Baby Update

Now that we've made it through all our appointments this month, it's time for a baby update.  When we last left off, I had gone through a gazillion blood tests to determine (a) I had some low protein levels and (b) I had a gene defect.

We started off this month with an ultrasound and a test for Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and Trisomy 13.   The ultrasound was cool, as always.  We got to hear the heart beat for the first time, along with new measurements.  The things that had made us nervous came out positively (like the child missing part of it's skull/brain) and everything seemed to look great.  Plus, the kiddo definitely is my kid.  Look at those runner's legs!!

There was more blood drawn for this test, which a week later came back with good results. The likelihood of Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and Trisomy 13 came back with the lowest percentage possible that the test could prove.

Just two days later, however, my regular OB called.  She had consulted with the high risk doctor and they had decided to put me on blood thinners - one 81 mg aspirin daily.  Two steps forward; one step back.

One day later, I had my regular monthly exam with my regular OB.  Things were looking good (minus the scolding I got for not peeing in the cup when I got up in the morning.  Seriously, what is the first pee of the day when you get up 5 times each night to pee?)  I got to hear the heartbeat again.  I was measuring well and had only gained three pounds.  The doctor said I was doing a good job with exercise and diet and gaining weight appropriately.  Music to my ears.  I had yet another blood test for my protein levels again.  I now had bruises in both arms from having my blood drawn twice in one week.  Have you lost count yet with how much blood they've taken?

Lastly this month we had our appointment with the high risk OB.  Honestly, I wasn't too nervous as I just had a feeling everything was fine, but tentatively we were both holding our breath.  The appointment started off with the longest ultrasound.  The technician measured EVERYTHING!!!  The diameter of the head, the circumference of the torso, the length of bones, the size of the eye sockets, and we even saw blood flow for both the heart and the umbilical cord.  It was complete!  And in the very end, we found out the gender of the baby.  However, you all are going to have to wait on that one as Dave and I have decided we want to keep that just between the two of us until the baby is born.  No one knows except us; not even our parents.  We went so far as to cut out the ultrasound picture labeled with the gender and the picture with the heart rate and put those in our locked firebox to keep the secret.

Look at baby sucking its thumb!

Finally, we met with the specialist and his fellow.  Both were super cool and educated us on my gene defect.  Turns out it doesn't mean jack crap, which is exactly what we had researched.  I guess 40% of caucasians have this defect and it really doesn't mean anything for pregnancy.  I guess there was a paper written in 1999 that scared the medical community about this defect, but, as they quoted, "millions of papers" have been written since that dispute this.  The doctor asked me a few more questions about bruising and the flow of my period (sorry), and decided to do a few more tests.  Yes, I had six more vials of blood taken at the very end of this appointment.  If you're keeping count, that's 32 vials of blood in four doctor's appointments.  And the doctor took me back off the blood thinners, saying I didn't need them.  Finally, we set an appointment to return to the high risk OB in December to have a growth analysis done just to make sure everything's okay.