She Flips!

Sept 20 (21 days old) - She's only three weeks old, but Gavriella flipped from front to back today! Shocked the living daylights out of me... I put her down for some tummy time and within a few minutes she started squeaking, because she had turned herself over, and I think she was a bit surprised. I didn't think babies were supposed to be able to do that until they were like 3 or 4 months old! I thought it might be a fluke, but she repeated the feat the next day. Super baby!

Milestones

I never remembered to record many milestones with the other kids, but I'm going to try better here. They may seem silly, but it's nice to have some kind of memory of how Gavriella's life progresses. For example:

• Sept 4 (5 days old) - Gavriella's cord stump fell off, terrifying Shmuel in the process. "OMG WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN???" You would think the father of 4 children would be expecting the cord stump to fall off, but no, this guy has heart failure about it. I assured him that it was fine and he didn't need to do anything special. Today I also realized that I'm not much bigger than my pre-pregnancy self, especially when I'm in the Belly Band-It. Actually, when I wear the Belly Band-It I am probably smaller than pre-pregnancy me, since it helps keep my abs together. I'm hoping I'll be able to fix my diastasis recti with exercise so I won't have the crazy ab muscles any more.
• Sept 5 (6 days old) - Gavriella spit up for the first time, making me smile. I love knowing that my baby is getting plenty to eat and it's all coming from me. So a little spit up (and this was really only a teensy bit) means she's getting what she needs. Though her constant falling asleep mid-feed is driving me bonkers. 3 minutes nursing does not equal a meal!! *sigh* Today I also put on one of my favorite pre-pregnancy dresses. Unlike with my other pregnancies, where I couldn't wear this dress for months, if not a year, I was able to zip it up like nothing. YAY!
• Sept 13 (14 days old) - For the first time I put Gavriella to sleep in one position and found her turned 90° the next time I went in to her. Looks like someone's beginning to scootch around!

Interesting Milestone

We just passed a very interesting milestone back on Oct 12th. On that day Tzipora was the exact same age that the twins were on the day she was born. Pretty wild, isn't it? And we only just started TTC. Funny how things change as time goes on.

Speaking of TTC, we're hanging into today at 6dpo. I'm still reeling at the fact I actually ovulated on time, CD 15. The wildness of that to me is completely mind-boggling. I looked back at my past ovulation charts - and I have the past 6 years in charts - and the only times I've ever ovulated prior to day 16 were when I was on Follistim and/or took an hCG shot to trigger ovulation at a certain time. And even with that, I only rarely ovulated prior to day 20 of my cycle while not on any actual fertility medication (ie Metformin, Clomid, etc.) When I was using Chinese herbs and FertilAid (waaaaaay back when I was TTC #1) I ovulated on day 18 or 19 a few times, but even when I was on Metformin I usually ovulated on day 17! Maybe this was a fluke and next cycle (if there is one) I'll go back to having crazy late ovulation, but I'm hoping not. It feels good to be normal. :-) The fact is, if I got pregnant this month I would actually be able to give my midwife my real LMP and get my real due date! That's beyond cool. With both the twins and Tzipora I gave my OB/midwife a made up LMP that I concocted based on the actual day I ovulated/had my retrieval so she would have my correct due date and not an inaccurate one. Would the extra 2 days have actually made a difference with my care? Well, with the twins it would have put me as 35w3d instead of 35w1d at their birth...not a big deal considering they did fine regardless. Tzipora was born at 39 weeks, so their records would have stated 39w2d. But...had I gone "overdue" with Tzipora, the extra two days could have meant the difference between having an induction forced on me or not. This is why I like accuracy when dealing with pregnancy! I don't want any practitioners claiming I am 42 weeks pregnant when I am still 41w5d and could give birth on my own. For some women who ovulate weeks late, this is HUGE! And this is also why it is SO IMPORTANT to either know your ovulation date or to have an early ultrasound (like 6 or 7 weeks) to date your pregnancy accurately. One of my doula clients has a habit of going late...like all the way to 42 weeks according to her midwife. But really, she ovulates nearly a week "late"...so she's really more like 41 1/2 weeks when she gives birth! She's narrowly escaped Pitocin induction twice now because she's begged and pleaded to be left alone until 42 weeks. Had she made up a LMP based on her ovulation (or close to it), she would have gained some extra time. Now then, I'm not saying to go hog wild and randomly pick a date here. If you know your exact ovulation date, use it to calculate back a LMP if you haven't ovulated on CD 15. If you don't know the exact ovulation date but have a range of a few days, pick one of them. If you are completely 100% clueless, get as early an ultrasound as possible. The earlier on, the more accurate the date they will give you.

Speaking of pregnancy, I had some super weird dreams the other day about being pregnant and giving birth. Yeah, I know...you're all going to say "But Elana! You only have really weird dreams when you are pregnant!" And then I'm going to tell you to shut your face because I already know that and it's creeping me out. Anyhoo, in dream #1 I was actually in labor....and it hurt, too. But then my mother walked in and interrupted and my body was all "YIKES MOM IS HERE!" and stopped being in labor. LOL I was kinda pissed about that. In my second dream I actually gave birth. From what I remember it was pretty fast and Heavyn and Melanie were my doulas. (That is actually what I would LOVE to happen for real next time I give birth, but anyway...) I was all proud of myself for having them as doulas and not needing a "professional" one. Though honestly if I were going to do this in real life I would train both of them in the preceding months to make sure they'd be superb doulas anyway. But the kicker was that the baby was a girl, and I was NOT happy. I was all "Seriously? Another girl? No freaking way..." LOL My third dream was about school, but I don't really remember what happened.

Other symptoms this week: I am extraordinarily gassy. It's completely obnoxious and painful at times. I hate those gas bubbles! I've also had a bit of the runs, which is not fun either. I've been a bit dizzy too, but that's not really new. I've had horrific orthostatic hypotension ever since I started taking a beta blocker for my migraines, so it's most likely related to that.

I'm sure you've all been dying for an update on my London trip, right? Well there's nothing really new to report. As of the last time I chatted with Steve they don't really need any extra help, but Eoin is also completely consumed with filming the movie and isn't in the mindset to even be thinking about the convention. So I asked Steve if he would reconnoiter with Eoin after filming and ask again - this time making it super clear how much it would mean to me to help out - and he said he would. I still have some hope left! But no news on who the other two special guests are. There haven't even been any clues since my last post. I'll keep you updated on that front when I know more.

Stuff and Whatnot

Yes, I know I'm an awful person for only blogging once a month. Sorry! Half the time I just have nothing interesting to say, but today Tzipora said something SO CUTE that I just had to share. She walked into my bedroom this morning soon after I had woken up but not gotten out of bed. As she entered my bedroom she said "hello" then walked up to my bed and said "hello, Mommy". To which I practically screamed. haha I don't know if she's ever called me Mommy before without prompting, and she put two words together like a pro! I was super proud. :-D

In other news, I have found an amazingly fantastic TV show that I am completely addicted to now. It's called "Merlin" and it's on the BBC. I can guarantee you will love it if you are a fan of fantasy or sci fi at all. And even if you're not, you will still love it. :-) I'm embedding the first episode here, but you can watch every episode on YouTube by clicking the following links to my playlists - Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4. Season 5 will be starting in the UK a bit later this year...don't know when the US will get it. *sigh* Enjoy!

Oh For Goodness Sake!

I haven't posted in almost two months!!! I can't believe that... I've just been so crazy with school lately that I don't even have time to think. Not too much excitement has been going on here. Tzipora had her first birthday just a few days after my last post. She's still not standing on her own (which obviously means she's not walking yet), but there's still time for that. She is saying a few words, though. Her first word was "hi," and she says it all the time now. It's so adorable! She also says "yeah" in response to basically any question. Every once in a blue moon she'll say "beep" in response to you saying "beep" at her, along with the requisite beeping of her nose. She also says "uh oh," and she does it pretty frequently as she's always throwing things around and "uh oh" it's now on the floor. :-) Those are the only four words she has...no "mama" or "dada" yet. *sigh* But compared to what the twins were saying at almost 14 months she's verbose (to take a word from my father).

The twins are cute as ever. They're going to be three in just under a month, which is unbelievable. I actually have to plan a party between now and then, and I don't know what on earth I'm going to do about that. They are completely obsessed with Blue's Clues - I think Chana wants to marry Steve. They also love Harry Potter - not so much the movies or the books, which they've had little, if any, exposure to yet. Rather, they are HUGE fans of A Very Potter Musical. If you love Harry Potter, then you need to watch this. You will FOR SURE love it. It's "Totally Awesome."

Somehow the twins have now gotten over their overwhelming fear of the bath and they actually enjoy it! In the past few weeks there have even been days where they've scammed TWO baths out of us in one day by getting Brittany (the nanny) to give them one during the day and then getting Shmuel to give them one at night (without him knowing they got one earlier). Silly kiddos... Now if they can only convince Tzipora that they're fun we'll be all set. She screams bloody murder if you even say the word bath in her general direction. My children are unreal...

I've started taking my Metformin again in the hopes that it will help me with my appetite, which is unreal without it. And the next time I get pregnant, I'm going to stay on it for my whole pregnancy. See, I've noticed that my first trimester is usually just great in terms of the amount of hunger I feel, but as soon as I stop the Metformin at the beginning of 2nd trimester my hunger is OUT OF FLIPPING CONTROL and I eat everything in sight, then I gain 50 lbs and feel like a cow by the time I give birth. Then of course I need to lose all of that extra weight. I'm still about 15lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight (which is about 30lbs more than I should weigh anyway). Now that I'm on the lowest dose of Metformin (500mg QD) I've already noticed that my appetite is more like that of a normal human being rather than the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. (Fifty points if you know the reference!) Unfortunately I'm still a bit hungrier than most people would be - it's very difficult for me to go more than 2 hours without eating something, but I also tend to eat very small bits at a time - maybe 100 to 250 calories at a time. So it could be normal, I guess. But anyway I can't tolerate more than the lowest dose or it makes me viciously nauseated, so I have an appointment with my Gyn at the end of this week to see if he'll give me an extended release version of Metformin which might settle better in my stomach and allow me to take my prescribed dose (500mg BID aka 1000mg). But so far so good. Since I restarted the Metformin at the beginning of January I already lost the 15 lbs I gained while I was off of it from July until then. I'll update my weight loss ticker weekly at the top right of this page so you can keep track...and keep your fingers crossed that I can get this weight off!!! No more babies until I can at least get back to my pre-pregnancy weight - which shouldn't be difficult as it's only 15lbs and I have no TTC plans for at least 6 months. But it would be even better if I could lose 30 or even 40! Because I'm so short my ideal body weight is about 110 lbs, so that's only 45 more pounds to go. But I'll be happy anywhere under 125, honestly (but not under 100!!) If I can weigh less than my best friend (yeah, that's you Melanie), then I will jump for joy. If I can weigh less than my hubby, then I will kiss the ground. :-D

Ok, I have a test in school tomorrow that I'm slacking off studying for, so I'd better get back to it. If you guys are still reading my blog, please comment so I know you haven't forgotten about me!!!!

Standing Up

I had I won a Flip video camera last December and left it brand new in the box the entire year. After yesterday's super blurry video taken by my cell phone, I decided to get it out of the box. I have a really nice video camera that my mom gave to me, but at the moment I'm not sure where the battery charger is...gotta find that. In the mean time, now I have a really small, simple video camera that I can hold in one hand and has no extra pieces to lose.

Anyway, I wanted to see if I could catch a video of Tzipora getting herself up to a stand, and I did! Enjoy.

Tzipora Cruising!

Tzipora will be turning one in less than a week, and she *just* figured out how to pull herself to a stand. This is the second time I've seen her do it, and right after she stood up her toy scootched forward, and she just went with it. She'll be walking before I know it. YIKES!

Pictures and Stuff

First, the stuff. Tzipora waved at me for the first time today!! It was super cute. I waved at her and she waved back. I don't think the twins were doing it until well past their first birthday, so she's far ahead of them.

Dovid knows his left from his right. Twice now he's been holding one of my hands and then asked for the other one. For example I try to hold him with my right hand and he goes "no, I want to hold your left hand!" It's super adorable and shocking that he knows this kind of thing already.

My sister and brother-in-law came for a visit this weekend, so of course a ton of pictures were taken. Here are two slideshows of pictures taken by them. The eighth picture in the second slideshow is one of Dovid that looks like it could've been a picture of Shmuel taken as a little boy. In fact, I have a picture of Shmuel that looks almost exactly like it! It's a bit creepy... Enjoy!

Crawling!

Slowly but surely Tzipora is learning to crawl forwards. She's been able to scootch backwards for a while now, but since she could get around pretty well that way she never really tried forward much. Just in the past few weeks she's become super mobile. She learned how to sit up by herself, so now I'll find her sitting in her crib after a nap. (Don't worry, I set the crib at its lowest.) She's also been trying to stand up, but she'll try from a sitting position and get herself into what looks like a "downward-facing dog" yoga pose. But just tonight I saw a real forward crawl - the way you picture babies crawling. The pediatrician was right! She said Tzipora would figure it out within a month to six weeks and she did! Yay!! She's getting to be such a big girl.

T-Mobile...Not The Cell Phone Company

That's my husband's joke, actually. He likes to refer to Tzipora as "T-Mobile" when she's moving around. And she's been doing a lot of that lately! No, she can't really crawl yet, but she scootches in circles on her tummy, and sometimes she'll even scootch backwards a little bit. I remember that Dovid scootched backwards on his tummy before he started going forwards, so I know it's just another step in the right direction. She also has begun to launch herself out of her Bumbo seat. I had her on the floor in her Bumbo earlier today and she had nearly turned herself around trying to reach something that was also on the floor...until she actually tumbled out of the seat onto her stomach. It looked perfectly orchestrated, she didn't hurt herself at all (she literally went right onto her tummy from the seat), and she was only moderately surprised that she found herself on the floor all of a sudden. It was really funny, although now I have to keep a *very* good watch on her in that seat, even when it's on the floor.

During this Bumbo seat mishap, I also noticed that she's getting the idea of object permanence, since she was looking to retrieve something that had fallen behind her.

Tzipora has also been making some Baby-Led Weaning progress. She's definitely eating some solids, as noted by her new poo consistency which always has little bits of whatever she's eaten in them, and she's getting loads better at putting food from the tray into her mouth...even if it means bending her head all the way to the tray and shoveling it in. lol I just need to think of some more good soft foods for her to try, since she still doesn't have any teeth. Some of the ones we've tried are cooked carrots, sweet potato and spaghetti squash. Any ideas for me?

As for the twins, their newest milestone is sitting at the table for meals. They're still in their booster seats, but instead of eating off of their tray they now sit right up at the table and have plates! They did really well on their first try of this, and I am so proud of them. They really are growing up!

Happy Blogoversary to Me!

I almost forgot my own Blogoversary!! Yipe! I can't believe I've been blogging for 3 years...it's just unreal. My whole life has changed so drastically since that first post. I began posting as an infertile woman who didn't know if she'd ever get pregnant period, and now here I am a mother of three - one of whom was actually conceived naturally!! I've seen so many miracles since I began blogging, and I feel so fortunate to have the amazing family I've been blessed with.

Speaking of family...how about a few updates?

Tzipora has started baby-led weaning and is doing great! She's getting the hang of it much quicker than the twins did. She's had carrot and sweet potato...even some asparagus, although I don't know if she's actually swallowed any of that. She can now pick up carrots, bite off a little piece and swallow it. She doesn't do it all the time, but I've seen it happen.

I've been trying to have Tzipora practice sitting more, but she's not so good at it. She more just flops over. She'll sit fine in the Bumbo or if I prop her against the couch, but with no support she just goes "wheeeee!"

Chana and Dovid are cute as ever. They talk in full sentences, sing songs, love having us read books, and can't get enough bubbles. They also enjoy playing with water - provided it's nowhere near a bathtub.

We were supposed to have a new live-in helper come last week, but unfortunately she's sick in the hospital and we aren't sure when (if?) she'll be joining us. I'm super sad about it because she's such a sweetheart, and it pains me that she's been hospitalized for so long. We're all praying that she gets better really soon so she can get out of the hospital and, of course, come live with us.

I have just one more week of summer school and then I get a month break until nursing school starts. I'm really, really excited about it!!

How are things with all of you out there in bloggy-land? I've had a few of my fellow bloggers post BFPs and such relatively recently, so I know there are some of you out there with good news... I'd love to hear more good news in comments!

Cutest Baby Ever

I finally figured out the reason Tzipora had been activating the pull cord on her bouncy seat with her feet rather than her hands. (You'll see what I mean in the pictures below...it's a ring attached to a lion that plays music when you pull the ring.) Anyway, this is something Dovid had figured out - to use his hands to pull the cord - when he was like 4 months old, and I realized that Tzipora just couldn't reach because the bar had been bent out of shape a bit. I knew that the cords looked really far away, but I hadn't realized that the bar was bent out of shape and could be moved back. So I bent it back, and BOY WAS SHE HAPPY ABOUT IT!! :-) Now she can reach with her hands, which she did immediately. You can see below that I have the cutest baby in the whole world...and I'm not biased one bit. (Click on each picture for a larger version)

Rolling Over

Guess who rolled over from back to front for the first time today... Yup,it's Tzipora! She did it twice...both times when I was out of the room. Hopefully she won't start sleeping on her belly now...

Cuteness of the Day

First of all, Tzipora rolled over two more times over Shabbos, so now we know that her first time wasn't a fluke. :-) She's getting much better at tummy time, and doesn't cry as much as she used to.

Now for the super cuteness. Dovid is getting so much better at speaking and even uses full sentences. But who knew that he was bi-lingual!? He sneezed this evening and afterwards said "gesuntheit" without prompting. LOL I always say "gesuntheit" instead of bless you, so it's not like he's never heard the phrase before...I just never realized he had learned it. Yay Dovid!

The twins have their next Early Intervention assessment on Thursday, and I don't know if they're going to qualify for another six months. They've made such amazing progress in everything! I'll make sure to let you know.

Now, for the *real* news. If you've read this far, you get a nice "surprise." Now get your minds out of the pregnancy sphere...I am *not* pregnant...not even a little bit. But I am OFFICIALLY ACCEPTED INTO NURSING SCHOOL!!! Yay! :-D

She Did It!

My little baby rolled over during tummy time on Shabbos! I had put her on her stomach and stood there. Within a few minutes, she had flipped herself over. When I put her back on her stomach, she didn't repeat the feat, but at least now I know she can do it. What a big girl! And she's also getting much better at holding her head up during tummy time.

As for her weight gain, I've been weighing her before and after feeds, and so far she's averaging about 2 oz per feed (excluding the first two feeds of the day which are much larger). Today she took about 21.5 oz total! So that's pretty good. She also seems to be gaining. At the doctor's office on Thursday she was 10lbs 6oz and today she's about 10lbs 9oz. So that's fantastic, and exactly what we were hoping for. I'm planning to start a medication to boost my milk supply and to drink lots of Milk Maid Tea, and hopefully that will make me nice and full so she can get bigger feeds. Yay!

Lots of Ramblings

So many things going through my head at once! Here's everything that's going on in no particular order:

• Chana is starting to talk in full sentences, and it is SO cute!
• Tzipora is smiling a lot more often now, and it's adorable.
• She's also sucking on her fingers just the way I used to as a child. Here's picture proof:


• I just started taping the TV shows I watch using my DVD recorder rather than my VHS, and I LOOOVE it! I blip through commercials super fast and I don't need to rewind. I can even choose if I want to watch Days or Biggest Loser first without rewinding/fast forwarding.
• Dovid fell the other day and got a cut on his chin. Poor dude! We took him to the ER and they used glue on it, but the glue came off within 12 hours. Oh well! At least the cut is healing ok on its own.
• One of my best friends just found out that she's expecting after nearly a decade of unsuccessful trying. I've been dancing around with a grin on my face all day since I found out. Please say a little prayer for her that this is a sticky baby (or babies)!!!!!
• Passover is coming. YIKES! Thank G-d for my mother-in-law who is basically cleaning the house for it.
• I'm really looking forward to having my sister-in-law come to visit starting next week. I hope she decides to stay for a really long visit. :-)
• My Atkins dieting has been going ok, but I'm still not really losing weight particularly quickly. I'll lose a pound, then gain back half a pound...rinse and repeat. It's kind of frustrating that I'm giving up all of my yummy carbs and not seeing the scale encourage me to keep going. *sigh*
• As of tomorrow, I will have breastfed Tzipora for as long as I breastfed the twins...and we're still going strong!

That's all for now! :-)

Baby Smiles

Tzipora smiled at me on Friday!! A real one, too...not one of these fake infant smiles that are just reflexes. It was the cutest thing, but she hasn't really repeated herself. There are a few times I think she's about to smile, but then she decides not to. lol She's also making more noises. No cooing, per se, but she squeaks, and it's super adorable. We have her two month checkup tomorrow, and she'll probably be getting her immunizations. :-( Poor baby!

The twins are as cute as ever. Chana is chatting up a storm on anything that could possibly be imagined as a phone (everything from a slice of orange to a hairbrush). Both twins are now using both their own names and each others names and it is SOOOO adorable. I love it when Dovid points to Chana and says "Chana" and then points to himself and says "Dovid". Then he points to me and says "Mommy", then points to Shmuel and says "Daddy". I am just so proud of them and the amount of language they now know.

I can't believe that the twins are going to be two in just under two weeks. How time has flown!!! They are getting so big...more like children than babies. And both of them were born to be a big brother and big sister. I bought a baby doll that I'm expecting in the mail on Wednesday, and I can't wait to see how they're going to react to having their own "baby" to play with. I'd better get the video camera all charged up now!

New Skills!

Yesterday Dovid said his name (and Chana's name) for the first time!!! It was so exciting to hear him call himself by name. And then he called Chana by name, too. He was pointing to everyone in the room and saying their name. SO SUPER AWESOME!!! (Sorry Uncle Ron, yours is no longer the only name he says.) :-)

Edited to add: Chana just started singing along with her LeapFrog My Pal Violet. It's adorable!!! She doesn't really know the words so well, but she's trying and it's the cutest thing ever. And she even said her name while singing along.

Tzipora gave me her first "real" smile today. It was a short smile, but a smile nonetheless. And it wasn't gas, either. She was on the changing table and looking up at me. I smiled at her and she smiled back. Yay!!! She's a happy baby!

Getting So Old

No, I'm not getting old...my little baby is! Tzipora is already over a month old. Time has just flown by since she was born, and I can hardly believe that she's already 5 weeks old. Here are some finer points about my little one.

• She has slept 6+ hours at night several times already, and she sleeps best when she's swaddled completely.
• She eats every 2-3 hours during the day. (That's from the end of one feeding to the beginning of the next.)
• She doesn't mind taking her baby multivitamin liquid. In fact, I think she might even like the way it tastes!
• She doesn't mind tummy time and even went 15 minutes straight yesterday. (Although I think she was trying to nap during some of that time, but I kept poking her to wake her up.)
• She's awake more during the day (alert, not crying or eating).
• She REALLY likes to eat and is a fantastic nurser.
• She spits up a lot (especially on Daddy). It makes me sad to see all of that delicious, nutritious breast milk go to waste. *sigh*
• Her GI system seems to be slowing down a bit. (She doesn't have a poo in every single diaper, and this is completely normal and expected for her age.)
• She absolutely loves her swing and her vibrating bouncy seat, and she also loves to be held.
• She doesn't mind being ogled by her big sister and brother, provided they don't poke her eyes out or stop her swing from swinging.
• She has definitely gained weight and grown in length. I'm considering figuring out a way to plop her on my postage scale to see exactly how much she weighs.
• She has more chins than a Chinese phone book. hehe
• Her eyes are a dark blue, and I really hope they stay that way.
• Everyone says she looks like me, except she has my mom's nose. Sometimes she'll give me a look that reminds me of Chana as an infant.

That's all I can think of for now. I'll try to take more pictures so that you can see how big she's getting and post more often than twice a month. :-)

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!!! :-)