Olives, Iron and IPS

WEEK

9

Babycenter.com kind of let us down this week, because they had no food comparisons. Luckily, R received a new book in the mail from her sister J, called Your Pregnancy Week By Week with greater detail. According to page 101, "The crown-to-rump length of the embryo is .9 inches to 1.2 inches (22mm to 30mm). This is close to the size of a medium green olive. " Also, there is an "actual size" drawing of a week-9 fetus, along with larger, more detailed drawing. It may be tiny, but it has really started to look like a cute little baby. There are ears, eyes, little hands -- it's absolutely beautiful.

R went in to see the our family doctor last week, since the clinic has done its job and is handing us off. We were both initially surprised that the doctor only wanted to do some blood tests and ask a few questions. I thought, "What is the doctor going to tell her, that she's pregnant?" It seemed like she would go through the horror of giving blood samples for nothing. Giving blood is not something I take lightly.

The other day we were watching a news item about influenza innoculations. Of course, The sadist reporters had to show several people getting needles jabbed in their arms. Ghastly. Then they showed a happy little baby lying on an examining table. While the news anchor droned on about vaccination shortages, a nurse jabbed a needle into this little child. I reacted much faster than the baby, curling up in a ball and covering my head. After a few seconds, the baby realized what had been done and began to wail. Rightly so. Think about the size of that needle relative to that little infant. For an adult it would be like getting impaled on a lance... almost.

This reminded me of a news story we saw specifically about infant immunizations. The piece started out innocently enough, but quickly went sour. They must have shown 15 or 20 infants and toddlers getting jabbed with needles in rapid succession, each one erupting in a wail of pain. As I squirmed in my chair I said to R, "This is like a bad horror movie!" It really was horrifying -- needles always are.


R went and did the blood test. She called me after and said that they took FIVE ENORMOUS vials of blood. (Oh... I'm getting woozy just thinking about it.) She got a call yesterday from the doctor's secretary to say that she needed to start taking an iron supplement. Apparently, she hasn't got enough iron. We looked it up in all our sources, and an iron deficiency can account for shortness of breath, fatigue and feelings of general ill-health. Unfortunately, the side effects of taking these tablets are equally unappealing (nausea! vomiting! upset stomach!). R has started taking the supplements, so we'll see how she feels when she visits the doctor on Wednesday.

By Wednesday, we also have to decide whether we'd like to schedule an "Integrated Prenatal Screening (IPS), which helps determine the probability of having a baby with 1) Down Syndrome; 2) Trisomy 18; or 3) an Open Neural Tube Defect. Once you have the blood test and ultrasound, you find out if you have a higher or lower probability. If high, you can go on to an amniocentesis (taking some amniotic fluid) to more accurately detect/predict these conditions. This doesn't sound too bad until you read that 1 in 200 amniocenteses results in a miscarriage! We've decided not to do the screening for the following reasons:

• we don't like needles


• we don't like obstetrical ultrasounds


• we don't want to risk a miscarriage


• we don't want an abortion, regardless what the test says

Since the probabilities of these conditions are low, and we don't see much to benefit from it, we're not going to do it. I was tempted to do the first part (blood work and ultrasound), just so I could get another look at the baby. But that would also mean lots of needles, and nobody around here is into horror movies.