It's a Girl!

We had our extensive ultrasound down at IU this past Friday. Everything looks wonderful... and IT'S A GIRL!! They checked everything, no choroid plexus cysts, her little hands open and close, her feet aren't clubbed and her heart looks good. Based on the measurements they estimate that she's about 9 ounces already... that's 2 ounces more than all my books and emails say is average for this week!

After we got this wonderful news we decided we were comfortable starting our baby registry so we spent the day Saturday at Babies R Us. I think we've got all the big stuff (and some of the little stuff) on there. We've picked out a cute white convertible crib and it looks like it's going to be a lady bug theme.

Here are some photos of the little one. Some of the shots that you can actually see the outline of her eyeballs are a little alien-like :p

Fabulous News

My cell phone rang at about 9:15 this morning and I didn't recognize the number.... I quickly googled the area code and realized it was an Indianapolis number. I don't know why I don't recognize those numbers yet as many times as I've talked to the people down there.....

Anyway, it was Kelly the genetic counselor from IU and she had the results from my quad screen/sequential test.... drum roll please......

ALL FABULOUSLY NORMAL!!!

The risk for Downs remains at 1:10,000
The risk for Trisomy 18 remains at 1:10,000
and the risk for Spina Bifida went from a baseline 1:1,000 to 1:3,500

This is a major milestone for us. It was through the quad screen that we discovered a 1:3 chance for Trisomy 18 last time. We still have the extensive ultrasound to go, but we are feeling really good and extremely happy about being at this point and having such good test results!

Here's photo from this weekend for you, a nice profile of the growing bump :)

16 Week Checkup

This morning was my 16 week checkup and everything went well. The appointment was with Dr. McBride (the doctor that was at the hospital when we delivered in May). I'm wondering if either she was having an "off" day or if I was under enough drugs back in May that I didn't realize this annoying habit she has. She comes off as VERY apologetic with everything. When she tells you things are good it's almost as though she's apologizing that they're good... very ... well, unnerving. Makes you kind of wonder if there's something she's not telling you. Anyway, they drew 3 vials of blood - FUN. One was for a TSH (thyroid) test, it's been looking good but we want to keep an eye on the levels. One was for a CBC (Complete Blood Count), I guess when they drew the blood for that last time they didn't get enough and the last was for the Quad Screen. That's the last part of the sequential genetic testing we're having done. Rather than drive back to Indianapolis just to have blood drawn they worked it out with the lab here and in Indy to draw the blood here and send it to Genzyme (the lab doing the testing). Hopefully that's where it ends up (I get the feeling they don't do it this way often).

Other than that I've gained about 8 pounds so far. The heart beat sounded strong - 145 bpm. Back in 4 weeks for the next appointment and an ultrasound :)