Interruption

I was going to do a post about the baby boy room today, but I'm going to interrupt my schedule for a very good reason.

I had my 1st trimester screening this morning. 

I never had one with Spencer because I was 27 and not considered high risk at all.  Now that I'm an old lady of 31 my risk for genetic problems is higher.  A couple of weeks ago I did a pin prick on myself (well, I chickened out and had Michael do it for me), collected 5 blood samples on a special paper and sent that in to the lab.  Today I went in for the nuchal translucency (NT) screening.  The NT test uses an ultrasound to measure the clear space in the neck of the baby.  Babies with genetic problems tend to accumulate fluid in this space so the clear space is larger than normal.

Then a doctor does some fancy calculating with the results of the blood test and the ultrasound and figures out your risk for having a baby with genetic problems.

First, they give you your risk based on age.  They use the age you will be when the baby is born.  I will be 32.  My risk factor for down syndrome before the screening (based solely on age) was 1 in 502.  After the screening it was 1 in >10,000.  My risk factor for Trisomy 13 and Trisomy 18 before the screening was 1 in 922.  After the screening it was 1 in 6,904. 

The doctor said I have the eggs of an 18 year old.  I took that as a strange complement.  He said it is virtually impossible that this baby has a genetic problem.

Hooray!

The best part for me was that I got another ultrasound, so I got to see the baby, see the heartbeat and hear the heartbeat.  Spencer went with me too.  He was more interested in the Thomas the Train books, but he did look at the screen at the appropriate times.

This shows the face and the hand.

Unfortunately, based on the above picture, I will be giving birth to Skeletor.

Here is a better, less Skeletor looking shot of the face.

And here are some totally cute feet.

Michael and I were sitting on the couch watching a movie on Saturday night.  All of a sudden I gasped and grabbed my stomach and told him that I swore I felt the baby move.  It wasn't a kick or a punch but it was definitely a flutter.  I was sure of it.

Anyway, the ultrasound technician was telling me that this was one very active baby.  She was having a hard time taking measurements because there was so much movement.  The baby was rubbing its eyes and face with his/her hands and doing lots of tumbles.  I told her that Spencer moved so much that he tied his umbilical cord into a true knot when he was a fetus (a true knot, as opposed to a false knot or a kink, is very rare), so it would only make sense that a baby of mine was moving around a lot.

The technician was trying to measure the nasal bone and said something like, "come on baby, settle down and stop moving", and right then, at that exact moment I felt the fluttery thing again.  So I have scientific proof that I am feeling something.

It's quite exciting.

Next post: the baby boy room.

Next post after that: my new favorite thing