This morning we had a monthly checkup with our OB at Tufts in Boston. I look forward to these appointments because we get to hear our baby's heartbeat and have peace of mind that everything's still going well.
I forgot that I had to give some blood today for some testing, so I panicked slightly when they told me to head up to the lab to get that done. I have terribly deep veins. I mean, SUPER deep and hard to find. So deep that one time they had to go into my foot to get blood. Yes, my freaking foot. One of the most painful things I've experienced. Anyway, I went up, explained I hadn't chugged any water (what I normally do to get my veins up) and warned them about my veins. I took a few deep breaths, anticipating lots of digging and a few sticks atleast. She poked me, and I asked if she got it, she said "yep" and 5 seconds later she was done. It was probably the best stick I've ever had in my life.
Moving on. Finally got settled into a room and the doctor comes in. She asked if I had any bleeding/cramping/ yadayada...apparently there were traces of something-or-other in my urine that were small, but still present. I told her nothing at all has been off, except the nasty post-nasal drip that wont go away. She said she wasn't concerned about it since I didn't have any other symptoms. Then we discussed the results from the sequential screening I had a few weeks ago. Basically, they combine results from the measurements taken from our last ultrasound with bloodwork done the same day. They tell you your chances of having a child with downs syndrome and trisomy 13, both of which are chromosomal abnormalities. The results were very good, so that was nice to hear. They'll do another screening at the next ultrasound, and will combine those results with the blood drawn today. Having already had one child with physical deformities, we know for us how beneficial it is to find out as much as possible before birth to be prepared. With Elias, we already knew what he was going to come out looking like. And we had a plan. We had a team of doctors lined up, ready to take action in the months to follow. So we always tell doctors when they ask how far we'd like testing to go, we say we're up for anything that can tell us whats going on with our baby, however we don't want anything that is invasive, such as an amniocentesis. The risk of miscarriage with amnio's is 1:200, which is so high!! Plus, we would never terminate a pregnancy based on findings with these tests, so there's no reason to go that far. Like I said, I want to know as much as I can to be prepared without harming the baby.
Okay. So then she went and grabbed the doppler and started listening for the heartbeat. I was shocked right away when the heartbeat wasn't getting picked up, because at the last appointment the heartbeat was right there as soon as she turned it on. She moved it all around, and at one point we both thought we heart a very faint beat, but then it went away. She finally said we'd hop over to the other room and take a look with an ultrasound. She said don't worry, the baby's are usually jumping all around. So of course when she left the room, I panicked. I thought about the traces of something in the urine she mentioned. Was I miscarrying? Is something wrong with the baby? I tried to remain as calm as possible for Elias' sake. Kevin tried to comfort me. Still freaking out.
Finally the room was ready. When the baby came on the screen, there wasn't really any movement. Then she zoomed in on the chest, and there it was. The heart beating. She measured the heart rate, and it came out to about 137/bpm. The last couple times its been higher, in the 150's/160's, so I was a little surprised. Then she asked if we were planning on finding out what the baby was. We said yes, and she said "well then lets take a look!". Totally took us off guard.
So she took a look, and then we were looking at the babys butt! She took a minute to look, moving slightly this way then that way. She said there happened to be a little shadow where she would clearly be able to see whether its a boy or girl.
She then said..."but...I don't see any obvious boy parts". You see, with Elias, it was very obvious that he was a boy. In fact, before she even told me he was a boy, I could see clear as day on the screen. Could it be a girl?!? We'll know for sure in 2 1/2 weeks!!!
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