My Intertwined children. Part 4

Four Years Ago Today
I was back in Perth. I had my first trimester screening test (nuchal translucency and blood test). I was 13 weeks pregnant and my mum had just had major surgery.

It was fantastic to see my baby wriggling around, and his heart beating but then in came the Maternal Fetal Medicine Professor. Why??? To this day I’m not really sure. I panicked and burst in to tears. Yes, that gut feeling, and of course having worked at this hospital, I knew who this man was looking at my scan. He did his best to reassure me that the baby looked fine and that the nuchal fold measurement was fine (which it was).

My guess is that on that scan the bilateral cleft palate would have been obvious. I might go upstairs and see the genetic counsellor and ask her if anything was seen then as it still bothers me why he came in.

I went out for dinner with my girlfriends that night, one of them knew I was pregnant and asked if I was going to tell everyone, I told her no, not until I know the screening was fine.

The next 2 days, I actively chased up the results. I needed to know. I was advised the results would be sent to my GP but I couldn’t wait.

Late Friday afternoon, I got the results. There was a 1 in 104 chance that this baby had a chromosomal abnormality. Not good odds but better than some! Some hope that my gut feeling was wrong…

I arranged for chorionic villi sampling the next week, despite being advised to wait another couple of weeks for an amniocentesis (less chance of miscarriage). No, I couldn’t possibly wait that long. I had been waiting long enough with this bad feeling and anxiety.

Three Years Ago Today
I was 35 weeks pregnant, and impatiently waiting to meet my little girl. I was finished work, I was buying nappies and cute outfits. It felt safe to do these material things now