17 Weeks pregnant - 23 weeks to go!

I cannot believe that we still have 23 weeks to go until we meet you!

All of your baby clothes and all of the things you will need for the first few months are currently at your Uncle Lee's, waiting to be packed into cases and brought out here with each and every visitor we will have for the next few months.

Your nursery is almost done, we are just waiting for the wall decorations to arrive from America, and then your woodland nursery will be complete. I can't wait to see if all finished, but it still seems really surreal that you will soon be here with us.

We're already stocking up on nappies and formula for you, plus a mountain of baby wipes. So it's almost like all we need now is you, but you are a long way for making your appearance.

Today you are 17 weeks and we had a scan today, and you still look perfect. You are now exactly the size you should be for your age, and so we're back to expecting you on the 8th of September 2012. I am keeping the 14th in mind though, as I'm most likely to have you after your due date, because you are my first.

This week you are the size of an onion and you are growing eyelashes, eyebrows and hair. I can't wait to see if you look more like your dad or me but hopefully you will be a nice mix of both of us.

We've had a blood test, called a triple test. It's a more accurate way of testing whether you are likely to have any chromosomal abnormalities like Downs Syndrome of Edwards Syndrome. We already knew that you had a nasal bone and your measurements were normal at your 13 week scan, so we were pretty confident you would not turn out to be high risk.

On the basis of my age, 27 years old, your risk was listed at 1:991. So only one in every 991 babies are born with disabilities if the mother is my age.

The blood test showed that your risk for Downs Syndrome was 1:4000, Trisomy 18 1:600 and Edwards Syndrome 1:9000. They are great results and put you in an extremely low risk category, and so we don't need to do anymore invasive tests.

Your dad and I are so relieved. Our main hope for you is that you grow up healthy and happy, and we'd hate for your life to be made more difficult or complicated by medical problems.

We will next see you at my 20 week scan, which is another major scan. Then we will finally be half way to meeting you, and hopefully from then on, time will fly until you get here.

xxx

PS: Here is a picture of your pram. Your dad thinks that "Raspberry" is red not pink, and is therefore unisex. So I hope, whether you are a girl or a boy, that you like pink, because I think it is definitely pink!

Lets get the ball rolling....

We are now in crazy, buying everything you could possibly need, mode!

Your dad bought the first item, the piece that started it all off, isn't is so cute:

So now we have been in major baby mode, and we think we have pretty much everything you are going to need on it's way to Nanny Angie and Gramps's house.

We also ordered your cot yesterday:

I love love love it! Hopefully you will too!

We had an appointment at the hospital yesterday, so we got to see you again. You looked as if you were standing up, although you looked a little like a duck, with your head bent! As soon as the scanner was working, you started dancing up and down and waving your arms around. We like to think you were waving at us, but you were probably trying to bat the scanner away!

The Consultant said that your official radiology report from your 13 week scan was perfect, which is exactly what we like to hear! I am off for a blood test to check for genetic abnormalities, and then we go back for the second anomaly scan at 20 weeks. So on the 22nd April we should get another full CD
of pictures of you.

It is still too soon to know whether you are a boy or girl, but we still think we'd rather wait until you arrive to be surprised. So we're going to have to make it clear at each scan that we don't want to know your gender, as it seems rather routine here to tell the patient the sex without asking whether they want to know!

I'm not sure we'll make it to your birth without someone slipping up, but we're going to try!

xxx

The entire Northern Hemisphere knows you exist!

After we came home from your 12 week scan (and after I had been back to bed  for a few hours - morning sickness is really really bad at the moment!) we began telling everyone that we were going to be meeting you in September!

The news spread like wildfire thanks to Facebook and that Nanny Angela text literally everyone she knows within about 2 minutes of knowing she was going to be a Grandma!

So I thought it was time for you to meet the people who are most looking forward to meeting you (Besides us of course!):

First up, the Grandparents:

Nanny Angela and Gramps:

Grandma Joyce and Grandad Ernie:

Nanny Christine and Grandad Steve:

(I can't find a proper photograph for you, expect from when I was about 4, so I'm going to look for a more up to date one and then I'll add it in later!)

Now your Aunties and Uncles:

Uncle Charles:

Auntie Caitlin:

Uncle Lee and Auntie Carol:

Uncle Dave and Auntie Alison:

Auntie Nicola and Uncle Dean:

Auntie Catherine and Auntie Gemma:

Auntie Kerry:

Auntie Ali and Auntie Frankie:

Whew, this is turning into a really long post. So I'll save your cousins for another day! 

xx

12 Week Scan!

On Saturday 3 March 2012 we went to the hospital for your official 12 week scan. In actual fact you are currently about 13 weeks old, but you measure a bit less.

It was so lovely to finally see a baby on the screen, even at your 8 week scan, you were a blob with a heartbeat. You didn't have fingers or toes, and we couldn't even make out your head.

At this scan you looked exactly like a little tiny baby. Apparently, your head is already half the size it will be when you are born, and you still have another 27 weeks to grow.

Your heartbeat was 161 beats per minute. There is an old wives tale that if the heart rate is above 140 beats per minute then you are a little girl, if it's below then you are a little boy. So apparently you are going to be a girl. We'll have to see if your heart rate stays high when we get to your 20 week scan.

The colours on the screen show your heartbeat.

The Radiologist measured the Nuchal Fold, which is the fluid that is currently present at the back of your neck. It is a test for Downs Syndrome and Edwards Syndrome, if you have an excess amount of fluid, the risk of you having either of those syndromes is increased. Thankfully you measured in at 1.3mm which is well within the normal range. You could measure up to 2.8mm when you are 13 weeks and 6 days old and still be within the normal range.

The Radiologist also checked for your nasal bone. This is another test to check whether you are likely to have one of the syndromes. Downs Syndrome babies often have no nasal bone. You have a properly formed nasal bone, you can clearly see it here on this picture:

You were extremely active all the way through the scan, punching the air and kicking, almost flipping yourself over. It's so strange to think that you are bouncing around in there and I can't feel anything yet! I'm sure I will do soon though, you were a really wriggly baby! 

Both your dad and I think you are probably going to be a boy, but we'll wait and see if we are surprised on the day you are born. You will be a little fighter anyway, given the boxing match you were having during the scan! 

Here are a few more pics of the scan:

We cannot wait to meet you!

xxx