Hi there,

What a stress! I also thought that the measurements were more reliable around the 12 week mark. Did they look at other 'soft markers' such as the nasal bone? I'm thinking that if there was more than one indicator, they would have told you, so sounds like they're just going on the nuchal fold.
I had a high risk down pregnancy 1:24 risk, with DD last year/this year (based on 2nd trimester bloods - even though the 12 week scan looked great). We didn't do the amnio, as we wouldn't change anything and knew that we'd love our baby regardless and didn't feel that we needed to prepare. Just knowing that we were higher risk gave us the heads up that it was a real possibility for us etc and I didn't want to risk the pregnancy by testing.
I also had a gut feeling that everything was fine (and it was). I remember doing a scan at 16 weeks when I booked in with our obs to look at the soft markers and again at 20 weeks. These all checked out fine - such as length of the nasal bone etc.
The bowel on bby came back as bright white (ecogenic), so they did question whether this was due to down's, cystic or a virus or a bleed that I'd had in first tri and the baby possibly ingested it and this is where it sat. We saw a genetic counsellor and did blood tests to rule out cystic and for the rest of the pregnancy (after the initial shock) I kinda forgot about it all, until people mentioned it.

Re: the amnio - there will be pressure to have one - I got asked several times from my obs, the sonographer, the genetic counsellor etc. If you don't think that you want to do it, stand your ground. Maybe chat with your partner about why he wants one. Usually an amnio would be done earlier in the pregnancy, (for reasons of deciding not to go ahead with the pregnancy etc), however, for your situation, I guess it would be just confirming either way. Can you get referred to a genetic counsellor? Also ask the specialist obs on Monday what are the benefits of doing the amnio. I think sometimes down's babies can have some issues with their heart (?) not sure if they can pick this up on the u/sound scan before birth.

Can you still prepare for a down's baby without doing the amnio? Just throwing around some questions to consider. It's really up to you, what you want to do, however, it's difficult making a decision when those around you are pushing for one thing. I hope Monday comes around quickly for you and wishing you a good outcome for your baby.