Screening

Yay!! We’ve survived our first trimester and consequently, the fatigue and nausea are starting to subside…woo hoo! Unfortunately, that just makes room for other discomforts such as heartburn and itchiness around the tummy where it is stretching all over again. Regardless, I am able to get plenty of rest crashing as early as 8pm on certain nights. I don’t care what shows I’m missing, this baby wants me in bed! Hmm…could be a lazy one we got here. If I am able to stay up after dinner, I like to pop in the prenatal yoga dvd and stretch out with Katie dancing around with moves of her own evading Daddy’s grasps for bedtime :o) Btw, the Father-to-be…again is doing an awesome job inside and outside of our home. He’s been very supportive caring for Katie, cooking, cleaning and especially picking up my cravings…hehe…we love you Y-Bear!

Now back to business… We went to a prenatal screening this afternoon at an outsourced ultrasound facility because Kaiser didn’t have appointments available. The screening is to determine the chances that our baby could be born with down syndrome. We have no known cases of down syndrome in both of our families but since Kaiser is paying for the screening, we didn’t mind knowing and it couldn’t hurt knowing. We had done the same screening for Katie two years ago.

The complete screening includes two blood tests and an ultrasound in between which are all time sensitive and needs to be done at certain weeks during the pregnancy. I forgot what exactly the docs check for in my blood but at the ultrasound screening, the technician searched for all the baby’s major body parts inside and out, a couple of my organs and reproductive system. I believe the most important part is the baby’s spine. Once the ultrasound was complete, the technician reviewed the baby’s photos and results from my first blood test. Moments later, she gave us great odds that our baby does not have down syndrome, great news! I’ll still get my second blood test in a few weeks that should support their results :o)

Below are our souvenirs from the ultrasound visit today.

Head and tummy.

Is it sucking its hand?

That's probably a middle finger at the technician for disturbing its nap.

The other arm.

One leg...

...and the other leg.

Yogi and I are almost positive we got the same technician who screened Katie two years ago. Of course, the person screens so many moms in a day, there was no way she remembers. And, she wouldn’t think that the little bug inside of me 2 years ago was wiggling around in the room wanting to leave. Haha…yes, Katie was introduced to her little bro/sis for the first time today. She couldn’t make out the baby on the screen and was freaked out over the technician, the dim room, and the looks of all the mechanics reminded her a lot of her doctor’s office where they give shots…hehe…

And finally, YES we took the opportunity to harass the technician a little bit about finding the sex of the baby. She started by offering a 55% accurate guess before she even began searching. After she found it and looked, she says she’s 60% sure. She told us her guess but we’ll keep it out of play for now in case the other 40-45% is true ;o) We’ll get a higher percentage at the March 5th ultrasound.