Baby QuAngel at 13 weeks and 3 days is still pumping strong! We had our Sequential Screening today, which is to determine if our baby has Down Syndrome and Spina Bifida. Since it is "sequential" there are 2 parts to this test, so the full results won't show to our next screening. This was an optional test, and the only reason we decided to do it was because the doctor told us that if spina bifida was detected early, they can decrease the chances of it getting worse. I am not qualified to talk about this, but my understanding is that spina bifida is when the spinal cord does not form completely, due to a incomplete closure of the embryonic neural tube, causing a split spine.

The fun part of this screening was that we got to see our baby again in the ultrasound. Angel forgot to drink water before the ultasound, which ended up becoming a bonus for us to spend a longer time with the baby, as our tech Ron Aguan was trying to figure out how to get our baby to turn on its belly so he can measure it's back. This resulted in 20 minutes of recording the baby moving around, waving wassup to us, and doing a nice long stretch!

After the screening, Angel had some blood drawn for more testing. We then proceeded to another office to meet up with Dr. Barry May, where he let us listen to the baby's hearbeat with his doppler. The noise sounds like a swish swish sound but really fast. Then there was a loud odd noise in between sometimes and the doctor said that was when the baby was moving, but Angel thinks it was her jeans that made this noise.

(click on "videos of QuAngel" link, for longer version)