Scary news

A couple of weeks ago Chris and I got some pretty scary news. We had a doctor's appointment and this was the appointment where they ultrasound and checked to make sure all of the organs were there and growing appropriately. All of the organs were there and everything looked great, EXCEPT, for two "minor" issues- as the doctor described them. Evan had a choroid plexus cyst and an echogenic focus. The cyst is just a small pocket of fluid in the brain that contains cerebral spinal fluid, it has no effect what so ever on any development of the baby. The echogenic focus is a small calcium deposit on the heart, once again has no effect on the heart function. Both generally go away before birth. So what's the big deal? Both are minor markers for Down's syndrome. Off to a specialist we went. 

Mentally I prepared myself for the worst, our baby would have Down's. It's by no means a death sentence. It could be so much worse. God would just give us a special baby that would need a little extra loving. Granted, everybody wants a perfect baby, nobody wants to be told something might be wrong with this tiny miracle growing inside of them. But God never gives us more than we can handle. And I knew he had a plan for me and I was ready for it. So for a week I worried, panicked, questioned, googled, and pretty much just needed an immediate answer. A little piece of the impatient person I was before E came along came back. I had one breakdown, tears and all, but I knew everything would be okay. The only thing I could think was how other people would treat my child. I knew I loved Evan no matter what, but it was how others would treat him that bothered me most. 

Skip forward a week later, time for a visit to the specialist. The specialist made us feel so much better. He said he didn't really even think the echogenic focus was an echogenic focus, rather part of the leaflet of the valve opening and closing. As far as the cysts, he said lots of kids have them (his middle child did). And they usually disappear at 26-30 weeks. He reconfirmed that there were no other ultrasound markers to be concerned with, and offered a blood test for Down's that takes the baby's DNA from the mom's blood. The test is 99% accurate. Unlike the quad screening that was offered early in pregnancy to test for Down's, which we refused because many times it comes back false positive. The test usually took two weeks to come back. Ahhhhh another sit and wait game. The bright side is the doctor made us feel so much better, so my anxiety level was a lot less. 

Today we got the call from our blood test results and it came back NEGATIVE. :) All that worrying and fretting and what ifs for nothing. 

When E came into this world he came in full force. Everything I had planned didn't quite go as so. No vaginal delivery, no breast feeding, no three month old sleeping through the night. Well it looks like this go round Evan is starting a little earlier than E. Just a pleasant reminder that I am NOT in control. One of the many life lessons I have learned through parenting.