Since Hilary is sooo old, we had to go through genetic counseling today (like we had to with Brooke last year). So when the genetic counselor met with us in a small room and asked us why we were there both Hilary and I had a puzzled look on our faces. We were there because we were told to be there. But I could sense the counselor was beating around the bush. The counselor finally went on to explain what genetic counseling was and how it is used to determine the probability of certain chromosome defects, like Down Syndrome and other scary stuff, and that they use a combination of blood tests and ultra sound measurements to determine these probabilities. So of course the way our lives have been going, she informed us that based on one of the tests, we have a higher probability that the new baby could have Down Syndrome. When I heard that I immediately had that "pit in my stomach" feeling and tunnel vision. The counselor explained the normal reading for Down is anything above 150 to 1, we are at 98 to 1, meaning we have a 1 and 98 chance of having a child with Down.

After genetic counseling we headed over to St. Joseph for the main ultrasound test where they measured everything to make sure the baby is developing on schedule and to determine if there is any visible defects (50% of down babies have heart defects). I can't tell you how many deep breaths we took while waiting for the ultrasound. And when the ultrasound started, we both watched the technician to see if she focused extra hard on any certain areas of the baby. After the ultrasound test and 20 minutes of waiting (the tech isn't allowed to tell you anything other than the baby's gender, like if it turns out it will be a boy!! Yeah right. It's another girl. Of course!!). They then send the results to the genetic counselor who then calls back to the hospital waiting area where we get the results over the phone in front of the waiting area. Hilary couldn't take the stress and had me talk to the genetic counselor. With my heart beating fast, she went over the results.

Everything looks good so far except for (there always has to be an except), the umbilical cord only has two tubes. Usually the umbilical cord has three, two tubes delivering nutrients to the baby and one taking the waste away from the baby. Both Marissa and Brooke had this issue, so this wasn't as big a shock as it could have been. BUT, it does double the % that the baby having Down, increasing it from 1% to 2%. The only way to determine if the baby has Down is to have an amino synthesis done which is 99.9% effective. But we're not going to have an amino, since even if the baby had Down we wouldn't abort anyway, so what's the point? Man, when they say having kids is stressful, they weren't kidding.