Relief

I had taken the whole day off work today in order to prepare myself for the doctor's appt. I went and had my hair cut and highlighted beforehand and it was very relaxing. As I was driving to meet Chris at the Doctor's office, I felt at peace with going. Chris and I first had the complete, in detail ultrasound done by the ultrasound tech. She had told us before starting that she wouldn't be able to give us any information whether good or bad, that the Doctor would see us after the ultrasound and explain everything to us. Keeping that in mind, I wanted to enjoy getting a glimpse at my precious boy without stressing over every detail. For the most part I wasn't stressing too much. I even laughed when we saw that he had his feet crossed at the ankles and his arms above his head just like Colin did in his Ultrasound pictures. Once the ultrasound was done, she took us into another room to wait on the doctor. That's when I started to worry again. It literally felt like we waited on him for an hour, but when I asked Chris if he thought they had forgotten about us, he informed me that we had only been waiting for 10 minutes. The doctor finally came in and sat down. He looked straight at me and told me that "he looks fine" and told me to take a deep breath. He couldn't have said it better. I had literally felt like I had been holding my breath since last Thursday and now I could actually breathe. He went on to explain to us that the blood test is a screening test and it takes several factors of my blood and the combination determines the "risk" I have of my child having Down Syndrome. Apparently, according to my test results I had a 1 in 80 chance, which is pretty significant considering an average woman has a 1 in 1000 chance. He went on to say that he can not tell us that the baby does not have DS but that my chances went down to 1 in 200 after the ultrasound. The ultrasound is only 60% accurate, so there is a chance that the baby could still have it and the ultrasound not pick it up. He reassured us that from what he saw there are no signs of Down Syndrome and we are likely to have a healthy baby. He gave us an example of a person who's cholesterol was a little high during a screening...the doctor can not tell that person that they will NOT have a heart attach but they can run more tests to see if their chances of it are higher or lower. He wants to see me back about every 4 weeks for now to do more ultrasounds and check for any signs, but for now the baby appears to be healthy. I feel really good about this, although I don't think I will fully be at ease until he is in my arms in 5 more months!!!

I want to thank everyone of our family and friends. I know that there were people praying for us miles away who had never even met us and we are so grateful for that. I have had so much support, encouragement, love and prayers from so many people and I can't thank you all enough!!!!

Pics to come!!