NT scan and other updates

I have to say much to my surprise, this pregnancy seems to be flying. Which is a good thing in my eyes.
So Oliver and I came back late on Sunday night, very very tired (both of us) and thankfully we both had a good night sleep. Sleeping at my parents' is still a challenge. A huge one. I think on saturday night Oliver woke up at 4.15 and it was up and down till about 5.30. Down for a bit till 8.00 when he was up for the day. Thankfully mom came to pick him up and I rested a bit longer. I have no idea what the problem is, he HATED going to bed, cried his eyes out the minute we entered the bedroom, I think it's because it's much bigger than his and it was scary. Oh I don't know. But at least my parents never once commented on the crying. It was a good break though not particularly relaxing. Since we are back, we had no issues.

And today it was the time for our NT scan. The scan itself went great, Phoenix was measuring right on track (11w4d), happily moving and with a strong HB of 167 wohoo! NT at 1.15 mm and lovely nasal bone too. But my bloods weren't as good, plus we had the complication that we had retrieval when I was still 36 (ok, we said to the tech 37 as I would have been 37 a couple of weeks later). Anyway, my stats with Oliver were fabulous (T21 1:4646, T18/13 1:8406) so it's hard not to compare, but this time I have 1:1076 chance for T21 and, a bit more concerning, a 1:452 chance of T13/18. What screwed the stats is my PAPP-A value which is a bit low at 0.37 MoM. I definitely believe more a good scan than the bloods but of course I started reading on low PAPP-A and the main concern seems to be the possibility that the placenta will have some issues later on in the pregnancy. Thankfully my OB, which I will see on monday, is the top expert in sonography, I will talk to him about these results and see what he thinks. I had issues with Oliver too at the end of the pregnancy (emergency C-section at 36w6d after scan showed he had not grown for 3 weeks) thought the pathology results on the placenta didn't show much a part from some inflammation. I could restart the cardio-aspirin which I had stopped when I was diagnosed with SCH (now totally gone) to help blood flow. We'll see. But I'm not particularly concerned about the stats. Unless the OB recommends otherwise we won't be doing CVS or amnio (also in Ireland termination is illegal).

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!