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Traveler: thank you for your prayers they do mean a lot to me. Hey, that's a fantastic report that your baby's heart looks great. I wonder if they didn't just mis-measure and give you a NT reading that was mistakenly too high. I've watched them when they are dragging their little computer arrows on screen during the ultrasound and they have to squint figure out where to stop. It could be just a technical error. I had my first appointment with my new ob's office yesterday. I didn't actually get to meet the ob/gyn just his nurse who took all my medical history and gave me a bunch of paperwork and sent me to the lab. I had to re-do all of my bloodwork (except first trimester screening and glucose test) which is fine with me. I also did the AFP test yesterday and expect to get a call any day now to schedule my next Level 2 ultrasound. I can't wait to see my baby again. I'm also anxious since they will look for markers of Down syndrome (thigh bone, heart and other organs). I'd also like to find out what s_x he/she is. Not that it matters to me but it would be helpful so I can either pull out newborn baby clothes from storage or go buy new baby girl stuff and also know how to decorate the nursery. Are you going to find out your baby's gender or do you already know?

Hi, Its me LOVEMY3 with my new name since having baby Grace. Perl, sounds like you are well! Hoping things go well with your new dr. Once you get through your firt scan and see no markers you will feel much better. Don't forget to ask him about the placental issues. Did yo ever google the info? Also, your PAPP-A test result will be a part of your AFP so that is key. Best wishes to both of you, xo

Hi Blessedwith4! Good to hear from you. I like the new name very much. Thanks for reminding me about placenta issues. I did google it actually and found some interesting info. When I discussed it with the old ob/gyn (the one I just fired) she was dismissive about it but I think she was just rushing me with a non-answer to get me out the door as I'm sure she does with all her patients. I"ll ask this new doctor about it. When I was googling it I got sidetracked with ICP & pre-eclampsia info but I managed to find good resources and info to get me started on a new diet to try to prevent those things from happening again. We'll see how it goes with AFP but I'm not going to rely on it no matter which way it goes, just like I can't with first trimester screening. Look at all the anxiety it caused me and Traveler too and she has absolutely nothing to worry about thanks to her CVS--yaay! But anyway, I'm still curious about my AFP results.

Hey Perl and blessedwith4, I went for my AFP blood test today. I read a couple of articles online that it's ideal to do the AFP bloodwork between 16 - 18 weeks even though you can do it anytime between 15-20 weeks. All these tests and timeframes. It's been confusing and frustrating since we had to figure out a lot of this stuff on our own. We are of course very thankful we found early that our baby doesn't have ds, but it's been a roller coaster experience thus far. And we did find out the gender of our baby, we are having a baby boy! Is this appropriate forum to ask for book recommendations on raising boys? I grew up with 2 sisters and a single-mom. I know nothing about boys, well besides what I know about my husband:).

Hi ladies! traveler, congrats on the baby boy! thast wonderful. My first 2 are girls, than a son, then a girl. Little boys are awesome! Perl...thats good you got a new dr. there is a brand new paper that my dr just published in the Amercican Journal of OB. Its in tyhe march issue if you can find it online. Its all about placental stuff and particularily how the placenta throws of the AFP screening. very good article. Stay well, xox

We had our follow-up fetal echo this week. Our baby's heart is developing normally, no signs of heart defects. We also had our 19 week anatomy u/s. Everything checked out fine. Yipee! We asked our dr about the increased NT. He said the NT result is a normal distribution and we fell into the tail of the increased probability. Basically, no explanation, but just a lot of worry based on statistics. We are just so thankful our baby is healthy. Also our baby tested negative for spinal bifida and SLO. Ah, so many tests and screenings. How are you doing Perl?

Hi ladies! Sorry I've been MIA. I'm happy with my OB even though he's a man (I prefer female). He's very easygoing and totally opposite of my last c___ppy OB. Our first visit he spent about 45 minutes chatting with me. He helped me set up my appointment for another level 2 ultrasound and genetic counseling again this time with different genetic counselor and medical center. This ultrasound lasted 2 hours long. The tech was great but she could not get a clear image of my baby's heart (the view was blocked between my placenta and my uterus contracting). Finally the doctor came in to try to look at the heart and she finally saw it and said it looked fine but then she said the bowels looked a little bright. The ultrasound tech reminded her that it was only after they switched transducers on the u/s machine that the bowel looked bright. The doctor agreed but told me to go back in 2 weeks anyway to double check it. I went back and everything looked great--whew! Traveler: we're having a boy too! This will be my 2nd boy. My first one is such a lovable affectionate boy I'm looking forward to another. I just bought a book "The Everything Parent's Guide to Raising Boys" by Cheryl Erwin. Haven't read it yet but the table of contents looked interesting enough for me to buy. Blessedwith4: I'll be looking for that article. Hope I can find it I'd be very interested in reading it!

Traveler, we had a high NT measurement as well with our baby... we joked that he probably just had a big head, and that turned out to be true! He will be one year old in less than a month, and his head has always been in the 90th percentile... Hopefully it means that he is very smart! In the meantime, it means that we have to look a little harder to find hats that fit. :-) He takes after his dad with that. Best of luck to you and the others here...