Baroness von Barrenness

Out of the proverbial closet

Charles finally spoke with the doctor again last Tuesday. He had spoken with some colleagues about our test results and about what we knew from PGD. They agreed with him that they would advise against CVS, and they don't think we need to worry about problems with the other chromosome pairs.

And the good news sharing began! There were a handful of people whom we'd told already about the pregnancy: our parents (of course), siblings, closest friends and our boss. Now we've started sending out emails to the larger group of friends and former coworkers, and we've gotten such amazing responses from people who are so happy for us. 

Here are a few of the really fun ones:

• OH MY GOD!!! Congratulations! I'm so excited for you guys, I'm crying and I swear it's not because I'm like a thousand weeks pregnant myself and willing to cry over anything. ;) I have baby stuff like crazy to send you - and just - *squeeee*. I'm glad everything is looking good, please keep us posted!
• YAY! Oh my god!!!!! Yay yay yay yay yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Okay, I know that this is pretty poor response time for me, but I've been somewhat dumbstruck. I've always believed that you folks would make fantastic parents. I'm so happy that this is happening for you guys.
• WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!  Many many many many congrats. I am so happy for you guys. No one could ask for better parents, so that's one lucky kid. Enjoy this time...
• Congratulations!!! Can't believe you made us wait until almost the end of the email. Steve and I are both so thrilled for you and Charles. Although we never really discussed it, I know how desperately you had wanted this to happen and I can't imagine two people more deserving of being parents.  We'll look forward to long distance baby pictures in the spring.
• OMG!!!!! This is wonderful news!  I am sitting here trying to hold back my tears of joy! I really needed to hear news like this. We are so happy for you both! And your minion will have dual citizenship I am guessing? How cool is *that*! Happy Happy Joy Joy!
• Hooray and wonderful news! Made my whole month!
• I don't know that I have ever been happier upon hearing about a pregnancy than when I heard your news - so a big old, from the bottom of my heart congratulations -- I/We are thrilled for you both!!

It feels so great to finally start to feel more excited than worried about this pregnancy, and to share the excitement with all these special people.

We even got our first baby gift last week! We had dinner with a coworker and his family, and they gave us a onesie! How cool is that?

Ultrasound (round 1)

Here are a couple ultrasound photos from a few weeks ago, when I was 9 weeks, 4 days. The quality isn't the best, but I hope to upload a couple better, more recent shots soon.

Update!

Apologies for the lack of posts for so long. I've gotten some very sweet and greatly appreciated emails from some of you who've been checking here for updates and found nothing. In this case, no news has been good news, and part of the delay was due to a much-needed weekend vacation in London.

The day of our ultrasound, they took a blood sample to measure HCG. Apparently with Down's babies, there's an elevated level of HCG in the mother's bloodstream. They combined the results from that test with the nuchal fold measurements taken via ultrasound this past Tuesday to assess our risk level for Down Syndrome and Edward's Syndrome (Trisomy 18). The average 31 year-old mother has about a 1:800 risk of Down's, and my risk level based on test results was reduced to about 1:8000. I don't recall the average risk for Edward's, but my risk level for that was reduced to about 1:120,000.

Of course we feel pretty good about that. I think at our first visit the doctor was talking about looking at 1:100 or 1:250 risks and having to decide whether or not to do CVS. CVS has about a 1-2% chance of causing a miscarriage, far greater than our assessed risk of something actually being wrong, so the doctor does not think we should do it. We tend to agree based on the numbers, but our doubts based on emotion are still there. Charles wants to make sure we fully understand the numbers and that we're not going with just one person's opinion. So the doctor has offered to speak with a colleague and call us today with a second opinion.

But like I said, we're feeling pretty good. The ultrasound Tuesday was WONDERFUL. It was like Baby TV for about 20 minutes! He was sleeping part of the time, but when he woke up he was moving all around, waving his arms, grabbing the umbilical cord, sticking out his tongue, everything. Neither of us expected the baby to be moving around so much at this point. (No, it's too early to tell the sex, but it's too difficult to remain gender-neutral with this. So I'm just going to refer to the baby as "he" for now. I may switch back and forth with "she" in other posts.)

In addition to the certified echoscopist who performed the test, there was also a midwife in training. She said she needed more practice and asked if we wouldn't mind coming back for another ultrasound. Of course we didn't mind, so we went back to the hospital again last night for another round of Baby TV with her and two other midwives in training. Can't beat a free ultrasound and a couple more pictures!

Barring any hesitancy from the doctor (if he does phone today), we will probably start sharing the good news with EVERYONE soon. I can't wait! There are so many people I want to tell who I know are going to be thrilled for us. It brings tears to my eyes to think of all the kind sentiments people have expressed since we started opening up about this last year.

For now I'm starting to think about when I can get back the States to see friends and family (hopefully when I have a bit of a belly!).

Our due date is May 20, 2007.

-The Not-So-Barrenness