Second trimester, here we come.

Well, the last few days of the first trimester ended with a bang with the brand-spankin' new standard issue Nuchal Translucency test. It's amazing how far obstetrics has come in just a few short years. Back in the "old days" you got bloodwork at 16 weeks and that was the only genetic screening you got, save for an elective amnio, for chromosomal defects. Well, now they do this screen where they look at the level of fluid in the nuchal fold (translation: "you mean I get an ultrasound? Awesome!") and determine your relative risk for having a baby with a genetic problem. They couple that with bloodwork and come up with a composite risk factor. Today, the results came back and it would seem there's only a 1:10,000 chance that the baby has problems. This is good news, considering my age alone gives me a risk factor of 1:365.

The best part of it all was, of course, seeing the little parasite swimming around on ultrasound. The cup of coffee and diet coke I downed before the scan ensured he or she was in an energetic mood. Unfortunately, the baby decided not to be too cooperative with sex-determination, so try as she might, the ultrasound tech could not even make a conjecture. The doctor was completely uninterested in trying, even going so far as to say that I should just wait for the birth. Ok, thanks, doc.

So, second trimester, here I come. Here's hoping I get that much-anticipated energy boost so the "please kill me now" element fades out of my runs. My running log is looking really sad lately.