Our Life, the Howards: Doctors all the time!

We have had doctor's appointments galore over the past few days.

On Thursday I had my 20 week ultrasound and appointment for Baby Trike. Baby was measuring great at almost one pound and the due date estimated by the computer system is right on the money. The heart beat seemed nice and strong at 156 bpm which is within 3 beats of MacKenzie's. We missed a bit of the ultrasound because the tech turned off the t.v. screen so we could keep our gender surprise and not accidently see anything. We do have the gender picture tucked away in an envelope to look at after Baby Trike comes though. The doctor said everything looked good except for one teeny tiny little thing. That thing was a small spot on the Baby's heart. The Doctor assured us that this is kind of common (it is called an echogenic foci) and usually poses no problem to the baby. It can however be a "soft marker" for Down's Syndrome. She felt confident that this wasn't the case, but sent us to a perinatal specialist for an extra ultrasound.

I went to that appointment today. I first had to go to genetic counseling which was nice but aggrevating at the same time. The lady kept asking me how I felt about things and if I understood the small chances of something being "wrong" with the baby. Once I assured her that the baby having Down's would not change our pregnancy status and that we would probably not risk an amniocentisis she knew that we had a good grasp on what was going on. I then went to the perinatalogist who spend a whole lot of time jamming the ultrasound wand into my gut to get a good picture of the Baby's heart. They printed off a ton of pics, but only gave me a very dark and grainy picture of the spine. She felt confident that nothing was wrong and that I didn't need any further looks or testing.

MacKenzie also had her one year doctor appointment yesterday. She was very brave during her 5 shots and blood draw! She is a whopping 32 inches long (off the charts) and weighs a measley 23 pounds 10 ounces (83rd percentile- which isn't saying much for how tall she is). The doctor assured me that she is doing great, developing nicely, and that we should keep up all of the great work!

Now it is time to rest, but here are a few pics...