First Trimester Screening

We had the First Trimester Screening April 28th. For those of you who do not know what this screening is, it helps identify babies who may have down syndrome, trisomy 18 or trisomy 13. It's a combination of a detailed ultrasound and blood work. I had my reservations about doing this test. We felt that it would be important to know if our baby had down syndrome, trisomy 18, or trisomy 13, but we also felt that it wouldn't change the way we felt about the baby. Another reservation I had about the test was the cost of it. I know, I know, I shouldn't put cost in front of our baby's health. But I was a little concerned because I called my insurance to see if it would be covered and I was told that only one ultrasound would be covered per pregnancy. I had already had one at 7 weeks and 5 days to see how far along I was. When the lady at my insurance was telling me this she was really reading from a script and it was very confusing. I tried to talk to a couple different people at different places but no one could really give me an answer that either I wanted to hear or made sense to me. Thankfully a high school friend, Heather Ringer Martin, was able to answer my questions and put me at ease. So I decided to keep the appointment and keep my fingers crossed that it wasn't going to cost us and arm and a leg.

The day of the appointment. When I made the appointment, I didn't know that Matt had a midterm scheduled for that afternoon - oops. So, we drove separately so that he could go straight to school after the appointment. Matt is very, very, very good about being on time and leaving early for appointments. Me, not so much (wonder where I get that from?!). So, thankfully Matt gave us plenty of time to get there and took traffic into account. After passing the place twice, we finally pull in about 10 minutes early. We walk in and have no clue where we're going. We get directions from the sweet lady at the information desk and we finally find the place. I go to check in, sign my name and the guy tells me this paperwork is showing that you do not have a copay today. I said, What? I don't have a Copay? He says, Nope. SWEET! After checking in, we walk next door to the doctors office. Um this place is standing room only, it's packed! Slowly chairs open up and Matt and I are able to sit next to each other. My appointment time comes up, then passes. I'm getting hungry, I have to go to the bathroom, and Matt is getting ancy about his midterm. About 30 minutes later the nurse calls my name. I think Matt and I say at the same time, finally! (Mind you this is the day after I spent 2 hours at the eye doctor waiting to get my eyes checked!) The Ultrasound Technician is awesome! She super nice, pleasant to talk with, and is very calming. Next thing we know, we're looking at the monitor and seeing our little "apple" move around!!!!!!!!! Of course I start smiling and crying, Matt immediately grabs my hand and starts smiling. We were both in total awe over this little tiny baby moving around inside of me!! It was so awesome to see it move!!!! It was like it knew we were watching. It would crouch down and push off, then slide back down. Crouch down, push off, then slide back down. Over and over again. At one point we saw it put it's hands up like it was on a roller coaster! So cute!!!!! She said everything looked good so far and that the doctor was going to come in to do some measurements his self. She leaves and Matt and I look at each other. Matt says something like, that just made my day! The doctor comes and and shakes my hand then Matt's hand. I think to myself, maybe he shook my hand that way because I'm a girl? But he seems nice enough. We get to see the baby again. Same thing, couch down, push off, slide down. It never got old! He gets the same measurements as the Technician did and seems pleased with them. We thank him and he leaves. Finally! I can pee!! As we're about to walk out to get my blood work done, Matt asks me how I liked his handshake. I told him that I hoped he shook it that way because I was a girl, but apparently not! Thankfully he's not my regular doctor! (This is one of the reasons why we are going to Northside, because of my awesome doctor. She has the most confident and caring handshake. When I first went to her about 6 years ago, I knew then that she would be the one who delivered my baby) Anyway, I digress. I get my finger pricked, the nurse tells Matt that I can't cook or clean for a week because of the wound in my hand, ha ha ha...

We leave and can't stop talking about how amazing that was!!!!!! Unfortunately the baby was too busy having fun and we couldn't tell the sex.

The results. Like I said, the doctor said that everything looked normal on the ultrasound, but he wanted to wait till the results from my blood work came back. I got a call about a week later and they said that everything went well!