This month's web hangouts:

• January Pregnancy Calendar
• Fit Pregnancy - Pregnancy at a Glance, Month 2
• HomeArts - How Your Baby Grows - Month 2 (also available at ParenthoodWeb)
• Life with Baby - The First Trimester
• Mayo Clinic - The First Trimester
• The Mining Company - Pregnancy week by week
  • Week 7 (Dec 31-Jan 6)
  • Week 8 (Jan 7-13)
  • Week 9 (Jan 14-20)
  • Week 10 (Jan 21-27)
  • Week 11 (Jan 28-Feb 3)
• ParentTime - First trimester home page
• ParentTime Week-by-week Guide
• Stages of Your Baby's Development - 7 - 10 Weeks
• Women's Link - Your Baby at 2 Months

Conceived Dec 3, 1997
Due August 27, 1998
Labor August 29-31
Born August 31, 1998

This month should be exciting. The baby's heart should already be beating, though it is probably too early to actually hear it. Inside my tummy, the baby's organs will be developing for most of the month. Since I'm past the point where I miscarried back in April, I'm feeling a bit less worried about miscarriage

Nausea has finally started to be an issue. I'm not getting sick, but I've had lots of gas, especially after meals. Once I get the gas up out of the way, I feel better. I'm craving foods like hard-boiled eggs, cheese, milk, pastas, and applesauce. I'm getting sick of crackers. Multi-grain Cheerios and openface hard-boiled egg and cheese on toast-wiches have become my faithful snack companions.

This month's schedule includes 3 doctor's office visits. On January 2, I went for bloodwork to test HCG, CBC, Blood Type, and Progesterone Level. My HCG was doing just fine, at 19,065, and my progesterone was within an acceptable range, but a little low. The doctor decided to supplement 100 mg of progesterone twice a day and had me in on January 6 for the first ultrasound (43K).

On the 21st, I went in for my first official prenatal appointment. Along with a normal examination, the doctor did a second quick ultrasound (58K). Everything looks very good, very normal. The doctor has calculated my due date as August 24, though the size of the ultrasound only placed me at about 8 1/2 weeks (not quite 9, as he has figured I should be), which is more in line with the due date of August 27. But I'm not going to argue too hard with my doctor over the due date just yet, seeing as the baby could be born anytime between weeks 38 and 42, or even slightly outside that range, and still be perfectly normal.