Hope, Love and a Rainbow: Pregnancy after loss: NT Ultrasound and our 13 week update

Well its hard to believe it but the end of the first trimester is here! We are 13 weeks 1 day today. Next week will begin the 2nd trimester already, I can hardly believe it! I am continuing to have another amazing and smooth pregnancy, so happy to be a Mommy again. I know I am already a Mom but the possibility of being one here on Earth and not only to angel babies is an ache that never leaves me, and I continue to count down the days with both anxiety and hope. Here is the link for the weekly development info at 13 weeks!

http://www.babycenter.com/slideshow-baby-size?slideNumber=11&bclink=slideshow&scid=mbtw_preg13:989&pe=2Uyg9fV&st=MjAxMDEyMjk=

Now onto the fun stuff! We had our NT Ultrasound today. NT stands for nuchal translucency This prenatal test (also called the NT or nuchal fold scan) can help assess the baby's risk of having Down syndrome and some other chromosomal abnormalities as well as major congenital heart problems.
The NT test uses ultrasound to measure the clear (translucent) space in the tissue at the back of the baby's neck. Babies with abnormalities tend to accumulate more fluid at the back of their neck during the first trimester, causing this clear space to be larger than average.

So we went in at 8:15 and we were in the room by 8:30, hardly any waiting at all! I love being the first patient of the morning. :) The tech for our appointment was nice enough, not overly excited but pleasant so I am feeling good as I lay down and prepare for the ultrasound. She got things going and we could immediately see our little "guy" on the screen it was so amazing. He moved around a few times for us, even seemed like he hiccuped a few times. I have yet to feel any of the movements from the baby, probably a few more weeks. So the scanning continues all is well in our baby world.

The tech asks general questions and of course the topic of children came up. So I told her briefly about Ethan and her response was one I won't forget. "Oh" was pretty much all she said. Now I know that people have varying degrees of training in this field but seriously, "oh" is all she could say? I was flabbergasted momentarily and then gave her some more info regarding our circumstances what had gone wrong etc and her answer to that was, " I see". WOW! Granted she wasn't ever mean or rude during the exam but still I just could not believe her response. Perfect strangers have been more compassionate to us than her. Anyway moving on.

The doctor came in after she had finished and reviewed the pictures that she had taken. He kept looking and looking at the NT measurement and saying I don't think this is quite right. So he did another 30 minutes of pictures himself just so he could get the very most accurate results for our screening! I was very impressed not only with his level of accuracy but also his willingness to spend so much extra time doing more pictures himself when he easily could have asked the tech to retake them. He was a very kind, compassionate man and when I brought up Ethan to him and what had happened he was awesome! He said how sorry he was, and how difficult it must be for us and was there anything he could do for us. Talk about night and day responses! He was very glad to give us the good news that all our results from the testing came back negative! For all three majors Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18 and Spina bifida. Also checked for congenital heart defects and we are home free on all counts!! Such a good feeling to know our little one is doing well and healthy, Praise God!

Here are some pics from this appointment. Unfortunately I have no video, it wasn't allowed for this appointment. =( At least you can enjoy the pictures. Oh one last detail, they could not give us any gender info this time, so we will have to wait until our Peek a Baby appt. on Jan. 15th. Hopefully we will find out then!