When you read you begin with ABC...

The next ultrasound was on 3-11-08. We were excited to see little Ella swimming aroung like a fish in utero. At this point, because we were considered a high risk pregnancy (having undergone fertility treatment) the REI doctor recommended a high resolution screening ultrasound.






So, we followed recommendations and proceeded with the high resolution ultrasound. At this appointment we discovered that Ella's nuchal translucency was more than double the upper limit of normal, suggesting a chromosomal abnormality such as Down's syndrome, trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edward's syndrome), or another trisomy (all of which are uniformly lethal to the baby). Odds of a chromosomal problem are 50% in babies with increased nuchal translucency as high as Ella's.

We were then offered chorionic villi sampling (CVS) to give us definitive proof of a possible chromosomal anomaly. Knowing that we had a 1% risk of spontaneous abortion following the procedure, we proceeded after careful thought and prayer.

We painfully awaited the results for four days following the procedure. During that time we prayed and fasted with our families for Ella's health and safety. We felt reassured that all would proceed according to God's plan for our little baby. We

also found ourselves willing to accept any result that might come back and knew that we'd love the baby regardless of her chromosomal makeup.



Four days later we received the results as you see here--normal chromosomes.

This left us with a relatively high possibility that she could have a major heart defect (like tetralogy, transposition of the great vessels, hypoplastic left heart, etc)...