Tag Archives: testing

Little Dancer (11w6d)

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We have quite a little dancer on our hands. It was flipping and wiggling and kicking and WAVING at us. But it behaved just beautifully for the ultrasound tech – even flipping to the other side to give the tech a better angle for the Nuchal Fold screening.

Paul was just slack-jawed the whole time. I was pointing out what we were seeing on the screen and he was just amazed when he finally started to see the little critter on his own. It was pretty awesome! I was laughing and giggling like a loon every time it waved at us! I couldn’t believe how active the little shrimpy thing is!

12 Week profile, over 2 inches!

There’s new pictures in the gallery, and we’re working on putting up the little movies they gave us. (The tech made us a DVD instead of printing out pictures this morning; how cool is that?) Just click the above picture to get to the gallery (or click the “Gallery” link at the top of the page.)

Nuchal Fold screening went just great. The tech & Dr. Schwartz discussed which picture/measurement to submit for review and the “official” measurement. They decided on the largest measurement she could get, which was 1.21mm. Anything under 3mm is just great, so we were very pleased with these results.

They took a bunch of blood for the 1st trimester screening panel, and gave me supplies to (ick) capture all my urine for 24 hours. So Sunday will be fun. But they gotta check for protein and something else, and this gives them a baseline.

Insulin got bumped up a little more (2 units) and Dr. Schwartz is adding another BP med since I don’t think the Labetelol is really doing anything. But he’s OK with my BP where it is, and is happy to see my blood sugars where they are. Nobody had mentioned my weight to me at any appointments so far, so I asked. Turns out I lost 2lb this time, which seems odd to me, cuz I feel puffier than ever and can’t fit into some of my jeans already.

All in all, great appointment. Paul and I are so stoked!!

Prenatal Testing (11w4d)

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Round and round. I think my scholarly tendencies to study everything to death are doing me a disservice at this point.

Wednesday’s appointment is supposed to get us some good profile pictures of the critter because they’re going to do the Nuchal Fold screening test. Presumably they’ll also do some bloodwork at the same time that has some chromosomal screening stuff in there too. The bloodwork screening stuff is done during late 1st trimester and early 2nd trimester.

Depending on what these tests say, we’ll be presented with other testing/screening options. First would be CVS (chorionic villus sampling) which is akin to amniocentesis, but is slightly less invasive and can be done sooner than an amnio. CVS & amniocentesis screen for chromosomal abnormalities like Downs Syndrome and other genetic conditions. Amniocentesis can also screen for neural tube defects like spina bifida as well. Both have the bonus of telling the sex of the baby with 100% accuracy.

There’s a decent chance I’ll need an amnio later in the pregnancy anyway, depending on when Dr. Schwartz determines the baby needs to come. Amniocentesis is commonly used late in pregnancy to determine how far along lung development is. (How they tell that from amniotic fluid is beyond me.)

But I just can’t stop thinking about these tests. Do we even want them? What about the slight elevation in risk of miscarriage? What would we do with the results? Does it make me a terrible person to even be wanting this screening done? A lot of women choose not to have these tests done at all because the results wouldn’t matter to them either way. What does that say about me that the results *would* matter? And lastly, what if – God forbid – the results came back in a not-good way? What would having to make that decision to to Paul and I?

Round and round. This is part of the training to become a parent, right?