Who Says Friday the 13th is Unlucky?

I've gotten another reminder that a good chunk of time has passed since I had my first baby. With all my other kids I've always been offered a blood test to check for the possibility of Down's Syndrome sometime during the 2nd trimester. This pregnancy I learned that the new thing is to test for it during the 1st trimester. They do it using a level 2 ultrasound plus a finger stick blood test. I don't know if it's commonly used with all women yet, but apparently it's the standard for expectant moms "of a certain age" (meaning 35 or older).

Oh, that's right. More proof that ten years have gone by. I'm now in the 35+ category.

Anyway, the cheery news about this is that I got to have a super cool level 2 ultrasound yesterday, even though I only reached 14 weeks today. The place I went to is extra nice-- they usually handle high risk pregnancies, and it is headed by a guy who's on the pioneer edge of fetal radiology, so when you sign all the paperwork, you are agreeing to be part of their studies too. (I guess they'll contact me later to see if things came out like they had expected based on the ultrasounds and stuff.)

The best part was that I didn't have to drink gallons of water beforehand. Most ultrasound places I've been to-- and I've had A LOT of ultrasounds-- tell you to drink 64 oz. of water an hour ahead and hold it. My personal experience is that this is a crock. A couple of times when I actually managed this great feat, the tech then complained that my bladder was too full and in the way. Most of the time I try to do what they ask and end up having to pee before it's my turn, or I just don't bother with it at all. . . and the techs never seem to notice a difference. Anyway, it was great to be told at the beginning that it wasn't necessary to drink any water and that I could pee when I felt like it. It meant I could actually lie back and enjoy the show!

And it really was lying back and watching the show. Instead of having to crane my head around to try and see the tech's screen, they showed everything she was looking at on a huge flat panel TV mounted on the wall so I could comfortably see it all. The baby seemed to be asleep at first but all the poking and prodding soon had her awake.

Oh yes-- they can tell at 14 weeks what you are having!!

Not 100% positive (the tech told me not to rush out and paint the room) but that was mostly because the little sweet pea would not uncross her legs and show off a bit. Anyway, I'm going with it enough to refer to the baby as a "she" until proven otherwise-- nothing bothers me more than having to refer to a child as an "it."

After the scan I met with a genetic counselor who took our family histories and looked at the scans and said everything looks great. They still do the blood stick to up the accuracy and I'll get the results on Monday, but as of now, the baby has no major defects with her organs and she probably doesn't have any chromosomal disorders. (Not that I was really worried about that, but still good to hear.) Then as I was leaving, they gave me a DVD of the ultrasound as well as a CD with pictures. Unfortunately, I can't get the DVD to run at all, but here's one of the 3D pics of baby #5, growing healthy and strong:

Doesn't she look just like a little alien?

Ah well, it was much better in person to see her moving and squirming and waving her little hands around. I finally feel like I can get attached to her-- I'm past my miscarriage risk and things seem to be going so well.

Best of all yesterday I only got nauseous in the evening and no nausea so far today! Hallelujah!!!!