amnio

thankfully i survived the scary appointment yesterday. we had another ultrasound where they checked for more markers of possible down's, another talk with the genetic counselor, and the amnio (). the ultrasound tech was able to measure everything they needed to (kidneys, spine, legs, arms) except for the heart, and everything was like it should be. the counselor said that if they were able to see the heart, they would've been able to drop our chances of down's to 1 in 10 (instead of 1 in 5). so, we're feeling pretty good about the baby being ok. we won't know for sure until the amnio results come back in 2 weeks.

the amnio was super scary! i ended up bringing a magazine in the room with me and holding it in front of my face so i wouldn't see anything. originally, i started watching the ultrasound (they want to make sure they don't poke the baby with the long ass needle), but once i saw the needle in i sort of freaked out and just stared at the ceiling over the rim of my glasses (so everything was blurry). the actual experience wasn't so bad - needle didn't really hurt when it went in, but it took a hellishly long time since they had to fill 4 vials with fluid. i think i started to panic around the 3rd vial - not b/c it hurt, just freaked me out b/c i imagined i could feel the fluid coming out. i think i felt worse coming out of the room than going in b/c my limbs felt weak and shaky (i was trying to avoid thinking about it ahead of time so i wouldn't panic as much in the room).

so, overall, i survived even though i still tear up when i think back on how creepy it all was. as gary says, we're not going to panic just yet about the possible results until the doctors give us something to worry about. we're pretty positive that the baby's going to be ok.

oh, and according to the ultrasound, they think it's a girl. :)