Due May 2024? Part 2

[Nina7]

Hi all, just continuing the previous thread.

@Holdmysunhat I got the seasickness bands you suggested, I think they're great!!

Congratulations 🎊 yay for all the May babies!!

Aw yay, I've already got my son who's 2 so my husband and I would love a girl, but of course a boy is fine with us too 😊 thank you for looking. I've been trying to study the nub theory but I'm rubbish at trying to figure it out lol

Hi ladies. I had my scan on Monday, baby measured ahead so new due date of 23rd May. How is everyone's nausea? I feel like mine is getting worse, this week is the first time I've actually vomited, I really hoped it would get better not worse 😭

Any guesses on gender, I've tried reading about the nub theory but I have no idea what I'm looking for lol 🙈

Congrats! I don't think the nub is actually visible in your picture. Your cheeky little monkey has its leg in the way 🤣🥰

Hi guys...nervous nelly here again. Just looking for advice on proximity between scans. Had one on NHS at 6 weeks, one private at 9 weeks. Currently 11 weeks today and NHS scan not booked until 2 weeks today. I'm a nervous wreck because of disappearing symptoms and a slight brown discharge on wiping yesterday morning (nothing since, midwife not concerned). I really wanted to book a window to the womb scan this weekend, but their terms and conditions state that they recommend not having any other scans within 2 weeks of another (NHS or private) and its made me wonder why? Or if any of you have done so? I know its likely just anxiety leading, I just can't reason with myself at the moment 😄 thanks xx

Hi @Nelliepledge , I had a scan two weeks ago and I was a week earlier than we thought so they had me back in last week for my official 12 weeks scan - they were exactly a week apart. I don't think there's any reason to wait two weeks? I'd book one if I was worried about something - think it's worth its weight in gold!

Congrats on your scan, how was it? Thank you so much for your reply. I was definitely taken aback by their recommendation but I have gone ahead and booked! Thanks I appreciate your advice xxxxx

It was really good thank you - they were jumping all over the place. Just anxiously awaiting our blood results, then I'm hoping I can relax and enjoy myself for a while 😂. Keeping everything crossed for your scan this weekend, let us know how it goes! xxx

@Twdfn123 haha that sounds about right actually. During the scan baby was doing headstands and wouldn't lay still 🙈😂

@Nelliepledge i had an NHS scan every 10 days in my first trimester due to past miscarriages. At no point did any health professional say I should have too many or too close together. Hope that puts your mind at rest. I’d just book one 😊

@Nelliepledge It's just for assessing growth as it's easier to compare things two weeks apart to see if there's been significant change.

Just got my results and all low risk!

@Sophie721 That's great news :)

Oh, @Sophie721 that's great news!

I just had mine this morning, telephone call from the midwife and it's high risk, 1/58 chance... I don't know how to take it, I'm really panicking occasionally, then thinking it's still a low percentage and trying to be positive.

They booked me for a NIPT this afternoon, results should be back within 10 working days.

We've also just had a private NIPT on Tuesday but one you send the blood samples by post to who knows where, so I wanted to have an NHS one, thinking it'll be more reliable (and it won't get lost in the post).

I'm trying to be positive, really hoping the NIPT results come back as low 🙏🙏🙏

@Nina7 It is still a low percentage chance of anything actually being wrong. I hope both NIPTs come to the same conclusion and that it's a good outcome for you. Our private one was very fast. It was done on Saturday and we had the results by the following Thursday.

@Sophie721 that’s great news!

@Nina7 I hope you don’t need to wait too long. Would you mind me asking what company you used for your private NIPT? I have my scan tomorrow and I’m so anxious that it’ll come back high risk because I’m 35 :( I found a company local to me but they were looking for £400 for private NIPT which we unfortunately just can’t spare but I may be tempted to put it on credit card if there’s any concerns tomorrow to save waiting for the NHS.

Am I alone in wondering what the NIPT is? I had a quick google but I wasn’t planning on going for it- solely because we had the NHS screening. Is that not recommended?

I had my scan a week ago yesterday and have still heard nothing. Those of you who have heard, did you get a letter or was it uploaded online etc? It’s quite a terrifying wait!

@LondonGirl1992
If it's been over a week and you've not heard anything then I'd be tempted to say it's all good news x

@LondonGirl1992 My scan was last Thursday and I haven't had any letter yet.

NIPT is Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing which is basically a blood test that checks for the three main trisomies (among other things) by targeting fetal DNA in the mother's blood. It can also tell you the baby's sex (which we didn't want to find out).

@SarahBowie I'm 37 and mine came back as low risk :) It's not definite that your risk will be any higher than anyone else just because of your age. I think there are other factors that determine risk too.

@TheBirdintheCave oh that’s great to know! I think I’ve read so much that it seems to affect “older” pregnancies that I’ve stressed myself out! Fingers crossed that it all goes ok tomorrow but I can’t stop worrying for some reason! I’ve had nothing that should make me worry so just want to see baby now.

@Nina7 I'm really sorry to hear this but yes, as PP says, absolutely think positive because 1/58 is actually a really low chance so the odds are most definitely on your side :) Hopefully the NIPT is reassuring and you can relax soon

@SarahBowie I was convinced my combined screening test was going to put me at a high risk (baseline risk for my age AT 39 is 1/140) but my results returned with better odds than a 25 year old and pretty much the same as my last pregnancy a few years back. I was quite surprised as I felt similarly to you that they'd bound to be skewed by my age (plus I suspected my bHCG was quite high and this turned out to be correct) but this was happily not the case. I still got a private NIPT just to be on the safe side and now awaiting results

@SarahBowie ours was this one https://online-pharmacy4u.co.uk/products/veragene-test I had no idea how to choose it, a friend had it before and we could afford it.
Having gone through the experience in the NHS, I would say you really don't need it. If whatever indicator is out of "normal" limits, NHS offer a NIPT as well.
This private one also screens for a thousand other things, but I actually think most are irrelevant to the general population (mostly found in relatively genetically isolated populations - Amish, Ashkenazi Jews etc), but I guess they capitalise on the worried parent.

@Holdmysunhat how high was your bHCG? I got some more detailed results and I think this must have been one of the triggers for the high risk (together with low Papp A and measurements slightly on the high side - but not far above normal). My bHCG was 6.088MoM (291.100 IU/l). Weird, because I thought that with high HCG you have more symptoms, but my symptoms are pretty mild.

@Nina7 Mine was 1.57 MoM which is higher than my last pregnancy, which was more average (1.1 MoM) I think I'm just v. sensitive to it as I've felt massively sick in this pregnancy; vomiting throughout the first trimester which started before I missed a period. I also had a super early and dark test result so suspected my HcG was higher than my last pregnancy from early on.

My sister had a much higher HcG MoM than mine - similar to yours - and had a good outcome. You probably know this, but I read a few charts recently and hadn't realised that HcG levels between women can vary so wildly and still be in the range of totally normal! It's more the ratio that they look for at the combined screening. I read somewhere that high HcG levels can be caused by any early bleeding too.

In case this is useful for anyone, I did my NIPT through Concepto Diagnostics. They were really good and at £199 were a bit cheaper than other options local to me.