Thursday, January 15, 2009

NT Scan...CHECK!

Yesterday we had our first appointment with our perinatal.ogist. The first thing we did was speak to a genetic counselor about the risks involved in having twins at J's advanced maternal age. That's right. 32 is considered "ADVANCED MATERNAL AGE" for having twins! She's never felt so old.

We seriously don't know how there are so many healthy babies born each day with the NUMEROUS things that can go wrong throughout pregnancy!!! Granted, when you put it in perspective, with J's great family health history as well as our donors, the chances for a lot of the chromosomal abnormalities the counselor spoke of is about 1%. Which leaves a 99% chance of having a perfectly healthy baby... or babies! With all that being said we were still overwhelmed and slightly nervous before heading into our Nuch.al Trans.lucency scan. The counselor said we would want the NT measurement to be about 1 mm and that everything under 3 was considered "normal" but we didn't want to see 2.9 mm or anything like that.

We entered the ultrasound room and were surprised to see a HUGE screen in front of us to watch the scan on. No more sharing the little ultrasound screen with the technician. We were able to watch as she took the measurements and the first measurement of Baby A that she took was 2.6. TWO POINT SIX?!?!?!?! She then took 2 more measurements that were 1.6 and 1.4. She preceeded to go back and DELETE the 2.6 and remeasured the fold, this time as 1.6 mm. PHEW! We both were holding our breath after we saw the 2.6! Then Baby B was measured, it's measurements were an average of 1.5. The perinatal.ogist came in while Baby B was being scanned and walked through some of the complications associated with pregnancy but especially with twins. She talked about preterm labor, pre.clampsia and gestational dia.betes among other things. She went through the preterm survival rates as well which we found very interesting and very PROMISING! She said babies can survive after 23 weeks of gestation in the hospital but granted most of these babies will have a host of problems such as cereb.ral palsey. After 28 weeks, the survival rate for a HEALTHY baby is 80% and after 32 weeks, there was only a 3% chance of complications after birth. These statistics made us feel SOOO much better but we still hope the babies stay in their current cozy home until our 38th week c-section. In the midst of all this talking, the technician announced that the babies NT scan test "scores" were PERFECT with 1.6 for Baby A and 1.5 for Baby B.

We also HEARD the heartbeats for the first time! They caught us by surprise because we were so intently listening to the perinatal.ogist while also watching the show the babies were putting on for us on the big screen in front of us. It was SOOO AWESOME to hear the beating hearts!

Following the scan, J had to do a finger prick blood test and then we were sent on our way. J said she couldn't recall the last finger blood test she had but was sure it was sometime in middle school. The girl taking J's blood said it will be a pretty good pinch. WAS IT EVER! OMG, J thought the girl had cut the top of her finger off! Today she has a pretty bruised finger tip but all worth it for the babies. We should hear on Monday or Tuesday the full results of the NT Scan including ratios of the likelihood of the babies having Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 13 and the likes. We aren't too worried about these results since their N.uchal fold measurements were so great. Right now we are feeling extremely blessed.

Our next perinatal.ogist visit is in 7 weeks (March 4th) where they will do a full body scan checking out every inch of the babies bodies. They told us the appointment will take about an hour as the scan is very thorough and very detailed. Before then, we will see dr H for our regular OB visit on the 27th. We hope to find out the sex of the babies at this appointment but we'll see!

J is feeling great and her appetite has definitely picked up. She is still extremely tired in the late afternoon but still hopes that will lessen over the next few weeks. J's been so busy with work, the naps have fallen to the wayside but today she needs one since we are headed to a basketball game at MSG tonight and will be up way past her (and the babies) bedtime! The babies first (of MANY) basketball games!

6 comments:

A said...

I can totally relate. If you think 32 feels old. I'm 38 and at my first appointment with my RE I was called Pre-menopausal what felt like 17 times. It was crazy. I still feel like I'm college age.

Sounds like things went great during your appointment. I'm glad things are going so well.

Anonymous said...

Yay! The NT scan sounds like it went wonderfully- I'm so happy for you both. Did you get any pictures? :)

Pufferfish said...

So glad the tests went perfectly! What great news! If J is AMA, then I must be her grandmother!

tui said...

So happy that everything went well! Everything sounds really great - glad to hear it :)

Heather said...

awesome NT scan, congrats!!

Pero-Luter said...

Congratulations to both of you!