The Baby is the Size of What?

I told everyone that I would keep you posted, and look, here I am keeping my promises.

We are officially 18 weeks pregnant – only two weeks off from the halfway mark! Crazy right? According to my two pregnancy apps, the baby is now the size of a sweet potato, or – a sugar glider.

I’m not sure how I feel about our baby being compared to vegetables and animals, but sugar gliders are pretty adorable, so I’ll allow it.

Image result for sugar glider

In my first trimester, I had some bloodwork done by Dr. Lee that indicated I may have hyperthyroidism caused by the pregnancy. After meeting with an endocrinologist, (who was not at all concerned because I had no symptoms and my levels weren’t dangerous) but to err on the side of caution, he ordered me an ultrasound of my thyroid and said to repeat bloodwork in 4 weeks time. He explained that it’s quite common for a pregnant woman’s body to “overreact” to the pregnancy and essentially be SUPER efficient at giving the baby what it needs, which is why my thyroid levels were off track. I repeated the bloodwork this week and had my follow-up appointment this morning and got the all clear! My thyroid is perfectly fine, and I will not need to see the endocrinologist for the rest of this pregnancy. So hooray for us!

About a week ago, I had my blood drawn for our quad screening. This is referred to as the AFP4 screening, which is a blood test that can tell if the baby is at risk of certain conditions including: Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, neural tube defects, and a rare condition called SLOS. This test is used in conjunction with the results of my blood and NT scan we had done at 13 weeks. The results of this test can help decide whether amniocentesis is necessary to determine your baby’s condition. The screening tests tell you how likely it is that your baby will have one of these conditions, but it is not diagnostic.

Our results were great! I’ll list them below:

Risk of down syndrome and Trisomy 18 – 1: 100,000

SLOS – 1: 10,000 (normal negative result)

Neural Tube Defects – Negative Results, no markers in ultrasound

Our nurse said that these results are great, congratulated us, and said that no further testing is recommended at this time.

So, little Science Baby is thriving! For anyone that is not a friend of mine on Facebook, here is a picture of my bump from today.

 

18 weeks!

Next update will be a big one – OUR ANATOMY SCAN. So stay tuned 😉

 

Xoxo,

Jen