Week 16:Time for ye olde ultrasounde
这个星期,我竟然又以头痛来开始~ 唉!怎么又头痛了呢? 现在还在观察到底是什么原因搞到我头痛的。是泡参鸡精吗?还是因为连续几天都太迟睡觉,导致有点睡眠不足,然后加上天气太热,一直走在太阳底下?唉~总之非常非常不喜欢这种感觉,我觉得头痛真的好难受哦!可不可以不要再头痛了呢?而且每次一痛起来呢~就是接连几天都有点点不舒服的感觉,除了这个以外,容易累,其他的我都觉得自己的状况都很好~能吃能跑能跳能笑!
这个星期五,我们就要第一次带小Qoo 出远门咯!哈哈哈。。。我们带你去坐火车,然后去以前daddy mummy 拍拖的时候常常去的云顶(因为又凉又舒服又便宜又靠近)哈哈哈。。。然后还去KL 走走逛逛,搞不好还有机会看到你的姑姑哦~
这个星期老公又煮了好喝营养的豆奶,哈哈。。。已经是他第四次的豆奶了~ 越煮越上手了哦!我也喝得不亦乐乎~ 幸好不会抗拒这味道,反而还蛮喜欢的~ 哈哈。。希望能够生个白白的宝宝哦~~
Over the past three weeks your magical-gro baby has managed to add on yet another 2 full inches of length (totaling about 4.5 inches) and now weighs a whopping 3.5 ounces!
Guess what? Your little lollipop is not so bobble-headed anymore!
Yep, your baby's head-to-body ratio is starting to even out, as the rest of their body - including their arms and legs (the better to kick you with!) plays catch-up.
One of the most anticipated moments in pregnancy is the "quickening" or the first time you undeniably feel your child move inside of you.
In some cultures a woman is not even considered pregnant untilshe experiences the quickening!
Women claim to feel it as early as 14 weeks. That said, other women laugh at the thought of that woman cherishing a fart that's rumbling in her small intestines.
In general, it's safe to say that after 18 - 20 weeks, all women will experience the quickening as a definitive non-fart poke or prod from within their womb.
Those sweet little flutters will evolve into pokes, prods, and even outright painful kicking as your break-dancing baby-cakes grow in size and seek ways to straighten out in their increasingly cramped quarters.
If you had that gender ultrasound right now, which most doctors recommend at about this time, you might see your little one sucking their thumb, not to mention the necessary signifiers to let you know whether you've got a wee lad or lassie.
Awww...
And how's mom doing?
Okay, grab a seat, take a deep breath and focus. It's time for the serious-medical-issues discussion.Big Picture: The MMT helps 10% of women start to deal with the scary reality that something isn't normal about their pregnancy, while causing a crap-ton of undue stress for 90% of women.
Ultrasounds are a common low-risk procedure that's typically performed multiple times throughout your pregnancy.
Using a sonogram, a trained ultrasound technician measures and monitors your baby's growth and is able to detect physical defects and issues.
If everything is developing fine from the ultrasound, most medical practitioners automatically recommend the Multiple Marker Test (MMT aka Triple Screen Test).
This very common procedure checks your blood (not your baby's) for specific protein and hormone levels and any potential genetic issues. Before you start breathing in that strained fearful way or furrowing your brow in concern, you should know that even if you do get a positive test this hardly means your little trooper is in trouble.
In reality, only about 3 to 5 percent of women yield positive results, and of those women, only 10 percent actually have any sort of complication to report.
In other words, 90% of the women who get positive results from the MMT are getting false positives.
Big Picture: The MMT helps 10% of women start to deal with the scary reality that something isn't normal about their pregnancy, while causing a crap-ton of undue stress for 90% of the women.
Obviously, a positive test from the MMT will have the doctor recommending further testing, including the much-scarier very-invasive amniocentesis (sticking a massive needle into your womb) and more ultrasounds.
Remember: this is your pregnancy. You make the choices here. If you don't want to go through the undue stress of taking this test, you can opt out. That's your right.
Still, you should weigh the risks carefully. The blood test doesidentify neural tube defects and Down Syndrome when it's not being wrong (which it almost always is).
For women over the age of 35, doctors will highly recommend this test, as Down Syndrome is more common in babies born to women over the age of 35, and 10% more common in women over the age of 40.
To sum it up: the MMT is a simple blood test that has 90% false positives, which causes serious-but-undue stress in millions of young women, while it also informs a minority of women about the status of unexpected and serious issues.
Your pregnancy, your choice.