Lucky 13

• The UltraScreen rocked the house. If you ever get a chance to have one, I completely and totally recommend it.
• At the UltraScreen, I saw the following (and was so good at making out baby parts, the technician actually asked me if I was an ultrasound tech....HA!): two arms, two legs, an unknown number of fingers (don't care....fingers are totally unimportant to me), two hemispheres of the brain, four chambers of the heart, jaw bones, eye sockets, a non-bright colon, a nasal bone, a crown-rump length (CRL) of 80 mm at 12w5d, a nuchal translucency of 2.0 mm (largest NT of 3 readings), movement, finger sucking, spine, Doppler blood flows that my husband believes indicate rain, an umbilical cord (but I forgot to ask how many vessels it had), some random internal organs whose locations and functions are a little hazy, and that was about it.
• For those of you not studying for your genetics counselor credentials at home, let me tell you that a NT of 2 mm with a CRL of 80 mm is great. It does not raise any red flags at all. I had blood drawn as well for that part of it. The blood was overnighted to Genzyme in NM. I have no idea when the combined results will be in. I believe the results are being sent to my regular doctor's office, and I will get them there. I know my office has no experience with these results since I am their first patient to ask for the UltraScreen, and I had to find and refer myself to a doctor myself since they were unhelpful on that front. The results will be in the format of you have a 1 in X chance of a baby with a chromosomal abnormality (a trisomy like Down Syndrome or Patua's syndrome...I think I spelled that wrong and am too lazy to check, basically trisomy 18 or 21 plus some other rare ones). I am hoping for an X greater than 10,000 but who knows.
• Also, for those of you not in the know, a CRL of 80 mm at 12w5d indicates a relatively "tall" baby. Considering Chuckles was about 22" long at birth, I am not suprised.
• I still plan on doing the Multiple Marker Screening (Triple Screen/Quad Screen) since UltraScreen does not check for neural tube defects and Multiple Marker Screening does. I am all "knowledge is power" over here.
• The blood was not drawn at the office so we went to some little blood draw lab place in some strip mall, but I don't care about the hassle.
• Oh, after the NT, we went to Buca Di Beppo for lunch. I had eggplant parmesan. We did not sit at the Pope's Table. It was awesome to go out to lunch with my husband...alone. And it was like a date. My husband had no idea how neurotic I am and how much I worry, so he was really surprised to see me smiling and happy and excited about this thing. At about 11 weeks, my blood sugar stabilized, the fatigue went away, and I felt...fine. Like nothing. I was sure something was wrong. horribly, horribly wrong. How did this man not know what a whackjob I am?
• Of course, when we got back from our date, we took Chuckles to the pediatrician because he just wasn't right (up 11 times in the night vomiting (of the cough-cough-puke variety), fever, cranky). He has strep. He's getting brand new toothbrushes tonight. Woo woo. After only one dose of antibiotics, he was looking and feeling much better and slept through the night (a little Motrin is a good thing). Since puking and fevers are no strangers here, we knew what to do, when to worry, and I had the suppository acetominophen at the ready should it be necessary.
• Strep is not dangerous in pregnancy if treated promptly. So far, I do not have a sore throat, although the ped said it is very common for parents to get it. He was sleeping in my bed and puking on me the night before, so I imagine I am exposed.
• We had an impromptu BBQ at our house today. Brats, polish, hot dogs, bean salad, guacamole, chips, cake, drinks, corn on the cob from Florida, and some other random food we had in the house. It was fun. And exhausting.
• I swear to you, about once a day, I feel the fetus (it's oficially a fetus now...no longer an embryo) move. Just a tiny bit. I know I felt it early with Chuckles too. It's not much, it's not strong, and it could easily be mistaken for something else, but I know what it is. It feels like someone tapping their fingernails on the desk inside my body.
• Chuckles napped on the Living Room floor today. Yesterday it was upside down on a pillow on thh hardwood in my room. I have no idea about this kid! I should say that my floor was after an hour of trying to get him to sleep and at one point, I am sure I feel asleep for a half hour and woke up to him playing cards next to me. Very funny, that.