What...Me Worry?

Anytime you go through a pregnancy, you're going to have a certain level of worry and paranoia throughout the process. You worry about eating the right things, laying a certain way, making sure the temperature of the water is not to hot when you take a bath, etc. That last one created a nice little panic one day when Cristy called me hysterical at work because she read you shouldn't take hot baths. She was convinced she had melted poor little peanut, right there in his/her home. Subsequent checkups have showed a strong heartbeat, though we're afraid he/she will want to make out with Snooki/The Situation in a hot tub when it grows up.

Once we made it through the first trimester and heard a heartbeat, I was feeling pretty good. Our last check-up went great. Healthy heartbeat, weight is good, etc. Then the doctor asks if we want to do these blood tests. One that checks for Cystic Fibrosis and one that checks for Downs Syndrome. I was kind of caught off guard. Here I thought worry had taken a nice long vacation, only to find out it forgot it's wallet and decided to stick around for the party.

Turns out, they ASK if you want to do the tests, so you have the option to abort the pregnancy if one of the tests is positive. Let me digress for a second and tell you that my brother recently had a beautiful little daughter with Downs. Her name is Bella and I couldn't imagine not having her in our lives. She is so adorable and an absolute joy to spoil!

We made the decision to do the tests. Not because it would change our decision on having the baby, but so we could prepare in either case. We had to wait a couple weeks to do the tests, then wait a week or so for the results. In the meantime, I called my brother to get a feel for the process they went through, just to know what to look for. I like to have as much info as possible when I'm unsure of a situation. It definitely eased my mind, though there's really nothing we can do or would do based on the results.

The good news came late last week, when both tests came back negative. Obviously, the worry is not over. Shoot, we're not even half way through this thing! But, it was nice to get over one more hurdle and continue on this strange and wonderful journey.

We are now 19 weeks and on Friday, we'll go back to the doctor to find out the sex. We'll also find out if there is just one peanut in there or a reality show worth of peanuts. Regardless, let's home their shells are strong, so I don't have to worry about breaking them all the time.

Be sure to answer the poll question at the top of this blog. I left an option for "Other", just to see how many smart-asses read this.

Until next time...