Baby Follow-Up

Here we are at 12 weeks and 2 days in the pregnancy countdown. I wanted to pass along the good news that Ryan and I got this past Friday. We had scheduled over a month ago a special ultrasound at Baptist East (the hospital where the baby will be born)to take place on Friday. This is called a nuchal translucency screening - basically, a specialist takes tons of measurements of the baby and then tells you the projected odds of your baby having Downs syndrome. There is also some blood work that goes along with this. I should note that this is a completely optional test - many expectant parents do not opt to undergo this ultrasound.

When my obstetrician asked us at our very first appointment if we wanted this test, I immediately responded with a resounding yes. Since that time, however, I've been filled with lots of uncertainty as to whether we should actually go through with the test. On the one hand, there was nothing Ryan and I could do to change the results of that test, which I can't even begin to convey what a scary thought that is. On the other hand, I definitely wanted to know so it could at least quiet some of the fears I was having (trust me, since I've found out I'm pregnant, I've turned into Chicken Little - constantly thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong!). Plus, it sounds silly but I wanted to get a better look at the baby - the obstetrician told me at this appointment, the baby would definitely LOOK like a baby as opposed to a blur like in my previous ultrasound. She also told us there was a CHANCE the specialist would be able to tell the gender, but warned us not to get our hopes up (too late!).

Wow, when my obstetrician said that the baby would look more like a baby, she wasn't kidding. Everything looked so developed - except that critical part that tells us whether to look for pink or blue clothing. This is definitely Ryan's child - he or she would not stop moving for the first twenty minutes of the exam! (I should note that we got to watch our baby for about 30-40 minutes on the computer screen - I could have watched it all day, but I don't think I would have been able to stand much more of the pressure they were putting on my abdomen to get the baby to flip around!). This child was kicking and jumping, and kept waving its little arms at us - it's like the baby knew it was being filmed!

The specialist came in toward the end to take the measurements. By this point, the little peanut decided to stop moving...for a few minutes. Then we witnessed just about the cutest thing I've seen in my life thus far. Every couple of seconds, the baby's little body would bounce up in the air. The specialist confirmed to us that our baby did in fact have hiccups. I got teary eyed just hearing that, though who am I kidding, I get teary eyed at alot of stuff (especially since I've been pregnant!).

I am happy to report that based upon the measurements taken by the specialist and ultrasound technician, as well as the first round of blood work, the odds of our child having Downs syndrome are very low - about one in several thousand. While there is no guarantee that the baby will be born completely healthy, this is still remarkable and relieving news.

So that's our latest update - I wish I could post some of these latest ultrasound pictures, they are incredible! I'm still struggling with the scanner at work to see if I can get these copied so I can post them on the blog - I'm determined I'll win that battle. In the meantime, thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and well wishes, we are grateful for them all. We have about a week and a half till we are officially through with the first trimester, at which point I'll breathe a huge sigh of relief. In all seriousness, I've been very fortunate to have so few pregnancy symptoms. To address the other question I seem to get the most from our friends and family, we expect to find out the sex of the baby in about 7 weeks (our 19th week ultrasound in the first week of December).