NT and coming out

Yesterday I told my Head of Department about the pregnancy and he was amazing! He knew about the ectopics and was truly happy for me, he even hugged me!! Then I said it to another colleague who's dealing with the timetable of all the modules we teach (I want to try and increase a bit my first semester teaching and leave a little less to be covered by others in the second semester), he also was very happy for me and Mike and so so supportive! He said he can teach one of my modules no problem and he felt everyone else would have been very supportive also!

That was enough for yesterday!

This morning we went in for our NT in a new private hospital 2 min away from home and let me tell you...a 5 star hotel could not compete!! This place had a fountain in the reception, a sky-walk to the consultant suits, I felt I wasn't properly dressed!! Ah well. Anyway, we found our "suite" and I was called in. The eco-tech said immediately "I've seen you already!" and sure I have the memory of a goldfish and tried to mask at my best a blank look...she said she was in the Maternity hospital last year and she remembered me having the ectopic and coming back to check the hcg, she also remembered I was a scientist!! How impressive is that! I slowly stated making some connections... She explained all about the test (which I hadn't researched at all, so I knew just the basics) and up I went on the bed. Ohh the difference a super scanner makes! There was Elvis an his little perfect heartbeat! She wanted him to jump a bit so that she could take different measurements but he wasn't too cooperative! Anyway everything was so so clear (still doesn't feel real though) the hands are so cute, and the nose and the belly! He was measuring 12w3d and I'm 12w4d so just right. She said that everything look really good, of course this is not as accurate as the anatomy scan will be, but all the organs are visible (Mike spotted the bladder!) and the heart was just amazing. Here a few pics for your pleasure!

Then she took the blood and the consultant that came in during the scan said he would call me within a couple of hours with the results. He called and everything was great, he said that at my age the risk for Down syndrome is calculated as 1/230 but that the test showed that this pregnancy had a risk of 1/4600 which he said it's that of a 15 years old! Fantastic! I just got 20 years younger! But sure a pregnancy at 15 would not have made me that happy... anyway we are delighted all is well, we would not have sent Elvis back to Vegas of course, but I wanted to be prepared just in case. I was quite calm though, I didn't have any bad feeling!

Oh and my friend TwoDogMama asked me about the gender, I am not sure we want to know yet, we think it's nice to have a surprise, but we may change our mind, and if we do, I'll definitely post it on the blog!

And at lunch I told two more colleagues! Again lots of congratulations and happiness all around!

Now I'll have very little to talk about for 6 weeks until my next appointment so I'll make sure to catch up on the awards I've been given and on MIL's story part two. Stay tuned!