13 Week Ultrasound - 4/2/08

We went in today for what's called a Nuchal Translucency Screening which assesses the baby's risk of having Down syndrome (DS) and some other chromosomal abnormalities as well as major congenital heart problems. This screening involves both a blood test for Danelle and a very lengthy in depth ultrasound in which the technician measures the Nuchal Fold which is located on the back side of the baby's head. It is a very lengthy examination because the reading can only be taken if the baby has it's neck extended (difficult due to the baby naturally having it's chin down by it's chest). I counted that the technician was able to get about 6 different measurements and Nuchal fold averaged about 1.5mm from what I could tell. They said we would not have test results for 48 hours, but the curiosity was killing me about what that number meant so I did a little online research. From what I saw on the internet (because the internet is always 100% accurate, right?) for a baby between 10-14 weeks, with that size Nuchal Fold is less than 1% chance of having Down Syndrome. Of course, the blood test results will tell about other chromosonal abnormalities, etc... It's nothing we're worried about and we didn't even have these tests done when we were pregnant with Kameron. However, we found out the health insurance that we have this time around covers the test 100%, so why not....
The really cool thing about this test though is that we were able to see the baby for about 30 minutes during this extended ultrasound and the technician burned a 30 second video clip along with about 10 still images on a CD for us to take home. The main BabyBartels site has a short 5 second clip that I edited down and there is also a link to view the entire 30 second clip (the full length is about 5mb though...dialup users beware). The BabyBartels Gallery link has all the still images as well...even a few freaky "3D" ones that the technician was playing around with. The 3D ones do not look like much of anything so don't get too excited. I don't think the 3D technology was meant for 13 week ultrasounds.
On a final note, male & female organs are already developed at 13 weeks and the technician tried her best to maneuver the scope to get a sneak peak at the gender. However, I think it would be premature to start painting the new baby's room blue or pink based on the fuzzy picture we saw. I have a very good assumption, but you guys are just going to have to wait until our 20 week ultrasound when we know for sure.
Be sure to vote on our new poll on the side of the blog page: Boy or Girl?

Take Care - Buddy