15-week checkup

So this morning, we went to see The Good Doctor for our 15-week check-up. A quick note, if Kami's baby is reading this from the womb, would you mind kindly not deciding to come into this world between the hours of 7am and 9am? Because traffic is a nightmare at that time of day. Seriously, it took us 28 minutes to get to the doctor's office (attached to the hospital) this morning at 8am. Our last visit was at 10am, and it took 16 minutes.

Actually, now that I think of it, if Kami's water breaks at 7:15am, that just might give me a chance to fulfill a life-long dream to drive on the shoulder, and on the sidewalk. I will have no problem popping our car up on some illegal surfaces to get to Baptist Hospital.

So we got to see the doctor, and give him another $500 towards the delivery of the baby (which we'll get into later). He finally was able to get Kami's charts and whatnot from the doctor who saw Kami the first two times. Interestingly enough, it seems her rubella vaccination has started to wear off. Yeah, the rubella vaccination that you get when you're 12 to 18 months. The mumps/measles part is fine, but it seems as though Kami's been burning through her Rubella Fighters.

Rubella - more commonly known as German measles - comes from the Latin for little red, and it's fairly common for preggos to need to get a booster shot - as Kami will have to do after they give birth. She doesn't have it, it's just that her vaccine is low. Full avoidance of Germans is now in effect.

We also got to hear the heartbeat. Last time we heard it, it took The Good Doctor a few minutes to find it. This time, the Fetal Doppler System lit up like Piccadilly Circus immediately (and also told us there was a severe thunderstorm warning for southern Kentucky). So that was awesome. It actually sounded like the bass drum part in the Avett Brothers' "Kick Drum Heart."

Then it was time to decide about the Quad Panel which does not, as I found, have anything to do with going before the board of trustees at college. The Quad Marker Screen is a blood test that offers up odds of a genetic problem with the baby - whether that's Down Syndrome, or something else. It can predict (which is different than a diagnosis) 75-80% of open neural tube defects, and 75% of Down Syndrome cases. So it's not a diagnosis, but will apparently come back with the odds of something being wrong. If the Quad Marker Screen comes back normal, then babies with none of these issues are born about 98% of the time.

I suppose people will use this information differently. Because if it comes back that there's a 1-in-10 chance of Down's Syndrome, then some people will go the route of the amniocentesis - which is a fairly invasive test, using a big frackin' needle to get fluid from the amniotic sac and testing that. There's also a 1-in-200 chance that the amniocentesis could cause a miscarriage, and we've had just about enough of that.

In talking to Kami, we did the Quad Marker Screen, and Kami is wholeheartedly opposed to the amniocentesis - as a result, so am I.

There are things you learn from your pregnant wife, and one of those things is to pick your battles carefully. Would I approve a test that drains fluid from the amniotic sac? Hell no, I wouldn't. Even if Kami was for it, I'd defer to her, but I wouldn't be comfortable with it. Whatever elevates her blood pressure, I will punch that thing in the mouth.

So, we found out the gender of the baby on our next visit - Feb 22 at 9am. Stay tuned...