The doctors appointment yesterday was bitter sweet. On the upside, we found out that we are expecting our little Victor James. And he is expected to arrive approximately on February 12th.
On the downside, we found out that our little guy has an extremely high chance of having Down Syndrome 
Because I'm 37, it already increased my chance by 66%; 1 in 157. But my blood work came back showing that in my case, I have a chance of 1 in 47!!
So, Big Jesse and I had an appointment with a geneticist to discuss options on how we are going to test him, to see if he does have it or not. One of the choices are to have an Amniocentesis. That is an option that I really don't want to use, and they are really trying to push me to do anyway. It is more accurate, but it has a miscarriage rate of 1 in 200. And since I already had a threatened miscarriage on July 25th, I'm really not comfortable going that route.
When I was pregnant with little Jesse, my second born son, my blood work came back showing that he had a 20% chance of having Down Syndrome, and we chose to do a Level 3 Ultrasound. We were able to tell from that by looking at his hands. Down Syndrome children are missing the middle bone on their pinkie fingers. The doctor let us know that the level 3 ultrasound no longer applies, because Downs Syndrome childen can now be born with all three bones in their pinkies.
And if things weren't already stressful enough with that, we found out in the sonogram that the placenta is sitting below Victor (Placenta Previa), instead of beside him. We'll find out at my next sonogram, on Sept. 24th if it has moved in to it's proper position. But if it doesn't correct itself by the due date, Victor will have to be born Cesarean, we don't want the placenta to come out first. The placenta is supposed to come out AFTER the baby!!
Okay, so this is the deal, after meeting up with the Geneticist for genetic counseling, we've decided NOT to do the Amniocentisis. The doctor was great, he was very knowledgable and kind. He did not what so ever try to push us into deciding anything. He just gave us all the stats, why we shouldn't decide with our hearts or emotions, and to pay attention to the numbers. He basically told me that my estrogen levels didn't match up with the rest of my numbers, that it was very low, indicating that is why they are considering the possible genetic defect.
Even still, we're going to just keep an eye on Victor through regular ultrasounds, keeping an eye on his heart rate and growth patterns. Something in MY heart is telling me that the Amnio is just not the way to go. And Jesse isn't any more comfortable about it than I am. So, Jesse and I have decided to just accept what ever God has given us, no matter the turn out.
I have a couple of resources here in town to research it further, so I'm going to take every opportunity to learn about Downs Syndrome, so if our little man is born with it, we'll have some knowledge of how to deal with it all.
Thank you all so much for all the love and support you've been sending. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. And if you know of any links for me to check out, or anything that we may learn more from, please don't hesitate to send the information our way.
Hugs & Kisses to you all!!!
Tags: Baby
