First Trimester Screening for No. 2

We had our first trimester screening on Wednesday down in Englewood, CO at Swedish Hospital. Jac and I went down and saw the nice people at Obstetrix, which is a high-risk maternal fetal medicine office.

This test has two parts, an ultrasound and a blood test. No. 2 was being quite uncooperative in terms of positioning for the ultrasound. He kept on moving around and as much as they poked him he would not turn the direction they wanted him to. In the ultrasound they are trying to measure the amount of clear fluid behind the baby's neck. The more fluid, the more likely the baby has a trisomy defect. They were not able to get a great measurement, after the doctor and the nurse tried for 15 minutes, but they agreed to a measurement, which was quite low. They felt from that, that No. 2's chance of having Down's is fairly low.

They also did a blood test. In the blood test they look for tell-tale markers in my blood indicating that there is a problem with the fetus. The results of the tests will be back on Monday. These tests are not considered definitive - they give you probabilities. If the probabilities look low then no further testing is recommended. If the probabilities look high they recommend further testing.

I felt pretty good about what the doctor saw and by the answers to my questions about the chances of a repeat IUGR with No. 2. This doctor agreed that the chances of a repeat are not very high and that the MTHFR mutation by itself is not a problem given my Homocysteine level is normal. He said that we will be able to get a good sense for No. 2's growth at 20 weeks, which is about May 15th. Until then, take baby aspirin and folic acid (1 mg / day) and the rest of my vitamins and let No. 2 do his thing.