9.9.9

Well, there's a baby, and yes, Charissa, just one! Today was my first appointment and we were able to see a good image of little jellybean and see the heart beating nice and strong. Mike commented that it looks like the entire body is just about comprised of the heart, it was very neat to see. It is a definite relief to now know that all this sickness and tiredness is really doing something worthwhile though :)

In a little strange side-note, the baby is just over 1cm in size from head to rump right now. The last time I was imagining something 1cm was just about 6 months ago (in 2 days...) when Emma's heart was being repaired and the two holes were each right around 1cm in size. Wow, to think her little brother or sister is the size that would pass through the holes that were in her heart just 6 months ago... What a road God's brought us on this year!

Anyway, I had imagined this doctor's visit going so many different ways and wasn't sure just what would happen. The doctor we've chosen is one that is in an office I've been seen in for years and he saw me as a secondary doctor during my first two pregnancies and was there through all of the difficulties and final decisions to do an emergency c-section for Brianna. His practice was no longer seeing OB patients for about a year but right now he's come back into practice working out of a different office (but continues to see GYN patients at his regular office...) and will be the only doctor that I see throughout my pregnancy this time. I was very glad to hear he was back as I didn't want to go to someone that I didn't know and who didn't know my history either.

So Mike and I sat down for the 'consult' before the appointment and we talked, discussed my prior two deliveries and that Brianna's was a c-section. He asked if he'd be presumptuous to think that I'd like to have another c-section, I said I think it is for the best (my delivery with Kristopher was not a good one and I almost received a transfusion from the amount of blood loss I had then Brianna was an emergency c-section). We went on and discussed a few other things then he pulled out paperwork to go down a checklist. No___, right. No ____, right. It went on about 4-5 things then: No chromosomal abnormalities, um... well, yes. Brianna has Down syndrome.

Somehow in our discussion I guess he thought only our adopted kids had Ds and he missed that one of our bio kids did. Honest mistake, even if he was the one to deliver her ;) After all, though, she wasn't diagnosed until 2 months later and he only heard about it in passing I'm sure.

Ah, now started the questions. With our first two kids we had the passing question of "do you want the tri/quad screening?" to which we said "no" and that was that. This time is somehow very different though...

Understandably, the doctor wants to know what he is dealing with and if there are any difficulties with the baby then he'd like to have that forewarning so that at birth we are all prepared for such- including any necessary medical intervention. And on that Mike and I agree with him. We have no problem with NON INVASIVE testing such as a level 2 ultrasound or a fetal echocardiogram. But no quad screening- seriously, what would we do with the random number anyway? If we see soft-markers on an ultrasound, let's look at them. But really, who cares if the baby's got a little something extra? I honestly think I would just LAUGH if this baby does have Ds. It would be a classic case of God's sense of humor. I would know that I was meant to raise a household of kids w/ Ds without a doubt! Chances are that that's not the case, though, and that this baby will be 'typically developing' from the beginning.

Oh, my doctor did, aparently, understand us pretty well from the beginning because when he said he wanted to have a high risk doctor do a fetal echo, he immediately said at 22 weeks. Then he backed up and said, well, that is, if there's no question of termination. If there is we can do it much earlier. Twenty two weeks is the most ideal time to see the heart, though, so otherwise that would be his choice. Yes, twenty two weeks it is... gee, thanks for asking? (ick)

So it appears that I'll have a nuchal fold scan done next appointment, or maybe in 2 months simply for diagnostic reasoning. We're ok with that. I have general bloodwork to do in the next few days- maybe tomorrow while the kids are at school... I don't know whether they'll do a diagnostic echo at the hospital aside from the high risk doctor's fetal echo or not, but if so that will be a total of 4 ultrasounds for this little jellybean. I can't complain, though, it's nice to get more peeks of how he or she is developing and it always seems so much more 'real' after being able to see the baby move around and such. Kristopher was sucking his thumb during one of his ultrasounds. I still remember seeing him suck and swallow, so precious!

Ok... so the title? As we did the consult Dr. P said he does deliveries on Wednesdays and so I could expect the Wednesday before my due date to be the delivery date, provided there's no medical reason to go earlier. That day would be September 9th, 2009. The day before Micah's 3rd birthday (guess we'll celebrate his early this year!).

Ironically, on 6.6.6 we were doing pre-op for Brianna's open heart surgery. On 8.8.8 we were released to go home after Emma's open heart surgery. Add 9.9.9 as another triple-number which we'll spend in the hospital. This time for a wonderful gift rather than the fear that accompanied the open heart visits! I wonder what we were doing on 7.7.7? I didn't blog yet then ;)