Keep Forgetting to Post

Yes, it's been over a week since my last post. I'm sorry but life just sort of gets away from you. In any case, things over here are interesting as always. :-)

I had a midterm exam in Human Growth and Development which was a complete nightmare / joke. First of all, the exam questions were repetitive, so you kept second guessing yourself. Second of all, many of the questions had multiple plausible answers, so if you guessed wrong, that stinks for you. Also, several questions were about material that was not covered in our book nor was it discussed in detail in class...so there was no way we could have known about it. Then, once I got my exam back all corrected, the professor had marked several questions wrong that were clearly correct.

For example, do any of you know how many days after ovulation a blastocyst implants into the uterus? Probably most of you (former) infertiles and many fertiles know that this happens 7-10 days post ovulation. It says so point blank in my Anatomy and Physiology textbook, and it's more ambiguous in my Human Growth and Development text (saying that it starts around 5 days and could go until 16 days after ovulation). The possible answers for this question on the test were a) 2-6 days; b) 8-12 days; c) 10-14 days; d) 12-16 days. Who can tell me first what is wrong with these answers? THEY OVERLAP! Plus the fact that, according to our text book, b, c and d could all technically be considered correct. According to every single RE, OB/Gyn and infertility expert out there - and my A&P text book, answer b is the "best" answer. The prof marked it wrong and insisted c was the answer...and refused to give me credit.

Here's another example. What is the baby called right after it implants into the uterus? An embryo, of course. I got marked wrong for that even though my Human Growth text book says so VERBATIM... The prof says it's something called a "cytoblast" (which I've never even heard of and isn't in my text book). He wouldn't give me credit for that one even though the text book he assigned says I'm right. (By the way, a cytoblast is the nucleus of a cell...and has nothing whatsoever to do with this question.)

On another question which seemed to me to have two plausible answers, he couldn't give me a good reason (any reason at all really) why my answer was incorrect.

These are just some of my "favorites". I'm planning to have a meeting with the dean next week and some of my classmates may come with me as well, since the vast majority of people failed the exam (I didn't) in all of his 3 classes. Seriously, when almost all of your students fail an exam I don't think it's because the students are all slacking off...

The twins are doing great. Chana has actually put together a few two/three word sentences! One was "No, mine". hehehe The other was "pick me up". She also asks specifically for her sippy cup (saying "cup cup cup cup" and going to the fridge). Also cool was the other day when after a bath I asked Shmuel if he had brushed her hair. He said no, and I turned around to see her running her fingers through her hair. She knew exactly what I was talking about!!! Dovid's language skills aren't even close, but they are getting better. I've heard that boys can take longer than girls for these things, so I'm not too worried.

Both twins can go up stairs really well now, and early intervention is beginning to teach them how to go back down. They're going to have their follow-up assessment in a few weeks, so we'll see if they still qualify. I'm almost positive that Dovid will qualify for speech, and both will probably qualify for self care (feeding, toileting).

That's all for now! I have another cervix check tomorrow, and then that's it. If that ultrasound comes back all good, then my cervix will officially be labeled "competent". Woo!! The baby moves a lot, which is so reassuring, and I'm definitely getting bigger. I'll have another belly picture taken on Thursday as I will be crossing the line over to 30 weeks!!! That means I'm about 3/4 of the way finished with this pregnancy. How insane. It's gone by super fast, and I can't believe that I'll have this baby in less than 3 months and could be as soon as 2 months from now. ACK!!! :-)