Amnio no, I mean yes, uh, er, no

Along with the joyous sound of my new baby's heartbeat came these words from my doctor: "Now that you are of advanced maternal age we recommend amniocentesis to check for genetic mutations." Advanced maternal age? How did I get to be advanced maternal age? I'm wondering if this is just doctor code for "Now that you are an old bag ...." Of course I tend to go along with whatever until I have time to think about it. And now that I've thought about it I'm thinking that this is really not something I want to do. Having a giant needle poked slowly into my belly inches from my growing fetus sounds just about as fun as having some skin from behind my ear patched in to cover the giant hole left in my nose from skin cancer while six months pregnant with Soren. Giant needles of any kind while pregnant or otherwise just isn't my idea of fun. But statistics ARE scary. Being that I'm now an old lady the numbers are indeed stacked against me, a little. A women of my years has a 1 in 400 chance of having a baby with down's syndrome. That's scary when compared to my age just a few years ago when my chances were 1 in 1,300. So yes, it is riskier. Looking at the numbers will explain why I've had my children so close together. As Marissa Tomei says in My Cousin Vinny, "My biological clock is ticking!" But, put into perspective that is still a less than 2 percent chance of genetic mutation. Of course I'd love to take the test, find out it was negative and live happily ever after. But what if it's positive? Then what? There would be counseling for termination or six months of fearful trepidation. I guess regardless I'm going to have some trepidation if I don't take the test. I have two weeks to decide. I guess it's those statistics that bother me more this pregnancy than others. I opted not to have genetic testing for Soren or Jonas. After all, you get what you're going to get. But still, this "advanced maternal age" issue is freaking me out.