OK, this is going to be long but I need to get it off my chest.
I am back from the nuchal scan and to be honest I am slightly wishing I had not gone. The first 30 mins of the scan were brilliant, we got some great shots of the baby, they told us the sex with 90% certainty (more of that in a mo), they checked the heart valves, the facial curvature, the nasal bone structure etc (all of which can be indicators of Downs but all of which were normal).
So I was very happy but then the Dr did the nuchal fold measurment and it was 3.1mm . This is bigger than average. She sat me down and explained that becuase all the other tests were normal, and my bloods are normal, my risk of Downs and the other Trisomys is pretty low (1 in 5500 for Downs). BUT there is a chance that the baby has a heart defect. She had checked the heart and everything looked normal but it is too small to be sure at the moment. I will need a fetal echocardio scan at 20 weeks...
Sooooooo, now the risk of heart defects is going to be in the back of mind all the time and I just wish I had never been told. I know the chances are everything is OK but I can't get it out of my mind.
On a more positive note we know the sex with 90% certainty (the Dr explained that at this stage they do not look for gentials as a penis would not be present, instead they look at the angle of something inside the baby which is a 90% reliable indicator). DH and I are absolutley made up becuase it seems we are likely to have another little girl . I love little girtls and can just imagine DD and her sister running about. I am really, really pleased about that.