My pregnancy to date

After a year of hoping for a baby, we found out on August 24th that we were expecting our second child. At our first appointment the baby was 5 weeks and 5 days, we were so lucky to see it's heart beating during the ultrasound and it was beating at 105 beats per minute. Below is the ultrasound picture from that appointment, you cant see much but our little bug is the dot in the center of the black oval.

My second OB appointment at 9 weeks 4 days went just as well on October 7th, so well in fact that little bug was measuring ahead by a day making its estimated due date on my birthday, May 7th! Since due dates are so subjective and the baby will come whenever it wants, Ive decided to stick with the original due date of May 8th for sanity purposes. Below is the ultrasound picture from that appointment, its amazing what a difference a month can make!

Please forgive the poor illustration I added to the picture, I figured it made it a bit easier to identify the baby's features. The baby was kicking its legs and arms around, it was wonderful to see! Unfortunately I have had some of the worst "morning" sickness Ive ever had. I was sick with Jackson but nothing quite like this. I visited the hospital for 6 hours the 1st week of October and got 3 bags of fluid to rehydrate me and was diagnosed with hyperemesis. My doctor put me on 2 perscriptions, one for Zofran for anti-nausea and vomiting and Reglan to help my stomach process the food I actually eat as well as half a Benadryl (apparently it helps as well). That worked well for a while but it wasnt long before I was back in the same boat. I went back into the hospital again on Monday, October 20th and this time they kept me for 2 1/2 days, giving me 9 bags of fluid which the nurse said was the highest amount she has seen given to anyone that she can remember. Nice. The doctor this time spoke with a perinatologist and they both came up with the plan to put me on a short mega dose of steroids which apparently works wonders. Im now taking the steroids and am on a plan to ween off them over the next 20 days. I have a lot more energy though I still get weak easily, feel like eating for the first time in weeks and am keeping down liquids so Im pleased though I hate taking all these medications. I cant wait to be off them all.

My stomach is poking out much earlier than it did with Jackson, Im beginning to wonder just how big Ill get this time around. Todd and I are going to start taking pictures each week to document my progression. Ill post it up as soon as we get it for all to laugh at!