At the appointment on Fri, my OB (apparently I'm done with the specialist) was able to pick up the heartbeart on Doppler. We had a little bit of a scare, because she couldn't detect it with the first machine. She kept moving it around, saying things like "needle in a haystack, yadda yadda," then she decided that the system might have a "short," so she went to get another one. In the meantime, I was thinking, "please, not again." But she came back, tried it with the new machine and found the heartbeat in just a few seconds. Phew.
11 weeks, still ticking. So now we've past the point of the last miscarriage (10 weeks) and geting close to passing the first miscarriage (12 and a half weeks). If we get past the point of the second miscarriage (16 and a half weeks) well, that will be something. We won't feel that we're 100% homefree, of course, but it will be a nice milestone. Fingers crossed.
So now we have to start thinking about screening and diagnostic testing. First up, we have the UltraScreen, which is non-invasive and gives you a risk assessment for Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18. As a woman over 35, I start with a risk of 1 in 270, and after the screen it could go up or down from there. However, it's possible to be flagged as high-risk, even if the baby does not have Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18. So, if the risk assessment shows cause for concern, generally you following up with more invasive diagnostic testing.
The thing is, I'm scared to do amniocentesis with this pregnancy. I had one with my second, and three days later I began to have strong contractions due to a severe infection in my placenta. They had to do an emergency D&E. Two weeks later the amnio results came back. All normal.
So yeah, lots to consider. Maybe the UltraScreen will come back with encouraging results, and maybe that will be enough to go on. But if a screen sends up a red flag (and there will be later screens) - what to do, what to do? I don't really like to think about it. I'm praying that I don't have to.