12 weeks ultrasound

We just had our 12 week ultrasound and appointment and everything is looking great.  The baby is measuring perfectly (12 weeks 3 days, when we are actually 12 weeks 2.5ish days).  It is about 2 inches long and about the size of a small lime!  This is also the appointment where they do the screening for major birth defects and downs.  The first part of the tests were all negative and the second part comes back in about a week.

Although it has been a pretty rough 5 weeks, the last 4 days has shown some small improvements to give us some hope.  My stomach is certainly consistently better (although still not completely normal or problem free).  My arthritis, after no improvement at 1 week of 30 mg, seems to be improving slightly at 60 mg over the past 4 days.  Enjoyment of this improvement has been dampened by my jaw getting even worse with a dislocation on Sunday.  I’m feeling generally stronger and when I get up to help in the kitchen, I don’t feel  dead tired for 10 minutes instead of 3, which is nice.  I still have to be really careful because any sort of increased motion can set off a flare for days, so I have to protect my joints and be smart about repetition.  Of course Charles is still the most amazing partner taking care of most chores and just being fun and supportive throughout!

The doctor is still pretty concerned about how active my arthritis/stomach problems are and wanting to keep our treatment on the aggressive side to get this under control.  This means I will stay on the 60 mg of prednisone for another 2 days and then start tapering 5 mg every 5 days, but only if things are improving.  We both agree that my slight improvement is promising but that it doesn’t seem like we have one the battle so we need to make sure we don’t reduce the prednisone too quick and end up behind the 8 ball again. 

Overall, I’m feeling more positive about the improvement, although continuing to adjust my expectations that this pregnancy will likely be hard throughout (*something my Dr echoes and wants us to be prepared for).  I feel my current health is getting closer to the point that would be endurable with a decent quality of life for the next 6 months.  I am looking forward to feeling the baby and seeing the baby more in me, although the last few weeks I have noticed more of a baby bump developing despite being about 2 lbs down from my starting weight (see pic).

Lastly, I am really sad I won’t be seeing all of Charles’ family next week.  You know how much I love seeing and spending time with all of you and although we both were very excited to come, it just wasn’t in the cards.  Here’s hoping it can happen in the next month or two!