Good News

Today we had a BIG appointment with the perinatologist. At our 8 week ultrasound, they discovered a cyst on the baby's umbilical cord and these can be indicative of chromosomal abnormalities. We were, justifiably, scared to death. We had to wait 4 weeks until our follow up appointment to see what was going on.

We spent about an hour with a nurse who went through all of the possibilities with us. She also went over the Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) procedure, which was a test we could elect to have. The CVS tests placental tissue for chromosomal defects, it has a low rate for causing miscarriage, but it's a bit higher than the rate for amniocentesis. After speaking with the nurse, Rob and I decided that if everything looked fine on our ultrasound today, we would skip the CVS, do some additional blood testing, and see where we go from there. We always have the option of the amnio at 15 weeks.

We then went in for our ultrasound, the tech took the baby's measurements (measures at 12 weeks, 2 days), heart rate (158 bpm), and did the Nuchal Translucency (NT) measurements. Everything looked great and she began to look for the cyst. She got a couple of different angles and couldn't see anything. We waited a bit and the perinatologist came in to have a look, and she couldn't see anything either. She stated that she couldn't see pushing for the CVS for us since everything looked completely normal on ultrasound and the cyst was gone. She wants to see us back in 8 weeks (20 weeks along) to do a re-check, our appointment is scheduled for October 21st. At that point we'll be able to really see if there are any birth defects that are impossible to see at this early date.

In the meantime, I'll have my appointment with my regular OB next week (Thursday, September 3rd), and she'll have all of the results from today by then. We'll wait and see what the blood work and NT scan paired together say. If they show an elevated risk of anything we will most likely do the amniocentesis.

Rob and I have a huge sense of relief after seeing all of this today. We're not out of the woods yet, but what we wanted to have happen today, did. I truly don't believe I will ever feel like we're 100% out of the woods until I'm holding a healthy baby in my arms.