In my second trimester

Well here I am at 13w2d, technically in my second trimester, and 14th week of pregnancy. I've been rather busy, which is a shame, since I kept thinking of things I wanted to blog about.

This is what baby looks like at 13 weeks: 13 weeks. My hips are getting wider, and my uterus is apparently the size of a melon! But I still haven't gained much more than a few pounds. You can definitely see a baby bump if you know what you are looking for!

So the biggest news is I had my Nuchal Translucency (NT) scan done during the ultrasound on May 8th (photo at right), and they measured the fold at the baby's neck (between the two white lines). It was only 1.2mm wide, which puts me at a risk factor of 1 in 10,000 chance of having a baby with trisomy or downs syndrome. Wonderful news! I did some blood work on the same day, and do follow up blood work at week 16. From that, they can tell me even more in terms of testing. So we don't plan to do CVS or amniocentesis, as they both lead to a high risk of miscarriage.

The next bit of exciting news comes from a funny story. After that scan, I was feeling much more comfortable about the state of my pregnancy, so we began to tell more friends and neighbors. After a week of sharing, I still hadn't had a chance to tell our next door neighbors. Ilona, the wife, is in her early 30s and from a party years before, I remember being told that she wanted to have children, but they still don't have any. So I was a little anxious about telling them, not wanting to put more pressure on the husband! Finally, one evening I was outside watering my garden next to the sidewalk, when Ilona drove up behind me and stopped her SUV. I was so glad I finally had a chance to tell her in person. She called out to me, asking me how I was doing, so I stepped up to the window and said I was doing fine, with a big smile. "And you?" I asked. "Susan, I'm pregnant!" she exclaimed. I couldn't believe it! I immediately wanted to know how far along she was, thinking maybe just a few weeks, but she is about 3 or 4 weeks ahead of me. "You won't believe this," I said, "but I'm pregnant, too!" I made her get out of her car and we exchanged a celebratory hug.

Her story is interesting: they have been trying for about two years to conceive. But she did not know she was pregnant until she was about three months, due to monthly bleeding (which can happen). But it is just so fabulous having someone pregnant who lives near me! She is already picturing our babies playing together! And we are both using our first floor offices to turn into the nursery, since our homes aren't really built for starting families!

Tim and I are making plans for our nursery, and I'll post those soon. When Tim's parents were here two weeks ago, his mom and I went to a paint store to pick up color cards. They had a wallpaper section and we checked out the nursery books. Oh, there were some of the most adorable options! We also went to Babies 'R Us and immediately became overwhelmed with all the choices. But I don't love any of the bedding selections, so this part of the search will continue.