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while we're at it

while we're at it, how 'bout a little baby #2 update?

we saw the maternal fetal specialist on thursday of last week. first we visited with the ultrasound tech, and it was actually way cool - they had brand new fancy ultrasound equipment, so the company's reps were still there showing them how it all worked ... soooooo we got a million pictures of this little babe. i was at 12 weeks 2 days when they did the ultrasounds, so i didn't expect to see much - but with the new equipment, which is apparently pretty high fallutin', we could see all four chambers of the heart beating, we could see the sections of the brain, we could see the bones in the hand and the long bones of the legs and arms. we counted two hands, two feet, and two kidneys, among other cool stuff. (no gender yet, be patient!)

(i am interrupting this baby report to tell a very awesome story: john just came to get me, brought me back to the big boy room - which is still not his room yet - and said, "you play the drums and i play the piano!" and we had our first ever jam session. we played the boat song, the train song, and the car song. i am a terrible drummer but it was freaking awesome. what a cool kid.)

back to the soon-to-be-also-cool kid #2. we even got to see a 3d ultrasound because they were playing with the machine to test it out. the ultrasound tech kept saying things like, "i've never been able to see this on a 12 weeker before!" it was really pretty cool, and pretty reassuring to see the baby developing exactly as he or she should. 

then we met with the doc, and he gave a great "8th grade" version of what we're dealing with in terms of the antibody stuff. seems like our understanding of the situation was pretty much right on. the doc did say he doesn't anticipate that we'll have any significant problems, but that we'll monitor closely and keep tabs on everything.

they aren't going to do an amniocentesis to find out the baby's blood type, because there's an awesome newish blood test that can test free fetal dna in my blood to detect the blood type. it's new enough that they don't even have a protocol for it yet, so they had to get it all set up and i go in tomorrow to give my blood for that test.

so every four weeks we'll see my doctor, and the week after each visit to my doctor we'll see the maternal fetal specialist again for more ultrasounds and more blood tests so we can monitor the titre levels of the antibodies in my blood. basically if the titre number stays under eight, we should be in great shape. (if you care how they determine that titre number let me know and i'll explain it the best i can!)

and just today we got the results back on my first round of blood tests. the titre number was zero, which is awesome news. it means they detected the antibodies in my blood, but it isn't at all at an elevated or reactive level. while this can and very well may change during the course of this pregnancy - that's one of the things we'll be monitoring closely - i think it's a pretty awesome sign that we're starting at zero.

so that's the haps on the new little one. 13 weeks tomorrow and feeling great -- should have more news early may after the next round of appointments!
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