Bloodwork came back all good!

I can't remember if I told you that because I'm considered high-risk with this pregnancy I had to have some extra fun stuff done.  The main thing they wanted to check for was risk of Downs syndrome and Trisomy 18.  Trisomy 18 causes a host of really severe learning disabilities as well as physical and the life span is significantly shorter than normal.  They give options for how to do this test, and the most common way is to have an ultrasound and measure the nuchal translucency.   I linked you to a great explanation over at babycenter.com.  Well, my little bundle wouldn't cooperate, so they couldn't do the measurement and had to go the bloodwork route.  Frustrating because you don't get immediate results, but they're very accurate, so that is a plus.  I had to give blood both before and after 16 weeks.  I gave blood the day I was there, and then again this past Monday.  They called me Wednesday with results--I was shocked.  They had said 7-10 days!  Holly, the very nice genetic counselor I had already met, called and said, "I have good news about your bloodwork".  What a great way to start out our phone call.  I thanked her for it, because otherwise, it's instant panic city when you hear them say they have your results.  She said the risk of both Downs syndrome and Trisomy 18 were 1 in 10,000, which is as low as it can be.  The risk of spinal openings (like spina bifida) was 1 in 2300, which is also good.  So overall great news.  I go Monday for the heartbeat at my regular doctor again, and hopefully they will schedule my next ultrasound which should hopefully hopefully reveal the baby's gender!

Feel free to make a guess if you want.  I've lost my mother's intuition.  I thought it was a girl at first, but then I used Intelligender and it said boy, but friends said they used it and it was wrong for them; and then other people said they thought it was a boy.  Then other people said girl, so basically, I have no idea.  Anyway, feel free to guess.  I think it's fun to speculate and hopefully early in September we'll know!