A.M.A.

Advanced Maternal Age A.M.A is a phrase I am sick of hearing. The way it is said and all of the hoopla that has gone with it is amazing. You would think I am over the hill and pregnant. I just turned 35 in December so I still feel relatively young, but in the world of reproduction I have reached the ripe old age of AMA.

I knew that this pregnancy I would be classified as AMA, but I had no idea it would be so much different than my pregnancy oh say LAST YEAR.... The first time I was given this label was my first visit. A medical student (who was probably in diapers when I was in high school)did my medical history. As soon as he saw my age he started suggesting all of these crazy test that at my age he highly recommended me taking....Next I was informed that I had to have a level two ultra sound performed by Peranatologist instead of the in office ultrasound. I was fine with this because we had a lot of level two ultra sounds with the twins, no big deal, or so I thought.

Yesterday was the day of the big ultrasound. We went in expecting to be an hour. HA HA HA. After we checked in we were escorted back to this tiny room where we met with a Geneticists. She went into a huge spill about chromosomes and age and all that jazz. She had charts and picture and statistics for my chances of having any of these or other Chromosomal defects. Then she did a family history. It went all the way back to my cousins. It was incredible to watch her try and chart my family considering my dad is 1 of 9 kids and my mom is 1 of 7. She was very relieved when she got to Cord's side of the family when his dad has 1 brother and his mom has 2 sisters. It was crazy to try and remember everything.

After our forever long genetic counseling session we went back to the waiting room.
The ultrasound was fast and pretty much painless for me. The Dr. stood next to the tech and read the ultrasound. The funny part was that she would refer to me in the third person. The baby was healthy, the results look great, and best of all we were able to get a great picture of our new little one. No we did not find out the sex.

When all was said and done we were there for almost 2 hours. What a difference one year makes. I love being old.