Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Oh how wonderful sashi! I can't even imagine how nice it must be to feel stuff this early and yay for the heartbeat!

Baby Boy K's heartbeat is regulating itself, so I have a sonogram Monday, along with a final visit to my OB, and that's it until I go in that Sunday for induction, unless things happen before then--hopefully after I've had my stuffing and pie! It's crazy that I'll be holding two little ones in 10 days or less!

I'm uncomfortable, but mentally and otherwise I feel great. In a weird way, I'm going to miss feeling them ricochet across my stomach like I'm their personal pinball machine, but I can't wait to cuddle and hold them.

Wow! Baby Kinds are almost here! Sending many good thoughts!

oh wow it's SO SOON!
so glad the little boy's heartbeat is getting better.

good luck for the following week! baby snuggles soon!

So many good thoughts for y'all.

Wow...how exciting for Sashi and dtbk!

That baby movement feeling makes me soooo want to be pregnant again.

so i just got an unhappy phone call :-(
i went last week for the 2nd part of my "early risk assesment" appts and they took a second sampling of blood for whatever it is they do.
the dr just called me and said that while the first round of bloodwork showed nothing abnormal the 2nd round showed somethings elevated that point to Down's Syndrome.

she said obviously it is not a diagnosis of anything and they are sending me to a genetic specialist tomorrow but that since im 35 and because of this elevated what not my risk of having a baby with Down's Syndrome is now 1 in 3 instead of 1 in 200 (which is what i was because of my age)

i was already having a horrible day i got some horrifying news about extended family and now this. im at work and all i want to do is go outside and call my husband and cry and im stuck covering the phones for the next hour.

i know having a baby with Down's Syndrome is not the end of the world and people with Down's Syndrome are some of the most wonderful, special, happy people there are but i just was not ready for this. im trying not to freak out because it's not an actual diagnosis but i am kinda freaking out.

it kind of seems like i will possibly end up having an amnio (not sure ill have to think about it more) but then on the other hand if i have one and it confirms it what am i gonna do? but at least if i do know i can either feel relief or prepare myself.

ugh this is the worst day ever.

my sister has DS, if you'd like to talk about it, feel free to pm me. it's okay to feel really unsure and upset about this possibility, it's definitely a big deal.

thanks LB i may do that later. right now i am at home. i pretty much just abandoned work and my mom is coming over.
this day is just horrible. news earlier about a tragic death on my brother's side of the family (one of his in laws) and now this.
not. a. good. day.

can i have a do over?

cant shake the nagging feeling that i did something wrong.

Hey LisaPunk, big hugs to you.

Was this the first trimester screen (measures hCG and PAPP-A in blood, factors in mother's age and then does a u/s screen of the baby's nuchal fold http://www.americanpregnancy.org/prenat ... creen.html)? If so, are you able to have a u/s to measure the nuchal fold before you go to an amnio? How far along are you now?

We had an increased likelyhood of DS as well (I was 40 at delivery), in part because that test is designed to pick up as many chromosomal abnormalities as possible and as such errs on the side of giving a high rate of false positives (the lit says about 5% but I have seen research that if you are over 35 the false positive rate is far higher and approaches 20%). For what its worth, the blood screening and my age gave us scary info, but when we did the u/s her nuchal fold was perfect and she had a nasal bone (an indicator for DS), which brought down our risk to 4% and she is perfect now (sleeping on my lap :)). So definitely do the u/s if you can.

After our results, I did a CVS (chorionic villus sampling that extracts fetal DNA from the placenta) and opted for a FISH (the super-speedy test results that rule out DS http://downsyndrome.about.com/od/diagno ... rticle.htm). The CVS was not pleasant (though that was bc I have giant fibroids) but I got my FISH results in 48 hours and it turned out she was fine (and we found out she is a girl!).

I did a CVS rather than an amnio, because I wanted to know as soon as possible, in order to be able to terminate. For an amnio, you do have to wait a bit longer and I just felt like I needed to know. Both the CVS and amnio have low risk of causing miscarriages, and that risk goes down even further if you have it done at a place that is really good at them. Our facility told me that they had never had a miscarriage induced by a CVS or amnio, which was pretty heartening.

And no matter what happens, and no matter what you decide, you did nothing wrong. I know I felt that way - like I had waited too long and that was why, but it turns out that plenty of young women have babies born with DS too, and you just can't beat yourself up about it. Many hugs to you.

Lisa, I'm really sorry to hear about the death in your family, and your scary news. It sounds like a good idea to take it easy today and give yourself some space to process this all. I hope that the followup will give you some good information.

LP, that's tough to hear. Definitely take some take with your partner to think about where to go from here.

thanks guys for the kind words. i feel better now. my mom came over and basically calmed me down because i was a wee bit hysterical. it's been a rough day in this family for sure.

im feeling more positive now. my mom kept saying that a 1 in 3 chance also means i have 66% chance that everything is fine and the odds are in our favor.

im not going to work tomorrow. im going to tell them i had a family emergency (which is true, ive actually had TWO) and just skip out since our appt for the genetic counseling is at 2:30 i dont think i will be able to deal. im so grateful we can go tomorrow. originally i was not going to be able to go until after the holiday but someone canceled and now i can go tomorrow.

thanks so much for all the info Tofulish. that is making me a lot calmer. the link you provided is exactly what i had done except the end of it was in my second trimester. im 16 weeks now and the 2nd blood test was last thursday. the first part of it i had a blood test done which came back in the normal range and an u/s but i believe in the u/s they were looking mainly for spina bifida and other neural tube defects because the u/s tech said she needed to see the back of the baby's neck. the dr who looked at the u/s at the time (my reg dr was out) said the u/s looked absolutely fine. we did not have an u/s last thursday. sounds like you went through something very similar so it gives me hope that again they are just erring on the side of caution.
my mom was telling me that a coworkers daughter is also pregnant, a few weeks ahead of me, and basically had the same thing happen though instead of DS she had something that pointed to whatever that Trisomy is. she had her genetic cousneling session today and sounds like everything is looking positive. sometimes i almost wonder if all this advanced technology is TOO MUCH. sometimes it causes us extra stress! ;-)

tomorrow from what i understood from what the Dr told me (ie what i remember) is we will meet with the genetic counselor, they will ask us 1000 questions about our family history and then we will have an u/s. i guess based on the u/s and whatever else in the appt they will recommend what's next whether it be an amnio or whatever.

thanks again for all the kind words and info. i think im gonna go take a nice hot shower and relax and think about 66%. :-)

I wanted to add we declined all genetic tests, because I was 27 and no family concerns. Then at our 20 week scan, doc was concerned about nucal fold, followed up with another scan at 24 weeks, was still concernced, referred us to genetic consult and another scan at 25 weeks. They couldn't find anything else of concern, and in the end there were abnormalities (his head did just measure 90% at 9 months if that could explain it, ha). The doc basically ended up saying while they know markers and what to look for, sometimes they still don't know exactly what the results mean.

Anyway, I worried too and felt sad for my baby if something was "wrong." Don't blame yourself, I'm glad you're feeling a little more relaxed and hope you get some better answers/info tomorrow!

That should've said "in the end there were no other abnormalities."

Good luck with the follow-up, LisaPunk! Thinking of you and hoping to hear some good news tomorrow!

I'll be thinking of you tomorrow, LP.

I am so sorry that you had such a rough day! Lots of good thoughts, LisaPunk!

well i dont have any real news which i kinda didnt think i would.
we had an u/s but since im only 16 weeks they said they couldnt really tell anything definitive yet just by that. they did say they didnt see any abnormalities with the heart or the brain and that the bone length of the arms and legs looked good so i dont know what that means. then we saw the genetic counselor who just explained everything. then we decided on doing an amnio since i felt like we werent getting anywhere as far as answering questions and i just wanted peace of mind. i have no idea what i will do with the info but i just want to know.
so we did the amnio. that was about as fun as it sounds. it feels exactly like someone is jabbing a giant needle in you and now my gut hurts.
they said they would do the FISH thing and we should have a preliminary answer in 48 hours and the official answer in 2 weeks.
only problem is 48 hours from now is Thanksgiving sooooo i dunno.
they were uncertain how that would affect things. the genetic counselor said she would call us tomorrow no matter what to let us know when to expect the results. im banking on friday. if i have to wait til monday i may pass out and die.

then to cap off my really awesome week i had to go get a shot in my asparagus because my blood type is O- so i have the Rh- thing
what a great day. :-P

we're supposed to be leaving tomorrow morning to go to upstate NY to visit my husband's family so i already told him i just cant wait to ruin my favorite holiday since im sure ill be in a crepe mood the entire time.
ohwell.

I hope today went well LisaPunk and that you've had a chance to relax.

Today was my 12 week appointment and we heard the heartbeat :-)
I also found out yesterday that a friend is pregnant and due two weeks before me. Her daughter and Ada are not even two weeks apart. So basically for the last couple of months we have been hiding our nausea and exhaustion from each other. Ha. It will be nice to have someone going through the same thing who lives only a couple of blocks away.

Oh man, LisaPunk, waiting for something like that is the worst. I hope you get good results soon!

Yay for a heartbeat, sashi! How fun that you have a nearby friend who is due at about the same time as you.

On the road posting from my phone but wanted to let people know my amnio results ( the initial quick FISH test) came back NORMAL!!!!!
She said we can feel confident the baby does not have DS

Yay!!!! I am so glad you got some good news (and even before the holiday)!

What a relief!

Hurrah LisaPunk! I am so happy for you.

Though really, I wish medical professionals would give you more context in terms of the false positives instead of being like "Oh there is a 1 in 3 chance that your child has DS. I understand wanting people to take the test results seriously, but why terrify pregnant women needlessly?