jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

We met with the genetic counselor this morning. She was warm, friendly and thorough. So thorough that at one point she was explaining gene pairing to us and when I said the word “recessive” she pointed at my and said, “Right!!!” I believe she enjoys her work, and that’s always nice to see.

It was also fun to watch her draw a cool family chart for each of us.

After much discussion we established that she didn’t have a lot to tell us that we didn’t already know. That was reassuring because my biggest concern about the meeting is that she’d hit us with some concern I’d never considered.

If something is wrong, I’m definitely in the “want to know” camp. But weighing that against the fact that I don’t favor being fooled with by doctors if I don’t need to be left me at about a draw for the amnio. I left it to Damon, saying that if he is going to lose some of his joy over this pregnancy because he was busy worrying then we should go do it. But if he isn’t, then we should just go to breakfast. It tipped back and forth a few times, and I think in the end Damon’s heebie jeebies about someone sticking a needle in my stomach is what won. And I had pancakes AND hash browns and felt pretty good about all my choices this morning.

Getting our anatomy scan was the high point of the pregnancy so far, although I’m sure more excitement is coming.

It was such a relief to see the brain INSIDE the head, the liver INSIDE the body, etc. Arms and legs are all present and accounted for. There was even a moment where we watched a tiny hand raise up and teeny, tiny fingers fan out. It was over in a flash and I didn’t get a chance to count to five. But we know he has all his limbs and at least some fingers!

I drank a bottle of orange juice, so we got to watch him fidget around and bob his monkey head from the sugar rush. Right now he’s breech and facing forward. I get a huge kick out of that because when I sit at my computer it’s almost like he’s sitting in my lap watching the screen. If I were transparent.

His brain has all its bits, and they’re all in the right places. Same for his heart. We did get one piece of information that, while not a disaster, is something we could have done without. The baby has an echographic cardiac focus. That’s a bright spot in the heart, and it’s a soft marker for Down’s Syndrome and Trisomy 18. It’s not diagnostic, it’s not even highly indicative. But it’s something. The doctor reading our sono set up an appointment with a genetic counselor for us this Friday. I’ve been playing phone tag with my OB as well. So, I don’t know if we’ll do amnio or not. If we’re impressed enough with the Roosevelt perinatologist then we’ll probably do it just so that we don’t have to worry the next few months away. At least not about that.

I don’t do a lot of linking here, but this spoke to me more today than all the Hallmark commercials. But I like those too.

The Political Crucible of Motherhood.

It’s my first, and I’m guessing easiest, Mother’s Day. At least for many years, anyway. Since the baby is still safely tucked away (19 weeks today) I’m taking full advantage by lounging and eating whatever food Damon puts in front of me. I’m also watching the first season of The Chappelle Show, which I think won’t work out when there’s a kid in the house.

Tomorrow we have our anatomy scan, which should tell us if all the innards are in the right place and working fine. If we’re lucky, we can also find out if it’s a boy or a girl. It would be nice to move to a more congenial pronoun.

I’m enjoying all the sweet wishes I’m getting today. I feel like I’m finally in a club I’ve been trying to join for a few years. Damon gave me a lovely necklace with an opal (October’s birth stone) this morning. So nice.