Ultrasound Pics and Screening results

Baby Spencer #5 at 13 weeks gestation:

This one is my favorite. You can see the full profile, cute little tummy, and kneecap. And those faint lines in front of his face are little fingers. :)
This one has got to be one of the strangest ultrasound pictures, lol! Its barely discernable even by me. But this (somehow) is the front of his face. Don't ask me how. I'm kind of upset that these are the only three she "took" because we saw so many great shots. :(

This is what I stared at for about half an hour. Pictures of the back of his neck. :) Do you see the two very white lines along the back of his neck? She was measuring the dark area (or fluid) between his skin and his neck (from what I understand). That is supposed to tell them the chances my baby has any extra chromosomes. Amazing.

Actually, I was asked a lot of other questions and had some blood drawn as well, which all contributed to the final results of the screening. Questions such as, "Do you have any current children with Down syndrome?" Yes. "Do you have any relatives at all with Down syndrome?" Nope. "Do you or anyone in your immediate family have a history of multiple miscarriages" No. "Is there any history of birth defects {chromosomally} at all on yours or your husbands side of the family?" Nope again.

So all of that combined with the actual test results, we found out Wednesday that this baby's chances of having Trisomy 21 (Ds) are 1 in 200! Thats great! And the chances of Trisomy 18 (click if you don't know any thing about it) are 1 in 99,000. :) Pretty good too. :)

Knowing that-- just the fact that we have one baby with Ds should have made our odds more like 1:100 or less--we feel pretty good about this. :) Again nothing is for sure until we see this sweet face in October, but I'm definitely breathing a little easier this week.

Can I be REALLY honest for a minute? When I hung up the phone with the Drs office, I cried. Just the thought of having one more baby that will develop ON his own... with no fighting for it... no pushing for EVERYTHING he does... milestones like rolling over, talking, walking and using a spoon with out countless prayers, fighting and pushing... made me cry. Anyone who knows me at ALL knows that I wouldn't trade one day with Abby for the whole world and I am absolutely LOST in love with her. But raising a child with special needs is not a challenge for the faint of heart. And now I'm doing both... adding one child with Ds and one likely with out. I can't believe that I'm going to have five children, but I am already so in love with each and every one of them. My cup runneth over.