Expectant parent club! Where the pregnant people hang out.

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Quote:
Or maybe She is measuring larger meaning they move up your due date!

They said 10oz was what she was weighing and they had me at 19 weeks, 1 day yesterday.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Well DH got home. His reaction was like, "well if something is wrong, there is nothing you can do about it."

Then he said there are three possible things (in his mind) that could be wrong:

The worst:

1. Something is wrong with baby or me

Not as bad:

2. It's a boy

The best:

3. Everything is fine and they just wanted to call and let me know so I wasn't worried

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Because I'm so upset, DH called his mom (who is a nurse at another clinic) and she said it might be that none of our phone's answering machines or voicemails identify US as who we are--so maybe they won't leave a message if they aren't 100% sure it's us? She's probably just trying to make me feel better...I haven't said anything to my mom because she's a major worrier and she's got enough stress of her own to deal with.

On the other hand, she did say she thinks if it was really serious--they would have just left a message for me to call them back. She thinks they either are calling to say everything's fine or that's it's a boy after all.

 

[SpringChickens]

Quote:
How stressful! I hope it turns out to be nothing - probably will. Even if they find an "abnormality", it's probably not significant. They find small abnormalities all the time which don't mean anything is wrong at all (ex. my daughter had a echogenic focus in her heart, which is basically a small calcification which can be a soft marker for Down's Syndrome, AND she had a slightly thicker nuchal fold. She came out 100% normal). The ones you want to worry about are the ones where the tech runs out of the room looking for a doctor.

Good luck - let us know what you find today.

 

[kelseygirl707]

I was just thinking, Rare is probably at work, so we won't hear an update until tonight

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Quote:
I was just now thinking the same thing....

 

[kelseygirl707]

Well, Got to see my little dude this morning! MIL only sobbed twice, lol! He's pretty packed in, but we got to see his little face, ribs, arm and even Teeth way up in his gums! Blood pressure was perfect 117 over 72, and I lost 2 pounds, but they said that was ok, Baby is doing great!

 

[Ms.FuzzyButts]

Quote:

Awesome! Now you wont get to see him again until he's here!!!!!! Only a few more weeks....

 

[MrsKemmerlin]

Quote:
How exciting!

I can't wait to see something more than a little bean in my picture, haha, but the teeth thing is insane!

He's going to be here before you know it!

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I'm here---on my lunch at the library....finally got a hold of the nurse...they have me scheduled for another Level 2 US on the 28th.


'Echogenicities' in the fetal heart is considered as another sonographic "soft sign" in the diagnosis of fetal chromosomal abnormalities. The echogenic areas probably represent calcifications at malformed areas in the papillary muscles of the heart. As reported by different authors, the presence of an intraventricular echogenic focus carries a relative risk of Down syndrome roughly 0 - 4 times as compared to a woman of similar age. Counseling, further ultrasonic assessment and amniocentesis will be considered in the presence of such findings. At the same time, the vast majority of fetuses who are chromosomally normal with an intraventricular echogenic focus do not have congenital heart disease.

Another website:

Representing mineralisation of the papillary muscle, this soft sign for aneuploidy was not a common finding in this group of 6995 women (incidence 2.1%). The incidence of echogenic cardiac foci in 2nd trimester ultrasounds ranges from 0.17% to 7.4% in other studies. Estimates of the chance of Down Syndrome among fetuses with echogenic cardiac foci have varied from no increased risk up to a 4-fold increase in the age-related risk with several studies suggesting a risk of 1%. In one recent study of the 150 fetuses with the heart foci, 76% proceeded to karyotyping by chorionic villus sampling or amniocentisis or both and one had cordocentesis. The positive predictive value of an echogenic intracardiac focus for chromosomal abnormality in all patients was 3% (5/150). Only one of the five chromosomaly abnormal fetuses had an echogenic intracardiac focus as the only sonographic marker for chromosomal aberration.? Therefore, of the 92 cases where an echogenic focus was the only ultrasound marker, there was only one chromosomal abnormality (1%). Ninety-six percent of the echogenic foci were within the left ventricle.

With the controversy surrounding this ultrasound finding it is difficult to know what, if anything, is best fo each patients. Genetic Counseling is recommended. Many centers will not routinely recommend amniocentesis if this is an isolated finding and the patient is otherwise low risk.

Because I got the genetic blood testing done and that came back with 1 in 13,000 for Downs based on my own genes and 1 in 690 for my age and almost that low of a risk for the other big three bad birth defects that are chromosomal—that makes me feel a little bit better. But of course, DH has not been tested either and the baby is carrying ½ of his genes.

This next ultrasound is a “level 2” which is done at the hospital rather than in the clinic and they will be checking for other D.S. markers (face measurements, head, folds at the base of the neck, etc). They may make me do amniocentesis (where they take a long needle and stick it through my uterus to extract amniotic fluid to test for D.S.) as well.