The trouble begins...

I am nearly 24 weeks pregnant and facing yet another terrifying sonogram tomorrow.

When people warned me that a perfect first child meant a troublesome second, I didn't realize they meant it began in utero. It all started normally enough. Peed on a stick, learned we were pregnant with baby #2 after many months of trying, went through the normal "Super happy and  excited, oh my god, what have we done?!? Super happy and excited!!" roller coaster of learning about a new baby.

Our son, who is now 2 1/2, gave us a scare in the first few weeks of his life, when they couldn't find a heartbeat. Turns out the dates were wrong, and I was less pregnant than expected. Once we saw that first heartbeat, it was smooth sailing. Easy pregnancy and the world's happiest, most easy going boy.

That was my expectation for the second as well. It almost seemed destined when, in an odd twist of fate, we learned our second little one was due on exactly the same day as our first: April 26th. Our joke: this is what happens when you cross someone with a planning degree (my husband) and a Ph.D. in reproduction (me).

I felt greatly reassured after that first 8 week ultrasound when we saw the heart beating, nice and strong. Despite the morning sickness that was orders of magnitudes worse than the first time and the overwhelming fatigue, I was ready to settle in for another drama-free pregnancy. My excitement was magnified when I found out I had a coworker due the same week (and, as it turns out, two male coworkers whose wives are also due around the same time).

October 16th was the first bad day.

My 12 week NT scan showed a thickened nuchal translucency (3.6 mm). The US tech got very serious and every worse case scenario flashed through my head: Down syndrome, trisomy disease, chromosomal abnormality....

October 17th: Our 8 year wedding anniversary and one of the most packed days of my professional career. I was supposed to host a stakeholders meeting of nearly 100 people, involving high level agency officials. But then the doctor's office called and said they could get me in for a CVS.

A few frantic smart phone emails later, we were off to the CVS. The excruciatingly painful, long and agonizing CVS. Turns out my c-section had left lots of scar tissue and I was not an easy mark. Even worse was the following two days of both physical pain (I felt like I had been hit repeatedly in the stomach by a battering ram) and the anxiety of waiting for test results.

Saturday, October 20th - Good news!!! Initial CVS results are normal. No Down Syndrome. No trisomies! Hooray!

The genetic counselor warned, "Thickened NT is also associated with heart defects. You should plan on coming in for a 20 week fetal echocardiogram."

Breezily, arrogant scientist that I am, I said, "I'm not worried about a heart defect. You can fix a heart defect. It was the stuff you couldn't fix I was scared of."

Famous last words.