Okay, about our doctor's appointment last Tuesday ...
It started off as always: with me, not being able to decide if I was nervous or excited, and Martin, pretending he wasn't at all concerned that everything would be ok just so I can feel better, even though I know he's just as nervous (and excited) as I am. Good thing he does that, because it actually works :-) There were other reasons to be happy: it was exactly the last day of our thirteenth week, the end of our first trimester, the day we "officially" have much less risk of having a miscarriage.
This time we were off to a different doctor --- a specialist in ultrasound diagnostics. Between the 12th and 13th week, they can take measurements of the "neck-transparency" (more on this later), and from these measurements calculate an adjusted risk factor for Down syndrome (Trisomie 21), Edwards-Syndrom (Trisomie 18), and Pätau-Syndrom (Trisomie 13). Down syndrome is the most common, but the other two are even more dangerous --- possibly lethal --- for the baby. The test is by far not as conclusive as amniocentesis, but there was no way we were going to let anyone unnecessarily come near our baby with a needle. And anyway, we can't quite get enough of these ultrasounds.
So how do they actually calculate the risk? If you look at the third ultrasound below, you can see two dark "stripes" in the neck around where the spine is. These regions contain fluid, and studies show that quite a lot of babies who have these chromosomal abnormalities have more liquid in the neck, i.e., a thicker stripe. I can't remember which stripe it was the doctor measured, but it was one of these two. They then take the test results from about 100,000 patients of the Fetal Medicine Foundation in London, and (I guess) calculate how many of these patients (taking into account my age, the baby's age, and the neck transparency measurement) ended up having these chromosomal abnormalities.
First, the results. Statistically (not considering the neck transparency), 1 in 588 babies born to women my age have Down syndrome, and 1 in 1100 have Edwards or Pätau syndrome. After the ultrasound measurement was taken into account, our adjusted risk is 1:7,841 for Down, and 1:12,853 for Edwards and Pätau. Whew. Good news indeed.
In addition, the doctor also measured the length of the baby from head to butt, the diameter of the head, the length of the femur, the circumference of the abdomen. She observed the kidneys, the flow of blood through the heart, the flow through the umbilical cord, the heartbeat, and probably a few others I can't remember. Everything was normal! The doctor was apparently saying some more words of praise for the baby (something about it being a "schoenes Exemplar" or a "beautiful example"), but I was too busy watching everything on the screen to try to make out what she was saying in German. Anyway, the daddy was there, and I left it to him to listen to the doctor ;-) (And try telling any parent that their baby is "beautiful", and they'll probably look at you as if to say "Well, we already knew THAT". Hehe, we're no different.)
At one point during the test, though, the baby was moving around so much that the doctor was having trouble doing the measurements. She was having such a hard time that we had to ask if it was bad that the baby was doing that. She smiled and said, "Well, it's like with adults. If you're healthy, you're very agile. If you're sick, you hardly move. It's a good sign. I just have to be very fast as a doctor to make any measurements on this dear child." And the baby just didn't stop dancing and turning, that she said "Wer von Ihnen ist temperamentvoll?" meaning "Which one of you is lively/bubbly". The daddy immediately pointed to me and said "Sie ist temperamentvoll." I, thinking the "temperamentvoll" means "temperamentAL", immediately defended myself and said "Ich bin NICHT temperamentvoll!" (I am NOT ...). I found out later in the car what it actually meant :-).
So, we have a healthy, lively, beautiful little baby, who in the last two ultrasound tests insists on showing us how well it can drink amniotic fluid, suck its thumb, and dance around. Quite a lot to be thankful for.
Enjoy the pictures!
(In case you are wondering where the legs and arms are, they can hardly be seen in this picture. A 2-dimensional ultrasound picture only shows a cross-section, and this one is right in the middle. So imagine drawing a line along your center, and you'll see why the limbs are not shown.)
(Here's one of the baby sucking its thumb!)
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