This week has been great for both Deven and me. We had our ERA appointment on Friday, and learned a lot about how they assess the baby's risk for chromosomal abnormalities.
The doctors use a combination of physical measurements (via ultrasound) and blood work to assess the baby's risk factor for Downs Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and Trisomy 13. Each of these are characterized by an extra chromosome at chromosome pair 21, 18, or 13, respectively, which would mean issues with development.
The bloodwork results indicate that the baby has a 1/5,458 chance of having Downs Syndrome and a 1/>10,000 chance of Trisomy 18 or 13. To put this in perspective, based on my age, the ratios were 1/505 and 1/919, respectively, so the risk factors here are similar to those that a 20 year-old might have - excellent news!
Through the ultrasound, they look for the presence of a nasal bone and measure the thickness of the fold at the neck - an absense in bone or a thickness greater than 0.3 mm would mean a higher risk. As you can see in the pictures below, the nasal bone is definitely visible, and the fold at the back of the neck measured < 0.18 mm. An overachiever already :)
We really enjoyed the opportunity to see our little "Wiggles" in action. It was certainly very active -tumbling and posing to give us all kinds of views....we saw both halves of the brain, kidneys, fingers, toes, and a nice view of it's little butt as well :). We also saw the baby hiccup, which looked much like coughing, but were told that this is normal since the diaphragm is still forming. These images captured what seemed to be it's favorite pose - feet up in the "air" - which were wiggling around as well - maybe a dancer in training???
I can't really feel anything moving around at this point, so seeing all of this on the screen was fairly surreal, but it was still so incredible to observe all of the action going on inside of me!! We can't wait until the next ultrasound in ~ 6 weeks!
Other than our visit for the ERA, Deven attended his first training session for the 1/2 Marathon he'll be running with Team Challenge for CCFA in July. http://www.active.com/donate/
And, I got to catch up with some friends and some much-needed TLC. Pregnancy "symptoms" seem to be on a downward trend, and I'm looking forward to everything coming up in Trimester 2!
Here's what our little one has been doing this week:
"At this point, baby is about 3" long and weighs nearly an ounce - about the size of a peach or a medium sized shrimp. Tiny bones are continuing to form in her arms and legs, and fingerprints have formed at the tips of his or her fingers!! Her intestines are beginning to move from the umbilical cord to the abdomen, and the vocal cords are well under construction." I'm sure we'll hear those is heavy in action in about 6 months!
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