Can't wait for his parents' reaction!

Well we're driving to the in-laws after work today to tell them we're expecting. I think they've (at least she's) wanted to hear those words every time we visit but probably gave up long ago! We thought of a creative way to do it too. Tony is going to hand his parents an envelope with the ultrasound pictures in it but tell them it's the magazine cover he made from his trip to Florida with his Dad. Can't wait for tonight!!

An Amazing Sound

The following Monday morning on June 1, we had our first visit with our high risk doctor. She was no-nonsense, which Tony liked very much. She said that the placenta sometimes tests differently and that she thought further testing would not yield negative results. The results could also remain inconclusive, at which point we would have to decide if we wanted to do amniocentesis. She seemed confident though that the baby would be just fine. With her confidence, we decided to listen to the heart beat for the first time. She warned us that early on couples sometimes can't hear the heart beat, especially with the small handheld piece of equipment she had. It didn't take her longer than 30-40 seconds though to find a very strong heart beat - 170 beats/minute! It was a very exciting moment for us.

Waiting For the Phone to Ring ...

The day after the CVS was Friday, May 29, the day of my brother's wedding rehearsal. My husband and I both took the day off from work and drove down to Bristol, RI fairly early. It was raining so we were in no rush to get there and hit the water with our kayaks! The genetic counselor at Brigham told us the phone call would likely be after lunch. It could be 1pm or it could be 4:30pm, she said. Of course it was 4:30pm. We waited anxiously all day for the phone to ring. We were out on the boat that my brother was getting married on when my husband's phone started to vibrate. My brother was sitting next to me so he put his arm around me while my husband listened to the results. I heard responses like "oh well that's good news" but then phrases like "well we didn't discuss that" so of course I was worried.

"It's a girl," he said as he hung up. This brought a HUGE smile to my Mom's face! But there was a big but. The sex of the baby was the thing we were worried about. But it was the number of chromosomes in the placental tissue that was off. Of the three chromosomes to watch (13, 18 and 21), one had 4 in the testing. All three normally have 2. If they have 3, it's bad news. Three chromosomes in 21 means Down Syndrome; three in 13 is fatal and three in 18 is fatal as well, although very rare. Since the lab didn't find 3 but instead saw 4, their results were inconclusive and more time (7-10 days) will be needed for additional testing. From the sounds of the genetic counselor and our doctor, we would have had a miscarriage by now if there were indeed 4 chromosomes. We'll be at 12 weeks in two more days and the baby looks and sounds healthy. Our fingers are crossed!

CVS: a sanitary, legal stabbing

Chorionic villi sampling. It felt as barbaric as it sounds. My husband and I went to Brigham & Women's last Thursday morning, May 28 for an 8am appointment. We met with a genetic counselor first and she was great. She explained to us that if the fetus is female, we would not be able to test to see if she's a carrier since she is technically a minor and unable to make her own decisions. Very interesting! We had never thought of it that way before. Also, as Tony reminded me to think positively, if the results were for a boy, it could just as easily (50-50 chance) be a healthy boy and then we wouldn't have to worry about a daughter carrier as well.

After our appointment with the counselor, we went into the procedure room. The tech brought the fetus up on the ultrasound screen (which was really neat) but we told her we'd like to hold off hearing the heartbeat. We were very cautious to avoid actions that could emotionally attach us to the baby. We were scared it would be an infected boy and we would be forced to terminate the pregnancy.

The procedure didn't take long but it was certainly painful. It wasn't "uncomfortable" like reports I'd read. It was awful. I closed my eyes and held my husband's hand. Afterward, he said it was a good thing I didn't open my eyes because the needle was 6-7 inches long. They popped (it really made a pop noise) a thicker but shorter needle into my lower abdomen then inserted a thinner but much longer needle through the middle of the shorter needle. I could feel the doctor breaking up part of the placenta to retrieve the villi. Tony watched in person and on the ultrasound screen. He said the villi were bright pink. He also sounded very impressed by my pain tolerance and courage. It was all over in about 2-3 minutes.

The fetus at 11wks looks like a deformed lima bean. :) our lima bean

CVS info: http://www.mytestingoptions.com/testing/tests-by-name/chorionic-villi-sampling/mto_testing_tests-by-name_chorionic-villi-sampling.asp