Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice and a Giant Needle

The Turtleburgular

Here you can see my little one, waving hello!

So shortly into my second trimester I had blood work and an ultrasound done to make sure things were developing normally. It is the fear of every pregnant woman that something about their pregnancy would not develop normally and something would be wrong.

I had 11 vials of blood drawn, I peed in a cup (which would become standard practice every time I went to the doctor) they preformed an ultrasound. My doctor told me that everything looked normal on the ultrasound and barring anything coming up from the blood work, he would see me next month.

I got a phone call 3 days later that my doctor would like to see me in his office. Now I know I have a sparkling, magnetic personality but I was pretty sure my doctor didn't just miss me and want to see me early. I immediately started crying and his nurse reassured me that it was probably nothing but one of my levels was testing high. On the phone with the girl trying to schedule an appointment for the next day, I was so upset that I got a return phone call from the nurse explaining that everything was probably fine, it was just one of the proteins used to detect downs syndrome was testing higher than normal. Very reassuring. I curled into the fetal position and called Michael and then called my mom.

My mom tried to reassure me that this was just a blood test and that everything else looked normal. So to relieve my fears I did what every sane, rational, pregnant blogger would do. I starting looking things up on the internet. Before you stop reading and grab the largest book by your computer to smash into your head for being friends with someone who would do something so stereotypical, let me explain. I mentioned before that I pick at little areas when I am under stress and picking at finding out what is wrong is no different for me, I did basically calm myself down.

At the meeting with my OB, Michael and I were together, united at least. He explained that the level was indeed high but structurally everything looked fine. He told us that the odds of having a child with a disability were about 1:200, the odds of something going wrong during an amniocentesis were about 1:275. He wanted to give us the option of having an amnio to find out exactly what was going on or we could just leave it alone.

We really aren't "leave it alone" kind of people, I knew I would never relax until I knew if the baby was OK. So we agreed and I was scheduled. The only upside to having to have the amnio done was we would be able to find out if the baby was male or female.

On the morning of the procedure I was nervous. I got to the doctors, peed in a cup, was weighted and sent into the ultrasound room. The Ultrasound tech is a really funny guy named George, one of the reasons I picked my OB is because he is funny and sarcastic (when he did the initial ultrasound he couldn't figure out why the portable machine wasn't working... it wasn't plugged in. I looked at him and said "8 years of medical school huh?" to which he replied "Foiled by Mr. Edison again") George was reassuring me that Dr. S has never stuck any of the babies he was preforming an amnio on, how it would be easy because George would be there to guide him and it shouldn't be too uncomfortable because they would give me a shot of lidocaine before they started.

I was given the shot of lidocaine, I was prepped and then Dr. S came in to preform everything. First thing he mentions after sticking me with the giant (GIANT) needle is about how he totally nailed a baby in the leg with the needle last week. Comforting, caring, nailing babies with giant needles, OK so maybe it won't be their new office motto. I looked at George and said "I thought you just told me he never hits the babies" Dr.S "That was different, this baby was full term" (the baby was fine, just thought the exchange was funny)

I was told I would get the results in a few days, as long as everything was normal she would tell me over the phone and if anything came up we would sit down and discuss our options. Waiting seemed to take forever but on Friday, I got a call and I was told "All the results are normal in regards to the female fetus"

I was having a girl!