Genetic Screening

Check out our baby!! That's a great profile of the baby. Good lookin, huh? :-)

We had our genetic screening appointment today, where they did an ultrasound. We got about 8 pictures of the baby that I will post. A few weeks ago, prior to the appointment, I was sent a form to fill out as well as equipment to get a blood sample. I had to prick my finger and drop blood onto the form and send it in. That way, when we got to the appointment, they would be able to give us the results of the test.

First, we met with a women, the genetic counselor who went over various information about birth defects and statistics and what the odds might be for a woman my age to have a baby with Down's or some other problem, and some other general information about genetic testing and what our options are. We then went back into the waiting room to wait for the ultrasound technician. The woman who did the ultrasound was great. She was really friendly and lively and the equipment she was using was very impressive. It was much more advanced than the 1st ultrasound we got, which is not surprising since this is the genetic testing office, and they are looking for more specific things. It was pretty amazing to actually see the baby. It definitely made it seem real. At the 1st prenatal appointment where she did the ultrasound, the baby didn't even look like a baby and was too tiny too see anything other than the heartbeat. Today, as you can see, it looks like a baby. It's still too early to know the gender - that will probably be sometime in March when they can know for sure.

They are looking for something specific in this ultrasound and the baby needs to be in a specific position for them to get a clear picture of the spinal area that leads to the head. Needless to say, the baby was not cooperating and was moving all over the place. That was wild to actually see the baby moving inside my body, yet I couldn't feel anything. It was moving its arms and legs and changing positions. At one point it looked like it was standing up. If the baby is in the right position, then the ultrasound only takes about 10 minutes maybe. We were in there about 45 minutes. We did get some good pictures to take home, though. They did finally get the shot they needed. It was cool for me and Joe because we got so much time to see the baby and to see it in so many different positions that we got a really good view of its whole body pretty much. It's an active little one.

We then met with the genetic counselor again to go over all of the results. Thankfully, they were all really positive, and there was nothing there that they found of concern or that raised any red flags. Joe and I did not really want to do an amniocentesis, and based on the results from today, we have decided not to. Obviously nothing is 100%, but the odds are very low that our baby would have some kind of defect. The odds of having a miscarriage from an amnio is about 1/350, and the odds of us having a baby with Down's or another abnormality was like 1/ close to 9000, so that made the decision not to have an amnio pretty easy. Joe and I feel really good after today and are looking forward to the rest of the pregnancy.