Beautifully perfect

The level II ultrasound at Mayo this morning went wonderful. The ultrasound lasted 1.5 hours, and we had three different people perform the ultrasound...one being the perinatologist.

Here is what we LEARNED that is helping us feel better:

1. A trisomy 18 baby has about 125 markers they look for, our baby apparently has only ONE (the choroid plexus cysts).
2. They have never MISSED a trisomy 18 diagnosis, they always see other defects.
3. The average risk for major abnormalities is 2-3% for the general population, the perinatologist told us that since our scan looks perfect, our risk of major abnormalities is cut down to about one half of one percent!

Here's what we SAW that makes us feel so blessed! Our baby has:

• Two perfect hands (and 10 little fingers) it likes to open and wave at us with (T-18 babies keep their hands clenched),
• Two perfect feet, with ten perfect little toes,
• One perfect heart - we even saw the aortic valve, very cool (T-18 babies almost always have heart defects)
• One perfect spine (and we could see the aorta running along it, pulsing with the baby's heartbeat),
• Two perfect kidneys,
• One diaphragm - with all major organs (bladder, heart, stomach) in their appropriate places in relation to it,
• No cleft lip - we got a great view of it's face and lips (that view was a little freaky)

It is such a beautiful baby! Apparently the tech said it was definitely trying to show us it's gender, but she (and everyone else that scanned us) was VERY good at staying away from the area or letting us know so we could look away. So...we TRULY have NO IDEA what we are having...YIPPIE :)

I'm just thanking God that it went so well, and that my fears have been calmed. Thanks to the VERY detailed ultrasound and the extremely knowledgeable perinatologist, I'm breathing much easier after a very stressful weekend. We will have a follow up ultrasound in about 8-10 weeks, just to make sure the cysts go away, but the perinatologist has said in 25 years he's NEVER seen them NOT go away by that time.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us and our baby!