Here is Strawberry's most recent photo. Baby is getting so big! Check out this profile...could it be my dad's nose?

It was an eventful day for our family today. We had a screening test done today called the combined screening. In this test, a sample of my blood is taken between 9 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. Between 11 1/2 weeks and 14 weeks, an ultrasound examination is performed to measure the amount of fluid at the back of the baby's neck, called the nuchal translucency. The results of the blood test, the nuchal translucency measurement and my age are then combined to determine the risk of Down syndrome. In addition, combined screening can also identify about 90% of fetuses with a very serious chromosomal abnormality known as trisomy 18.

Last week I sent off my blood sample. This involved pricking my finger at home and dripping five giant drops of blood onto a special paper that the lab could use to perform its analysis. We had the nuchal translucency measurements done today. Since they already had my blood work, they were able to punch in the numbers of Strawberry's nuchal translucency measurement and come up with a risk analysis specific to Strawberry.

It was great news. Before I took these tests, I had a risk, based on my age, of 1 in 269 for having a child with Down Syndrome, and a risk of 1 in 697 for having a child with Trisomy 18. After the tests, our risk for Down Syndrome dropped to 1 in 2,681, and our risk for Trisomy 18 dropped to 1 in >10,000. This is the same as the risk the average 20 year old has! I guess Joel has a younger woman in his life after all!

The nuchal translucency test was done with an ultrasound, and the baby looked great. Strawberry was sleeping when we got there, and we had to wake her up. This involved coughing and changing positions for a few minutes. They were trying to get a measurement on the back of the neck, and Strawberry had her head resting against the back of my uterus, snoozing away, so the doctor had a hard time finding her skin versus my skin. Finally, after about 5 minutes on my side, Strawberry rolled over and we were able to get the measurement.

We got to see some great baby shots, including thumb sucking, fingers and toes, femur bones, abdomen, etc. They measured quite a few points, and for a while the technician disputed whether or not we had the date of conception correct. Seems strawberry is measuring a week ahead due to her large size! This is not a surprise, of course, considering how big Joel is (6'3"). I guess Strawberry did not get my height! (Lucky baby) If Strawberry is a 10 pound baby I'm going to beg for a C-Section!

The only thing we had in our history that warranted further testing, other than the Spina Bifida tests they do in a few weeks, is for a heart defect. Since I have a bicuspid aortic valve, and Joel had a hole in his heart when he was born, we are going to have a prenatal echocardiogram performed on Strawberry at around 18 weeks. I had this done on myself about a year ago, and it's just like an ultrasound except with color, at least to my nonexpert eyes. I assume they are testing this because even though my defect is quite livable in me, it is inherited and could express itself in a worse condition in my offspring. If there is a problem, and Strawberry needs surgery, it's better to be prepared so they can fix it right away. We hope it won't come to that, though!

Anyway, it was a great day seeing our little one again. It really sinks in that there's really a baby in there when you see it move and kick on the ultrasound. It is soooo exciting!

Here's the latest photo, this is my 13 week belly pic. Looking preggers now, huh?

Strawberry at 12 weeks. Head is on the left, body down and to the right. This is a front angle view, we couldn't get Strawberry to turn around for a profile pic this time! This was so cool! We got to see all four ventricles of the brain at one point. What a smart kid this will be!

We went to our first prenatal appointment, and got to see the little one again. Boy what a kicker, literally. This is going to be one active child! We also got to hear the heartbeat, pumping along at about 150 bpm. I got so excited about it I ordered one of those home fetal dopplar systems so I can listen to the heartbeat myself at home. It hasn't arrived yet, but when it does I'll post a recording!

The doctor talked to us about diet and exercise, medications I could and could not take (I can take Claritin, thank God, since I'm suffering from horrible allergies right now), appointments I'll have in the future, my septum issue...the list goes on and on. I'm scheduled for another ultrasound - don't you love how I'm gaming the system for multiple ultrasounds? - this one along with a blood test to screen for Down's Syndrome. It's part of a new research project at UCSF to try to come up with a better screening tool than the AFP test, which has a 25% false positive rate.

Anyway, baby looks good and healthy and that's really all we want!

Thought I would post a belly pic so you all could see the progress Strawberry is making from the outside! Don't laugh at my pjs. They keep me warm.

I decided to start running again. I had been training for the Paris Marathon in April, until I injured my foot last November. With the pregnancy, I decided to just take it easy and mostly swim until my foot healed, and now it's feeling a lot better. I'm going to ask my doctor about it next week, and I'm hoping she says I can go ahead and run the marathon. I really need the exercise, and I want to stay in shape while I'm pregnant so it will be easier to lose the baby weight when the time comes.

I ran two miles today. Not much, I know, but all I could handle after being out of commission for three and a half months. I figured I needed to get started again now to encourage DH, whose training has slacked since I went on running leave. I guess I'll have to build up the mileage again, unfortunately. We only have 6 weeks until the marathon. Maybe I'll only run half of it, or just a few miles, depending on how I feel. I'll be 20 weeks at the time of the marathon, so hopefully I'll be feeling pretty good by then.

I did some research, and while most sites do not advocate running more than three miles during pregnancy, Runner's World has an entire book devoted to running during pregnancy. I just ordered the book today, hopefully it will have some good information in it. Here's the link on Amazon, in case you're interested.