The Results

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers the last couple of days. We couldn't thank you enough for the kind and encouraging words as we embarked on yet another worrisome doctor's appointment.

Brian & I met at the hospital for our Level Two ultrasound with very calm hearts. The nurse first took us to the room to complete the ultrasound. She told us that they the Echogenic Foci are VERY common and usually it turns out that the baby is just fine. This type of ultrasound was really quite amazing. We could really see right into McKenna's cramped environment. (yes, it's still a girl!) She was moving around a lot, kicking her legs and moving her arms all about. The nurse took measurements of everything - the length of her legs and feet, the size of her kidneys, the thickness of her neck, the size of her head and body - everything. We looked right into her heart and saw her four chambers just pumping away. We could even see the calcium deposits sitting right in her valve. It was just amazing. She was beautiful.

Among all of the measurements, the nurse also looked for her nasal bone. The absence (or shortened) nasal bone often indicates Down Syndrome. McKenna's nasal bone shown brightly on the screen, they took a measurement of it too. All in all the nurse said that nothing she saw indicated any abnormalities, but that the doctor would be in to talk to us too.

It turns out that many years ago, doctors were trying to decrease the number of patients needing further screening for abnormalities found in their ultrasounds. They decided to research "markers" that would indicate whether or not the fetus had Down Syndrome or any other irregularity, so that only the women found with these markers would be referred on for further testing. So, they researched children with Down Syndrome and found that they all had common traits found in their ultrasounds, one of them being the Echogenic Foci. What they didn't realize is that many typical fetuses have the Echogenic Foci as well. Rather than decreasing the number of patients, referrred it has actually increased, he said that he sees this every day. More and more women go through this freak out for no reason at all.

McKenna is practically perfect in every way. All of the measurements came back normal. Everything was working the way it is supposed to. The Foci will dissipate with time. They are not hurting her heart in any way. It is pumping along just fine. Thank God!

The bonus of this appointment was getting to see our little girl once again and this time we really got to SEE her. Check out the pictures and see for yourself!

just look at that face!

that's her umbilical cord up by her tummy

the best profile shot we've gotten!