**Knelli**

4thofJulyWedding

Hey, I was just wondering, since both our babies had Trisomy 18, do you know what kind of testing are you going to have done this time around? I'm still on the fence.

knelli

I will be seeing the peri a few weeks ealier than I did last time just for a really good look at the baby. As much as I love our OB, her u/s machine is a dinosour and you cant really see if anything is wrong. 

I will also do the NT scan again.  I know it will be REALLY hard for me because that is when we found out just how sick DD was and that she wasn't going to make it.  I am dreading that day but I know I wouldn't be able to not do it.

What about you?  You found out at your NT scan too didn't you?

4thofJulyWedding

I actually didn't have an NT Scan with my last one. So we were completely shocked because we had 2 ultrasounds prior. We were kind of under the naive impression that it couldn't happen to us and we wouldn't terminate either way, but I wish we were more prepared.

I know I'm definitely going to do the NT Scan, but I really don't want to do and Amnio because of the risk. I'm so scared of that day too.

How did you find your Peri? were they referred to you? Do they do a more thorough scan?

knelli

At our first OB appt at 7 weeks we were given the info about all the tests that were avail. We knew we wouldn't terminate if anything was wrong but we thought since our ins. covered it we would go ahead and do it.  There are 2 peris that my OB refers patients to and the one I chose was phenominal!  We had already had 3 u/s and everything looked normal but like I said, the u/s machine is ancient and you couldnt really see much other than the heart was beating and the baby looked and seemed healthy.

When we went to our NT scan they noticed right away that not only did she have the extra fluid in the neck that shows concern for  DS but that she only had 2 chambers of her heart... they spent over an hour looking at all parts of her body adn the Dr. assumed it was Tri 18 and said she wasn't going to make it through birth.  They called in a Pediatric Cardiologist from UCLA and she did another u/s and also said it was most likely Tri 18 and she had never seen a baby with as much wrong live to where we were at 13 weeks  That is the hardest thing ever to hear. 

They gave us the option of Amnio and I didnt want to do it, if there was any way she was going to pull through I didnt want to add any stress to her.  4 days later we went in for a check up and found out that her heart had stopped and we had a D&E.  We wanted to have the testing done at the D&E to make sure we knew what was wrong... they were right and it was Tri 18.

I will not do Amnio, I think that was the right choice.... we will do the NT scan and IF something comes back again we will make the same choices as we did last time.  But GOD I hope I never have to deal with that again.

Sorry that was so long... sheesh

4thofJulyWedding

Actually that is very helpful. It makes me more confident with my decision on doing the NT Scan. I might ask my OB about seeing a peri as well. I agree though about not putting all that stress on the baby with the amnio.

I'm praying that we both have healthy babies growing! Thank you for the help!

knelli

I'm gald it helped. 

In fact you will probably be refered to a peri for your NT... At least thats what all the drs here do.  Because Peri specialize in that and their u/s machines are so much more advanced... you will be able to see the blood flow through the baby's heart, liver, kidneys... it is amazing.  None of the OB's out here do them.

I am praying for both of us to have our happy healthy babies this time! 

If you have anymore questions about the NT feel free to page or PM me... I was at ours for 5 hours so I had some experiance!