It's a Girl!

This morning Damien and I had the anatomical survey for our baby at the Legacy Center for Maternal Fetal Medicine at Emanuel Hospital.

The technician we had was really great. As we were looking at the various parts of the baby, she would explain what they were and if that part looked normal. She would also explain what we would see if that part was not normal. She understood our concern about checking for all the Down's markers. All the markers (heart, brain, nose, limbs) looked normal. She remeasured the fold that was measured at the first trimester screen and that was well within the normal range.

After the technician looked at everything, the doctor took some time to look at the images and then came in to talk with us. He said from what he saw, our Down's Syndrome risk decreased from 1 in 60 to 1 in 120. However, this number is still considered "high risk" because of my age, but all looked really good. The doctor took some time to talk to us again about the option of doing an amniocentesis. He agreed with our thought of why risk the pregnancy by doing one when we know we are keeping the baby anyway. I was happy to hear that from him and he didn't pressure us to do the test.

We are really happy with the results from the anatomical survey. I forgot how amazing it is to see my baby move around. At the beginning of the appointment she was in the breech position and by the end she was in the head down position. We even saw her swallow and put her hand up to her mouth as if to try to suck her thumb! At one point I was laying with my hands behind my head and she was doing the same thing! We all got a laugh at that.

The baby weighs about 10oz. and according to the doctor is measuring about 19 weeks even though I am at 18 weeks. However, that doesn't change my due date of June 18th.

I am also happy I was able to share this experience with my mom.