Today, I had another ultrasound for the nuchal translucency screening test. Basically this lets us know the baby’s risk of having Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18. It measures the clear space in the tissue that develops on the back of the baby’s neck.
I’m not a huge fan of this test, mainly because they say you need to have a full bladder when you come in. Driving to the medical office was not the best ride for me. Every bump was annoying and I have never hated my seatbelt as much as I did at that point.
We had to go to Kaiser in San Francisco to get the test done. I have never been so confused on the 7th floor of that building. We registered and the floor is divided by 7SW, 7SE, 7NW, 7NE. So after I registered, I was supposed to go to 7NE, but she didn’t tell me the exact words “7NE.” So I was just standing around confused until I asked the clerk again. I was confused, lost, and I really had to pee. By the time I found the room, a practitioner called me in, so I didn’t have to wait long!
The practitioner asked me how I felt and I told her I really wanted to go to the bathroom. She understood and showed me where the bathroom was, just so I knew AFTER the appointment. Great. We went in and I laid down. She basically started off by checking the rest of my organs and making sure nothing looked suspicious. Then, she said the most glorious words I have ever heard at that point, “You can go to the bathroom now.” I jumped up and went straight there. She didn’t want to press down on my belly with a full bladder because she didn’t want me to have an “accident.”
I laid back and she started to look at the baby. Whoa was it moving. It was in her words, “using my uterus as a spring board.” It looked like it was hiccuping. He/she was moving its legs and arms all over the place and turning over. The heartrate was 150 bpm, which is normal for a baby. She spent a lot of time trying to get a good measurement of the nuchal fold, but the baby wasn’t cooperating. This was fine, cause I could watch it move all day long. She finally got the measurement which was 1.9mm, which is normal. She printed out some pictures and showed us to the genetic counselor.
We spoke to the counselor and she told us that it was looking very good and hopefully after my 2nd blood test, things will be better. So, after much questioning to ease my worries, we headed out with smiles on our faces.
It’s still a little bit surreal that this thing is growing inside of me. It’ll probably be like that for awhile, but it’s exciting! I wish I could get an ultrasound every week.. I think I’ve said that before.
Here are pictures of the little one at 13 weeks!
She’s been kicking regularly. I feel her the most in the morning around 7am (sometimes earlier) and at night usually around 8:00pm. During the day though, if I’m just sitting around having lunch with friends or playing video games, I feel her kicking. Actually, yesterday when I had lunch with friends, she just kept kicking.. maybe she liked the pizza we had.