2015 MARCH-MALLOWS... Due in March 2015!! Come join us!

[NellyLou]

I definitely get what you mean LilFooshFoosh! I am only getting the scan to see the baby again. It doesn't matter what the results are, and even if they came back to say I was high risk, I would not do any more testing because it would not change whether or not I loved the baby or change anything else.

 

[MrsKChicago]

I'm doing it to see the baby and because I'd need the time to prepare myself mentally if there was an issue. I know I have the capacity to love a baby with Down Syndrome as much a I'd love a "normal" baby, but I don't want any big surprises at the birth. I think I'd have to be at a pretty high risk to consider further testing, though. Or I'd pay out of pocket for the new, less invasive test if it was an option. Even a small chance of miscarriage for what is likely a healthy pregnancy makes me nervous.

I can tell I'm going through some kind of end of trimester(!!!) hormonal shift. My symptoms are shifting around. Heartburn is once or twice a week instead of every night, I'm starting to wake up a little (I managed to get groceries and run errands and even cook dinner on Tuesday), my sex drive is coming back (kind of inconvenient because DH's bad back and my pelvis pain mean sex is out of the question for the time being), and I'm finally getting some nausea. I had that occasional stretching feeling the past couple days, too - baby must be going through a growth spurt. I just hope the food aversions diminish soon. I can deal with some weird aversions through the pregnancy, but going off of meat is really inconvenient.

 

[HopefulInNL]

Our ob/gyn told us that less than 30% of her patients do the testing, but that it is 100% our decision whether or not we wanted to have the tests. We have decided that we would not do these tests. She told us that it often shows false positives. We don’t want to add any extra stress to the pregnancy and the test wouldn’t change whether or not we would keep our baby. She actually told us that if termination was not something we would consider, then she would recommend we didn’t do it. Of course we wouldn’t terminate, regardless of the results! But, like others said…this is our opinion and I do not look down on others and their decisions.

 

[MrsKChicago]

Only 30%? I'm surprised! I thought it was pretty standard, but I guess not. My midwife said it was totally up to us, and we weren't at any particular risk based on age and family history.

 

[HopefulInNL]

Yep, I was surprised by that too! Oh and that was the other thing...she said that since I was under 35 the risk is lower.

 

[HopefulInNL]

So, this was a new one to me. I was told by a pregnant friend, that you are not supposed to eat pepperonis…but I love pepperoni pizza! Anyone else hear this and what do you think? Maybe once in awhile would be ok? Especially if they are “cooked”…

 

[MrsKChicago]

Yeah, since we're low risk to begin with, I'm going in with the assumption that it will be reassuring, not add to the worry.

 

[MrsKChicago]

As far as I've heard, you're not supposed to eat cold meat. Pepperoni on a pizza or something is fine. Some people will say that you should avoid all cured meats, that the nitrates are bad, and so on. I have yet to see any scientific evidence or be told by a medical professional that cured meats are bad, and pepperoni and bacon are some of the only meats I can eat right now, so I'm still eating them, so long as they're heated to steaming.

 

[HopefulInNL]

That's what I thought, too! I think I will keep enjoying my pepperoni pizza then!

 

[NellyLou]

Yes, from all the research I've done, you can eat pepperoni on pizza as long as it is cooked. I'm not sure if it's safe to eat once it has cooled and has been refrigerated again.

 

[cmr01]

Well I cannot and will not give up my bacon. I love it lots!

 

[GFGuy]

So, this was a new one to me. I was told by a pregnant friend, that you are not supposed to eat pepperonis…but I love pepperoni pizza! Anyone else hear this and what do you think? Maybe once in awhile would be ok? Especially if they are “cooked”…

If you get "uncurred" & "no antibiotics added" pepperoni that is much better.

 

[MrsKChicago]

Yes, from all the research I've done, you can eat pepperoni on pizza as long as it is cooked. I'm not sure if it's safe to eat once it has cooled and has been refrigerated again.

I'd reheat it just to be safe, since it's a food poisoning risk. Reheating will kill anything that found its way onto the pepperoni while it was cold.

 

[Bookity]

I won't be doing NT either. With my second, they saw a choroid plexus cyst on ultrasound. While by itself it is 99% harmless, we did opt for the quad scan at that point for some reassurance. Probably do the same if something comes up this time around.

 

[GFGuy]

Well I cannot and will not give up my bacon. I love it lots!

Same with bacon, if you buy the uncurred bacon is takes all the bad parts away. And MUCH better for you even when no prego but more expensive unfortunately. All that grass-fed, uncurred meats & free range/cage free chicken/eggs is so so so so much better for you and baby.

 

[MrsKChicago]

We buy a lot of the grass fed, free range etc stuff anyway, but it's almost impossible to get that stuff when you're ordering in or going out to eat, and there's a lot of ordering in when you've got first trimester fatigue We cure our own bacon when we can, so we know exactly what goes into it, but we haven't had time for awhile. With the limited amount of meat I'm able to eat these days, I don't stress about it too much.

 

[GFGuy]

We buy a lot of the grass fed, free range etc stuff anyway, but it's almost impossible to get that stuff when you're ordering in or going out to eat, and there's a lot of ordering in when you've got first trimester fatigue We cure our own bacon when we can, so we know exactly what goes into it, but we haven't had time for awhile. With the limited amount of meat I'm able to eat these days, I don't stress about it too much.

That's awesome that you cure it yourself! Yeah and boy is it ever hard to get that good stuff when ordering out, etc. Even finding uncurred pepperoni is nearly impossible. I found some at Whole Foods and Harris Teeter. So darn expensive though... I love hearing people eating grass fed, free range, etc. (Now you know what "GFguy" stands for!)

 

[MrsKChicago]

We live in Chicago, so it's pretty easy to find what we need, but you're right, it's more expensive for sure. We're lucky that we can afford to make that decision in what we buy. We'll have it really good soon, my brother is opening a butcher shop sometime in the next week or so! I honestly do it more because I think if you're gonna kill and eat an animal, you should at least give it a good life first. The health benefits are just a bonus for me.

Curing bacon is surprisingly easy. If you're into meat like we're into meat, look it up sometime. It's just so much tastier than anything you can buy in a store. Unless you do what we did last time and don't add enough salt and end up with pounds of bland bacon sitting in the freezer for months

 

[Loozle]

Regarding the Nt scan, I didn't really think about it when I agreed to it with ds1 and ds2. Ds1's was fine.

Ds2's on the other hand, was not. We went into the scan assuming that everything would be fine, as we have no history of Down's syndrome or anything in either of our families and I was only 25 at the time. We were told that they would be referring us to another hospital straight away (before bloods had even been taken for the combined test!) as ds2's nuchal measurement was 3.7mm and they automatically refer if it's over 3.5mm. We were booked in to have a CVS test a couple of days later, and we were on our way to the other hospital for the CVS when the first hospital called to tell me that the combined test results gave us a risk of 1 in 45. When I heard this, I was absolutely devastated.

We went ahead and had the cvs as we figured that we would like to be prepared if baby did have a problem. The consultant that performed the cvs was amazingly reassuring and said that baby looked absolutely fine, and not to worry too much about it. We got the results 10 days later, that he was absolutely fine, no chromosomal abnormalities and we also found out that he was a boy. We then had to have a in depth heart scan at the second hospital at around 20 weeks, as apparently a high NT measurement can indicate a heart problem too. That scan also went perfectly and he was born healthy at 40+6 and has no health problems at all.

This time, before agreeing to the NT we actually discussed it, instead of assuming that everything would be fine. We agreed that we would like to have the test done as we would like to be prepared if there was a problem. As it turns out, this baby's NT measurement was 1.5mm at the absolute maximum and I'm yet to hear back regarding my blood test so I'm assuming (hoping!) that everything is fine as it's been 4 days since my scan and they send results via post within 2 weeks if you are low risk or call you within 3 days if you are high risk.

The point to this very long post (sorry if you've read the whole thing!) is that before agreeing to go ahead with it, really think about and discuss what you would do and how you would feel if it does not go as perfectly as you would hope. We didn't even think about it and it was the biggest shock in the world for both of us.

 

[LilFooshFoosh]

The newer test is called MaterniT21, or there is one called Harmony that I think is similar.