We're Pregnant!
Last Updated March 24 1998
Melissa tested positive on December 7th, around 12 days post-Ovulation. "Let's start trying," we said on November 12th ... expecting it to take months!
I removed the video of U3 as it was so hard (read: impossible) to see anything!
On Thursday March 5 the Doctor's office rang to request that I repeat the Quadruple Test. This is a blood test that assesses your risk of having a baby with certain birth defects, including spina bifida (and other neural tube defects) and Down's Syndrome. The test measures the amount of certain hormones in the mother's blood, and calculates a risk based on those levels. High indicates a chance of NTD's, low is an indicator for Down's. Apparently the dates for my Quad Test didn't match my ultrasounds.
I wasn't sure about that explanation - I was right about my dates and so was the Ultrasound - but I repeated the test on Friday 6th and promptly stopped worrying about it. We went away for a weekend by the beach (gorgeous weather, we even got to go swimming), bought baby clothes and a teddy bear, and generally forgot about the test.
The following Thursday, March 12 we got The Call from the Doctor. My repeated AFP tests had again come back as a Downs indicator - the chance given was 1 in 95. Normal chances for someone my age (28) would be around 1 in 1000. The logical next step (for us at least) was Amniocentesis.
Amnio will return a 100% result for NTD's and Downs, as well as telling the baby's gender. The downside is that it carries a risk (depends on who you ask, but usually around 1 in 200) of causing miscarriage. A detailed Ultrasound is performed, then a very long needle is inserted through the abdominal wall and through the amniotic sac. This takes a small sample of the amniotic fluid, which is the liquid the baby floats in. From this, a culture is grown, and once they have enough cells they can "harvest" them and look at them under a microscope to check if everything is OK.
I found the amnio very painful, but as Fraser says, I am a wuss about needles. It was like when you have an injection at the dentist & the needle goes in, then there is a second barrier that the needle has to get through. icky, in other words! I think Fraser was really interested in the amnio, whereas I was interested in mangling his hand and NOT looking at what was going on. I was glad he could describe it later through - apparently the needle is around a foot long!
Easily the hardest part, though, was the waiting. We were scared to enjoy the pregnancy, in case it was to be terminated (a decision we didn't want to be making). Two days after the amnio, I felt the first definite movements - like being tickled on the inside - and all I could do was cry. (I understand this is common among pregnant women though!). The results can take 10-14 days to come back, and they seemed interminable. I lost around 1.5 Kg over that time - at a stage where I was "supposed" (in a typical pregnancy) to gain 20% of my total weight gain - around 2 Kg.
Monday March 23rd at 5.18 pm we finally got the results we were waiting for - everything tested normal, the baby does not have Downs, we can finally relax and enjoy the pregnancy.
At the same time as I had the amnio, I cancelled the standard 18 week ultrasound, as my Dr and I felt there was no point proceeding until we had all the information. I have now re-scheduled for this Friday, March 27th, and am looking forward to ENJOYING this one. We will have the video ready!!!