Amniocentesis - What is it *really* like? - Part I
Amniocentesis - What is it *really* like? - Part II
After finding out the sex of our baby, I felt energized (other than being tired from the procedure)! I felt like I was finally allowed to be excited about my pregnancy again! I knew we still had a wait, but this was something! I started looking at names again, now that we knew we were looking for a boy name. It was so wonderful to be happy about being pregnant again!
The aftercare instruction sheet said something about test results arriving "after 4pm." So as 4 o'clock approached on Sunday, I started getting antsy. Then 5 o'clock came and went.... 6 o'clock... 7 o'clock... Elmo gave up. He figured it was too late to hear anything. Despite having emailed another question to our Genetic Counselor, I hadn't received ANY email from her on Sunday. Eventually, I gave up as well. And I bawled. The stress of the wait finally caught up with me and I cried. A lot. The tears came and went and came again, but I was just so upset.
Then, at 10 minutes til 10 o'clock, I got a response from the Genetic Counselor! No news. She said she'd call the lab as soon as they opened in the morning and at least find out when they'd have the results. She would call us immediately afterward. She noted that they are an hour behind us. I actually felt better having just heard from her. Now I knew that she wasn't sitting on the results.
She called within 10 minutes of open time for the lab the next day. She had the results. She offered me the option of getting the news by phone or coming in to go over the results. We had already been advised that good news is delivered by phone and bad news (they might not have worded it that way) is delivered in person.
So what were we to make of this? I couldn't believe I was saying it, but I said we'd wait. We had an appointment already set for that afternoon anyway. I hoped this way we could first enjoy our planned anniversary lunch. I do not know where my head was, of course we wanted to know! ASAP! I made several attempts to call her back, but she was with another patient. Once we finally got in touch, she said we could come down right then. They'd even get me in to see the doc at the same time. We threw clothes on and flew out the door!
We still had to wait about half an hour when we got there. When they finally called us back, it was to prep to see the doctor (urine, weight, etc). We were going nuts! When the doctor finally came into the examination room, he brought the genetic counselor with him. He immediately showed me / read to us the results. Amniocentesis confirmed that our unborn child is male. It also showed that our son has 3 (rather than 2) trisomy 21 genes. I may not be wording that properly, but the short version is this: Our son has Down Syndrome.
We still then had to go through the exam. Our doctor palpated my uterus, measured it, and listened to the fetal heart rate. Everything looked good. The Genetic Counselor had some information for us (and a box of tissues in hand), but we asked to go to her office where there were chairs for each of us as well as a basket of toys for Sasha.
She was very helpful. She had photocopied a huge stack of resources for us, linking to websites. (The stack included a page about adoption and a page about support should we choose to terminate.) She answered our questions and made sure we knew that she would continue to be available to us, should we think of more questions later. She gave us the name of her favorite book about children with Down Syndrome: Babies with Down Syndrome: A New Parents' Guide
. (I'm likely to reference and possibly even review it later.)(Affiliate Link)
We made arrangements to have an echo-cardiogram in a few weeks. This wait was over, though. The wait was, without a doubt, the hardest part. We both felt like we could handle this. We love our son. We were, amazingly, okay with the results. It could have been worse. We went from there to our anniversary luncheon where we did discuss some of this, but also enjoyed a good meal together.
I'd like to add what I feel helped me the most with accepting this news. I saw a couple of mentions about people being on a waiting list to adopt children with Down Syndrome. I Googled "Why would someone want to adopt a child with Down Syndrome?" or something like that and found an interview with the answers. Some of the things people say about these children is so amazing and it is all so sweet. I feel as though I've been given (however forcibly) a new hobby. I'm passionate about whatever topic I approach and this will be no different.
And we can handle it!
