I promised

Here is as complete a report as I can give on Monday's appointment marathon:

Brian and I left the house at 9 am to make it to our 9:30 appointment at the perinatalogist in Bellevue. Because of traffic, Brian dropped me off at the entrance so that we wouldn't be late. Once there, I bought the special DVD for recording the ultrasound, of course. First we met with the genetic counselor. It's hard not to give in to fear during this part of the appointment. All of the risks and tests are gone over in detail, with pictures. We also discussed our family trees and any anomalies in that.

Then, we move to the nurse's office to go over our complete history, health and pregnancies. Nothing too exciting here except the nurse was intrigued by my crazy medical history. We let her know that my neuro surgeon cleared me after my subdural hematoma debacle.

Next the fun began ... ultrasound! By this point, I really needed to use the bathroom, but because the measurements that they were about to take were very important, I was not allowed to visit the facilities. The tech needed to take three measurements of the nuchal translucency. This measurement of the skinfold and fluid on the back of the neck can help determine the risk of downs syndrome. Usually a thickness of 3 or more is an indicator. Baby3's measurements were 1.4 or 1.5. This reduces the risk from 1 in 49 to 1 in 700. Woo hoo! We also were able to see both arms and hands, legs and feet, umbilical blood flow, and that lovely beating heart. Oh, before I forget again, we also were able see baby3 moving around and holding hands up to the face. I also had to cough a few times to get the babe in position for a good measurement. Delightful doesn't quite cover it.

We also saw numerous fibroids, one about 3 inches in diameter and several around the right uterus. I have mentioned that before, haven't I? If not, here it is. I have uterine didelphys or a double uterus. Meg was born out of the left side, Jake the right. I had the tube on the right side tied so that we could avoid another pregnancy like Jake's, but we needed to confirm that this pregnancy is on the left. This ultrasound did that. Give me another Woo hoo! The tech said that they will be keeping an on the fibroids, but we don't need to be concerned as long as they don't interfere with the left side. So far, they don't. Another Woo, with another hoo!

As you know, we also had a 4D ultrasound done which was amazing. Technology is such a fantastic thing. I love being able to see an actual baby. Today was also the first day that I felt baby3 might be a boy. Girl always felt right before. I was trying to figure out why my instinct changed when it hit me last night while looking at the 4D image. As weird as it may sound, the baby looks like Jake did as a baby, big head and belly with scrawny limbs.

I'll post the video when I can.

After all of that fun, we went out to lunch since we had to wait for the doc to return from a procedure. We found a great little Italian restaurant in Belle Square called Luciano's. YUM!!!!! Delicious food. Intimate setting. An amazing date.

And, back to the doc office for our meeting with the specialist. We love this doc. He has been with us through Meg's and Jake's pregnancies, but because I was moved to Seattle during Jake's, he never found out how everything went. It was great fun updating him on Jake's story. Then, more history. Blood pressure stuff. More risk stuff. And, the "bucket." Be sure to read that with a British accent. :) The bucket is to collect my urine over a 24-hour period so that they have a good reading on my baseline protein and creatine. So, can you guess what I'm doing today? Fun, huh? No leaving the house so that I don't have to carry my bucket with me.

Doc decided that we will be visiting with him every two weeks for a limited scan and check. We may even find out the gender soon.

Next? Blood. Two tubes to check for more risk factors. We will receive those results in a week.

We had 20 minutes before my appointment with my gynecologist so we went over to Merry Go Round, a cute but pricey baby store nearby. The gyne appointment went smoothly, basically just a check in.

Brian also played pack mule all day, carrying around our laptops in case we had some time to work. Never happened. Oh, well.

I may have forgotten something and I don't feel like editing. Sorry. I hope it's not too hard to understand.