Baby Update

Two weeks ago we found out that our little one is (drum roll please...) another boy! I was waiting until today to post an update because there is a condition which has us on alert, and we had an ultrasound today to get some more information.

At our last ultrasound the technician found that the baby's umbilical cord had only one artery -- it's supposed to have two. Apparently this isn't a horribly uncommon condition, and usually it's everything's okay, but sometimes it is an indicator of something that is a problem. We had a level II ultrasound with Dr. Dolcart today, the local high risk expert. He did a very thorough check of the baby's anatomy and saw no red flags. This doesn't guarantee that everything's okay, but it does indicate a higher likelihood that everything will be fine. He looked at all the organs, took bone measurements, looked at the brain, and saw nothing -- no heart defects, no kidney malformations, no spine issues, none of the anatomy-related Down's markers. There's still a chance that there could be something like a heart defect or a chromosomal defect -- you can't see everything on an ultrasound. But he saw no need for an amnio, so that was good to hear. We have to go back in two months and then probably again toward the end of the pregnancy, mainly to make sure the baby is growing properly, which is another concern with a single umbilical artery.

So that's what we're dealing with now. We're not too worried now that we've seen Dr. Dolcart -- he was very reassuring. Hopefully our biggest problem will be figuring out what we'll name the little guy -- that was difficult enough the last time! Usually Ben votes for "Tractor." Just now he told me "Rintoo" (the tiger character on one of his little kid shows about a little Chinese girl... At least Rintoo is a male character!).