Oh Boy...

At 11 weeks we went for the Chorionic Villus Sampling. For those of you not familiar with this fabulous test, first, they do an ultrasound. While imaging the fetus, your belly in numbed. Then a very large needle is inserted into the placenta, which is a bit painful. A smaller needle is inserted through the larger needle and into the placenta to obtain cells from the placenta. This doesn't seems to have a negative affect on the fetus at this stage. If performed earlier than 9 weeks, it can interfere with blood flow to the extremities, sometimes causing stunted growth to the fingers and toes. Which is why the test is not performed before 10 weeks.

When we saw our little butter bean, she was wiggling around all over the place - very normal, as I was informed by the doctor and nurses performing the test. They obtained the cells, then tried to get more so I wouldn't have to wait so long for the DNA results. My uterus was contracting (also apparently normal), so it was a no go. What they would then do was the chromosome testing, for things like downs syndrome. They would then culture more cells, and send them down to the specialized lab to test the DNA and see if this baby was affected, a carrier or healthy.

The waiting was murder! Oh, I also forgot to mention that my dh and I work together, with his parents. It's a small family business with another employee. We decided not to tell anyone else until we had the results. Because if it was a positive results, we knew what we would have to do and we didn't really want to share that with everyone.

During the course of our waiting, we actually told a couple of friends. M & L, because M had told me that L was pg, the same time I was. That was actually a deciding factor for me in not getting an abortion at planned parenthood but waiting to find out if our little bean was healthy. Then L had a miscarriage, sort of. She was still pregnant, and had her 3rd healthy baby boy in February, '05. She's quite the fertile gal.

L & K invited us to go to London with them in the fall, which we were putting off deciding on, because I wouldn't be able to fly that late in the pregnancy. So we spilled the beans to them, and they were thrilled. L is PCOS, but they both do not want kids, 'fortunately' for them. Sadly, she has to deal with all the problems of her condition, and I hate that such a dear friend has to go through this.

My aunt knew- I talked with her at least once a day and discussed everything with her. She was a real rock to turn to, and always a delight.

So that was it. Neither of our parents knew, our employee didn't know (oh, wait - my therapist knew. Thankfully I had starting seeing her right after our first cycle failed). We completely hid this. My skin broke out spectacularly, and I told everyone it was from stress and sweets. Which was actually partially true (see tootsie roll fixation in previous post).

My bosom was getting larger and was way sensitive. My hair was thick all of a sudden - and I have REALLY fine hair. My pants were getting tight and I could only fit into my loosest pair of jeans. I broke down and bought a pair of used maternity capri cargo pants on eBay.

Finally we got a call from the genetic counselor two and a half weeks after the CVS. The chromosone testing was all normal, and the baby was a boy.

W-W-What?! What do you mean, a boy? We had a name picked out for a girl! I didn't even know 'boy' was a option. Boy, was I wrong. Now the excruciating waiting for the DNA results....