27w2d: More research

I am torn. I think I made peace with the fact that Parker may be born with Down Syndrome (there is ALWAYS a chance), with or without the nasal bone. I read a lot about it today and having a baby with DS really isn't the end of the world. Boy, it sounds different when I put his name in the same sentence as Down Syndrome. Anyway, I have been reading about the nasal bones and all and have a few more links to share (all are posts at babycenter):

Post 1 - includes a great explanation of sequential screen tests
Post 2 - Absent Nasal Bone, 1:66 chance of DS, baby born with no DS
Post 3 - 1 in 23,000 DS risk adjusted to 1 in 750 due to absent nasal bone
Post 4 - Confused: Since 5% of children without chromosomal abnormalities don't have nasal bone, does the lack of the nasal bone mean 95% chance of the abnormalities happening?
Post 5 - African America, no nasal bone at 12 w, short nasal bone at 18 w, baby born without DS
Post 6 - Confused: Should, and if so by how much, (soft) markers increase your quantitative risk assessment?
Post 7 - Second comment from the top - this woman is amazing! I read her blog (here) and the many babycenter posts she wrote.

I also sent a personal messages to a couple of authors of the posts who had been told about absent nasal bone and had healthy babies at the end. I don't really expect answers any soon as their posts were from 2009 and 2010 but it's good to try. :)

I just realized that I didn't finish my thought started in the first paragraph. What I was trying to say was that I am ok with Parker having an extra chromosome, I just want to make sure that a home birth doesn't present an additional risk for him. As we discussed with DH on the phone yesterday, I would like to get another ultrasound and make sure his heart, lungs, and stomach are still ok. Sure I would like to check on the nasal bone too, but at this point I just need to know that he is ok otherwise.

On a lighter note, I got the Baby Shower invitation (to my own baby shower) last night! It looks very cute, I can't wait.

On another light note, we had a surprise baby shower down in Charlotte, NC when visiting with friends on Memorial Day. One of them got us... a stroller! The one we wanted, off the registry! It arrived last Saturday and I put it together and it is now in our kitchen. I keep imagining our sweet Parker in it! I tried to fold it and put it away for now but I simply can't! I love it so much, because it makes Parker's arrival so much more real! I'm sure DH will want to put it away when he comes back from his conference on Friday night so I may as well enjoy it now. :)

27w1d: The nasal bone issue is back :/

Haven't been here for a long time. A lot changed, i.e. we have decided to do a home birth and are transferring to a birth center to be cared by midwifes. I requested my medical records to be faxed to me and when I was casually looking over then, I noticed that the result from our anatomy scan at 18w5d says "NASAL BONE ABSENT"! I was furious because the doc never said it directly. All he said was that the baby "has a small nose". Is he a doctor or a beauty pageant judge? Google didn't help, again, and I had a big break down on Friday night (I guess the fact that DH was leaving for a 6 day conference didn't help).

I did more research today and here are my conclusions:

1. Lack of nasal bone in Caucasians occurs only in about 5% of healthy babies so it is starting to be considered a strong marker.

However:

2. Some nasal bones are not detected on u/s. I found a post from a woman who describes her case. They didn't see nasal bone on 7(!) ultrasounds and the baby was born with one (and no DS).

3. Some nasal bones are not detected on u/s, again. Another woman posted description of the same case as ours. First u/s showed nasal bone, on the next one the bone was absent. Her baby daughter was bone with 46 chromosomes (no DS). Not sure if she ended up having a nasal bone or not.

4. Some babies develop nasal bones later. Found a post (sorry, I can't find the link any more) from a woman whose baby was born with no chromosomal abnormalities but also no nasal bone. The bone just started to develop at about 4 months of age.

Here is a link to my post, maybe someone will answer it too.

My biggest worry is that (a) we will do a home birth and the baby will turn out to have DS with some other issues that require hospitalization and that he will get in trouble for not being in the hospital. Or (b) we won't be able to do a home birth when the midwife sees the u/s results note and we will have to go back to the same doctor.

I have GOT to stop now. It's already 5.40 pm, which means that I have only 50 min left and I have not finished what I needed to finish for work! UGH!!!