fetal DNA in the mother’s blood & reveals whether the fetus has the extra copy of chromosome 21 that causes Down syndrome. It is 99% accurate. It also can detect Trisomy 18 with 99% accuracy & Trisomy 13 with 91% accuracy. If the test is negative then it is pretty safe to say the baby has no chromosomal abnormalities. If the test is positive the next step is an amniocentesis just to verify 100% what the abnormality is. 

I discussed it with Shane & we both agreed that if there is something wrong with the baby, we would both want to know so that we were more prepared so I went ahead & did the blood test. It took 10 very long days for the results to come back & we were thrilled to hear that both results were 99% negative. We were SO relieved!!

So far everything with this pregnancy is going perfectly. Baby seems to be healthy, I am staying healthy (low blood pressure, low weight gain, no sugar or protein detected in my urine, etc), my "all-day" sickness & fatigue have subsided, I am feeling like myself again & we couldn't be more excited!! I even have me a little "baby bump" :)