The ultrasound part of this was super cool and a real joy for the two of us. This time, our baby actually looked like a baby and not just a tadpole. There were arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, a tiny nose, bitty lips, etc. The baby was moving around a lot. We watched it push off with it's legs and go flying across the screen and then slowly float back into view. When the baby didn't move where the doctor needed it to move for measurements, she would jab at us with the ultrasound wand to try to get the baby to reposition. Honestly, it just made me giggle. She floated over lots of different parts and pointed them out and labeled them on her screen for her records. She asked us if we wanted to know if she had any indication of the gender. We said yes, we can't wait. She pointed out 3 white lines (aka the hamburger) on the ultrasound and said that would seem to indicate girl. Of course, she said it's still early so don't go painting rooms or buying stuff yet, but it's nice to have some idea. She gave us some of the sonogram shots and I've inserted the best one below. Naturally, she didn't give me any of the ones that she labeled, but this profile shot is a pretty obvious one.
Since it's been a few weeks, we've already gotten the results of the screening and it looks like I'm twice as likely as another woman my age to have a child with Downs Syndrome. Still the odds are really small - 1 in 247, so less than a 1% chance. We've elected not to do amnio or CVS at this point. We'll have an ultrasound around 16-20 weeks. If the baby shows no physical abnormalities at that point then my risk will be reduced back down to that of every other gal my age (around 1 in 500). At that ultrasound we'll also get a final ruling on the gender and they'll measure some of my parts to make sure I'm holding up okay. More on all of this later!
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