Nuchal Test

Had the Nuchal Translucency test today. It is where they measure the Nuchal Fold at the back of the neck. It's an early indicator for Downs Syndrome. Anything above 3mm can be an indicator. Baby Scimeca #2's measured 1.75mm, which is great. Also in babies with Downs Syndrome, there is no nasal bone present this early and we saw the nasal bone (and a cute one it is). The Dr. takes the information and measurements from today along with blood work results and combines them with my age and they come up with a ratio on the risk of the baby having chromosomal abnormalities. I will find out what this is on Monday. Right now, just going by my age, I have a 1 in 250 chance of having a baby with a chromosomal abnormality. That chance lessens due to the Nuchal Fold measurement being low.

(Insert sigh of relief)

The test took quite a while since the little bugger was not cooperating. Baby was very mellow and trying very hard to get his/her thumb in his/her mouth. They needed baby to move slightly to get a reading and it wasn't happening. I had to chug a bottle of water on my way in and had an extremely full bladder. The ultrasound tech. asked me to go empty my bladder 1/2 way and come back. What a tease that was....that's hard! Still couldn't get the baby to move and she was really shaking it around, bouncing on my stomach. Definitely felt movement today and knew what I was feeling since I could see it. After a bit she consulted with the Dr. and asked me to do "laps" around the hospital. This included going up and down 4 floors of stairs 4 times! They don't air condition the stair wells so it was not so pleasant. Come back to the room and the baby is still chillin' in the same position trying to get at that thumb! She did finally get a measurement at some point!!!

When we walked into the room she immediately asked if we wanted to know the sex and I yelled "YES". Phil told her that my OB said they would not be able to tell this early and she looked at the screen and said "oops, I thought you were closer to 20 weeks since the last two I did were 18 and 20 weeks". I asked if she might still be able to tell and she said "well see, I have been able to tell this early before, but not very often". Long story short.....she looked and couldn't tell. Bummer. So, have to wait a bit longer to announce that.

Will update as soon as I get the final results, but we're feeling pretty good!

Here are the latest pics: