Goodbye First Trimester, Hello Nuchal
Posted by Laurie
I’m 13 weeks now and relieved to put the first trimester behind me. Thankfully, my morning sickness dissolved just in time for me to attend the Smart Marriages conference, which I wrote about last week.
So what’s the next big thing in the pregnancy journey? The “Nuchal Translucency“, also referred to as the “First Trimester Screen” or “Early Risk Assessment”. It’s a non-invasive ultrasound and blood test designed to “help your healthcare practitioner assess your baby’s risk of having Down syndrome (DS) and some other chromosomal abnormalities as well as major congenital heart problems,” says Babycenter.com. I’m excited for it because of the hi-resolution ultrasound (and the chance that I could find out the baby’s sex). Then again, it could give way to more worries.
Disclosure Note: NTD Labs is a provider of first trimester screening.
Both NTD Labs and ViaCord (our blog sponsor) are part of the PerkinElmer family. Although I have to admit, I didn’t know this before I started writing this post.
My friend’s nuchal results indicated that her child’s DS risk was (more…)

I was going to write a post about how little time I spend reading the
We moved to a new house a few weeks ago and the other day a good friend asked me how I like it here. “I don’t know. The house makes me nauseous,” I answered.
Now that I’m out (aka made the pregnancy announcement), I’ve been asked that strange question, “Do you like being pregnant?” which is usually followed by a pressure-cooker comment like, “because I LOVED being pregnant!” Hmm, what am I supposed to answer? I’m fine being pregnant and I’m also fine when I’m not pregnant. I don’t have strong feelings about it. 
