Pregnancy Things

We jumped over a large hurdle today. I had a nuchal fold test done a week ago, which is a test for Down syndrome and other Trisomies. There is DS on both sides of my family, and my mom and sister have translocations-- pieces of extra chromosomes. That's the amazing thing: my brother has an extra chromosome, my sister and mother have an extra piece of a chromosome... he has DS, my mom was an English teacher, and my sister's in law school. What a tiny difference makes such a big difference.

Anyway, we don't know yet if I have that same translocation, but I probably do. I've always been aware, and so has Anthony, that we'd have a bigger risk than most people of having a baby with DS.

So there was a lot riding on this test for us. It's not definitive, but it expresses your odds compared to other women who've given birth with the same measurements and blood test results, and based on that, our odds are:

1:850.

Which is really good. Better than average for my age, which is 1:561. And the odds of Trisomy 18 and 13 were 1 in more than 10,000, so that's excellent.

My doctor still wants us to go for genetic counseling and for a triple screen in a few weeks. I'll do it, but I feel confident now.

Pregnancy so far has been okay. A lot of queasiness, still. My oversensitive nose drives me bonkers. I'm just about done with the 14th week, so it really should be easing off by now, but many women have it far worse than I do, so I'm trying not to complain. The other symptoms come and go-- sleepiness and headaches, mostly. I'm not really in either camp ("I love pregnancy"/"I hate pregnancy"). I love what it means, but it all feels like a mild and long illness so far.

I'm definitely a cautious pregster. If someone tells me that something might not be safe in pregnancy, I won't do it. Some people say you shouldn't worry about everything, and just relax and let common sense be your guide... but the truth is that it relaxes me a lot more to know that I'm doing everything I can to ensure my baby's safety. I'd be a lot more tense if I was always wondering if I'd just done something that would harm him or her.

Stress is the only thing I lose my handle on sometimes, and that doesn't feel like something I can control. I'm controlling it in terms of work flow-- not taking on any extra work for now-- but you can't really prepare for the stuff people are going to throw at you on a personal level on any given day. I want to go off to a little pregnancy cave and sing "Kumbaya" and make sure no angry weirdoes are allowed near the entrance.