holidays, heartbeats, movement and limbs!

So, first off; I apologize for the long hiatus. I could say “oh, yes, busy with holiday travel, shopping, caroling, wassailing, etc. and all of that” but, I’d be lying. See, since I’m all pregnant, my doctor said I should forego flying this holiday season, so we stayed home. And though we made a few treks out for movies and short little trips, we were generally quite lazy. It was lovely, actually. Lots of sleeping in, and relaxing and just cozying up on the couch. We had a blizzard here in NY the day after Christmas, so that made things even quieter. So, I have no good reason for not blogging this last 10 days or so. I just was feeling lazy and not wanting to do much of anything! :)

Anyway! So, on Monday we had what is called the Nuchal Translucency test. It apparently is a standard test in which they measure the back of the babies’ necks. Here’s how it’s defined:

This prenatal test (also called the NT or nuchal fold scan) can help your health care practitioner assess your baby's risk of having Down syndrome (DS) 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 your developing 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, that’s the deal with the test. They also took some blood and will combine the results for a “combined screening”. The doctor said that everything looked normal though, so that is good news. We’ll know a bit more when we get the blood results back, but so far all is normal! This was a huge relief.

Another great thing about this ultrasound was that we got to hear both babies’ heartbeats! They are both in the normal range (I believe both were around 165-170 bpm). It was super cool to hear their little hearts. Then we got really good looks at both of them, and we saw their arms and legs! And unlike at my last ultrasound, when they looked like little nubs, they look like regular arms and legs now! One of the babies even did a little dance move looking thing; it was really cool.

I go in next week for a regular check up with my OB. I think it will just be standard; blood pressure, weight, short ultrasound, just a general checking in. This week’s ultrasound was done at the hospital where I'll be delivering (Mount Sinai) since they have the super fancy machines there. I’ll have another ultrasound there in 5 weeks. It’s called the anatomy scan, and it’s POSSIBLE I could know the sexes of the babies then. Though, I’ve heard too many stories about how sometimes the babies won’t cooperate and show their stuff, so I’m not getting my hopes up. I hadn’t planned on knowing until about 20 weeks, so if I know earlier, that’d be great- but if not, no big deal. I honestly just want them to be healthy. I know people say that all the time, but it’s honestly all I care about. :)

I’d post pictures of the ultrasound, but the pictures aren’t that great. I’m sure I’ll get better ones at my next ultrasound. The images were pretty clear on the screen, but once she did a screen capture and printed them off; it wasn’t as clear. Probably would be less clear once I scanned them, or took a picture of them. So, you'll just have to trust me; it was really cool.

I think I’m starting to really believe that things are going to be ok this time. I think there will always be that element of fear that something will go wrong. But as the days go by, I feel more and more confident. I mean, I’m less than two weeks away from my the start of my 2nd trimester!! That’s very exciting.

I promise to be much better about updates from now on. Now that I’m no longer hiding a big secret, or celebrating holidays, I’ll update like crazy! : )

Hope you all had a healthy, safe, happy holiday!

~M