It’s a girl! Chris and I went for the ultrasound last Monday. Since I am considered to be of “advanced maternal age”, I had to have a special ultrasound done at the Boulder Foothills Hospital. Before even getting to the ultrasound though, we met with the genetic counselor who asked questions about both Chris’ and my personal and family health history. The counselor also looked at the quad-screen blood test I had done a couple of weeks ago, and fortunately it was determined that we were at a low risk for having a baby with Down’s Syndrome or any other chromosomal abnormalities. I guess I wasn’t really too worried about it, but they wanted to make sure that I knew I had the option for an amniocentesis after the ultrasound that would definitively determine whether or not our baby had any birth defects.
The ultrasound was different from our first two with Amy and Misha in that it was much more clinical. We weren’t able to get a video tape of it and the technician who performed the ultrasound wasn’t too informative or talkative. She said to save our questions for the doctor who would come in after the initial ultrasound. The technician did all the normal measurements and checking of the heart, spine, etc., but also did measurements for “markers” that would indicate a greater likelihood for Down’s Syndrome. They measure the skin on the back of the neck, the length of the nasal bone, the ear, the pinkie, other things as well that would indicate a greater propensity toward the syndrome. Fortunately our little girl appears to be just fine.
Chris was hoping for a boy, as any father would. I would have been mightily surprised if it had been a boy. I have felt as though, even before deciding to get pregnant, that there was a little girl waiting in heaven to join our family. I think she will be our last though. I have been praying a lot lately to know whether or not we should think about having more-just to be prepared in my mind. After the ultrasound and the genetic counseling, I felt the confirmation that this was to be our last. There is sadness in that but also some freedom.
The girls were staying with Glovers while Chris and I went to the ultrasound and when I went to pick them up, I told Amy that we were having a girl. She was very excited and said, “That’s just what I wanted!”
Misha has been on a kick lately. When I start to get after her for something, she begins to say, “Easy, Easy, Take it easy.” It is kind of funny the first couple of times you hear it, but after awhile I begin to say back, “You take it easy.”
One of Amy’s favorite tv shows right now comes on at 4:00 pm everyday, which she seems to always know when to ask to watch, on the Cooking channel called “30-Minute Meals with Rachael Rae.” It comes on in two half-hour segments and she intently watches them both. So, this morning she was in the shower while I was getting ready for church and started talking about “eyeballing” something. I thought maybe she had picked up the word from Chris as he was building stuff, but as Amy continued to talk about pulling the guts out of the turkey, it all came together. Then I heard her say “I have to take a commercial break, but I’ll keep working on this, and when I come back, we’ll have a beautiful dinner.” So hilarious. There are certainly plenty worse shows to be watching and if she learns something in the process, all the better for me when she begins to cook. Unless, of course, she starts to say, “That’s not how Rachael does it...”
