Welcome to our life!

Hi, I'm Allison! I'm a thirtysomething, freshly baked, stay-at-home mom. I'm originally from Connecticut, now living in Germany, hence the name of the blog. I live in southern Germany with my German husband and our baby boy. Life has turned out to be nothing I ever expected, and am so incredibly happy with it! We certainly do have a lot of laughs! I hope you will enjoy following our new experiences raising a little half American/ half German in a little German town.

Montag, 18. Juli 2011

NT scan

I can't believe I've missed posting about my NT (Nuchal Translucency) scan from two weeks ago.  Obviously, it has been a busy time here. 
But, anyway, okay, it was almost 3 weeks, but better late than never!
The NT scan, or Nackenfaltenmessung in German, is a test performed around the 14th week to measure the folds of the neck to be used with a series of other measurments to determine risk for Down Syndrome as well as other chromosomal disorders. 
I had my NT scan on a Wednesday afternoon after work.  It has been 4 weeks since our last ultrasound, which we found so amazing anway.  The doctor started with an internal ultrasound, and we were amazed by how big the baby had grown.  It was like a monster-baby in there.  The Erbse was 4 weeks before the test a very tiny face rubbing baby, had grown into a gargantuan.  The doctor was having trouble getting the whole Erbse into focus, because our very intelligent and very advanced little one was standing :)
So the doctor decided to move to an abdominal ultrasound, and changed my position, which she hoped might spur the Erbse to change positions.  Well, the Erbse did change positions, a little bit, and she was able to do the measurments to complete the test. 
The whole thing was incredible!  The doctor showed us the joints and bones, the heart, the brain.  She showed us the direction of the blood flowing through the heart, and she was able to let us listen to the heartbeat! 
Here are some of the better photos of Erbse from the NT scan:

If you look closely, you can see a good portion of the Erbse's face.

   
A good side view of the Erbse. 


The good news was that given the combined results of my age, blood test, and measurment of the neck folds, the Erbse's risk for chromosomal abnormalities is 1:4000, and that the organs and brain are all forming quite well.  The doctor also said that the Erbse was very active and agile.  

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