Friday, June 27, 2008

Good news / Possibly Bad news

Oh, I'll be positive first. I'm definitely feeling movements in the belly! And I'm pretty darn sure it isn't gas or bloating :-) We flew to Minnesota, and I'm not totally positive the little one thought this was a good idea because while in the air I was feeling some fluttering. Sometimes just like little bubbles, sometimes like little pokes from the inside. Quite a bit weird to think that our little one is getting big enough to feel finally. I'm not feeling constant movement, only off-and-on through the day with long stretches of normality. Nothing large enough that the husband can feel from the outside yet. Oohhh so exciting! While in Minnesota, we realized that several of our friends had also jumped on the baby band-wagon and we had to compare bellies and symptoms :-) Can't wait until our sonogram to see the little one again and perhaps find out if it is a him or a her.

Then on the other side of the coin, but not to freak out yet... our quad test came back normal in 3 categories, but high in AFP. This means that the screen tested positive for a neural-tube disorder in the baby. It is just a screen, and not a definitive test. The results only give as a higher probability for having a neural-tube disorder and it has a high rate of over-zealously testing positive (90% of babies with a positive test are fine / Only 1 or 2 in 50 babies will have problems). So much so, that many women opt not to get it done. It could easily test high because we are carrying twins, or that my conception date was off, or that I got done toward the end of the testing time window (15-18 weeks). I'm banking that the dates are off by about a week and the little guy might be due earlier than we thought. We aren't too scared yet until we have more information and are thinking/praying for a positive outcome. We'll call and schedule an appointment with a genetic specialist in the early part of next week.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

My Little Sweet Potato




What?!  Sweet Potato?!  That's what food the baby resembles this week?!  I don't think that veggie is cute at all!  And at 6.7 oz I think my bottle of diet coke weighs more too.  

Monthly Doctor Visit

This past Wednesday, we got to hear the little one's heartbeat again!  Ah, what bliss.  I just look over at Brian and see him grinning back at me when we hear the fast-paced little beats.  Otherwise the check-up went ok for the baby.  Dr. is still a little worried about my blood pressure (which tends to be on the high end of normal) so I had some additional blood tests run.  While I was there, we went ahead and had blood drawn for the quad test as well.  Brian had the point that we'll worry about the baby's health no matter what and we might as well have all the information we can get!  Let's see, in other body news . . . I haven't gained too much weight since the start of this adventure, and the few pounds I have been blessed with seem to be localized in the chest area currently.  The only other body-health-thing to report is a bit of swollen ankles...but I think that has been because I have been sitting too long at the job and on this current trip to Minnesota. 

Plus, I'm still waiting for a little fetal kicking movement...but nothing yet.