Nadia's Wish List

I want to work on Nadia's wish list since her birthday will soon be only one month away. She's pretty well set in terms of clothing with the exception that she could use a few more pairs of summer pjs. I am looking for ideas in terms of toys for ages 12-18 months old (since she'll turn 18 months old on Christas Eve). The ideas I have had thus far are a Little People Animal Sounds Farm and a play kitchen. Anyone have a specific play kitchen that you would recommend? I haven't done any research on them. Any other ideas of toys she might like? Of course I realize that it doesn't take much at all to amuse a little one. We learned that in Antigua. I didn't pack too many toys (just a few very small ones), but we got creative and washed out empty yogurt containers, water bottles, and such like that while we were there. She had a lot of fun with these "toys."

I know that there is a wide variation in hCG levels in part because there is a variation as to when implantation occurs. The nurse said to me today that I should be comparing today's hCG level to my first one in 2007 (which was 187) not my 2nd one which I was comparing yesterday's to (395). However the first one last time was at 11dp6dt which was 2 days sooner. The nurse said to me that my result today was "very high" and later said it was a number more typical of multiples. However, Jo's experience shows it's possible to have a number that sounds like more than one and really only have one. I need to keep reminding myself that God is in control, and whatever number of hearts we see on the u/s is His best for us (whether that's one, two, or three). I don't want to be disappointed if we only see one or terrified if we see three. I am hoping for twins, but I will be thrilled to just have one more baby.


I can see that my days of eating chocolate are coming to a temporary end again in the very near future. I've had nausea off and on the past several days but not any heartburn except after eating chocolate. I made brownies today, but I don't think I'll be making any for quite a few more months. I am trying to decide if I am going to give up my light yogurts again or not. I did last time because of the artificial sweeteners. Anyone have any opinion on this? I don't drink diet sodas (or any soda for that matter) so usually the only time I injest artificial sweeteners are when I chew gum or eat a yogurt. Last time I took it REALLY easy during the first trimester in terms of how much walking I did, stairs I climbed, how much I lifted, etc. and then I took it easy again during the placenta previa time period. I haven't been taking it easy thus far although I let Paul mow the lawn. I am lifting a 20 lb girl many times a day as one example. Any thoughts on this???


It has been hard to come back to chilly temps. Thankfully it's supposed to get a lot warmer in the next couple of days. The temps in Antigua were GORGEOUS! The lows were about 75 degrees each day, and the highs were about 83 degrees each day. Tuesday was the only day we had significant rain. The other days it would just sprinkle for a few minutes maybe once or twice a day. In terms of wildlife, it was very surprising not to see large iguanas and such. We only saw very tiny ones. We did see many pelicans, cattle egret, sea gulls, mongoose, etc.

Let me identify the pictures in this post. The first photo shows that Nadia fell asleep on her Pop Pop's shoulders while he was walking her around the resort one afternoon.


The second photo was taken at Nelson's Dockyard.


The third is of one of the swimming pools at our resort. Nadia loved the fountains as she could stand or sit on the pedestals (the water was only a couple of inches deep on top of them).


The fourth is of Nadia walking around Pop Pop's beach chair. That girl loves to walk! The most steps we saw her take in our suite (without holding on to anything) was eight. If it's a short distance between two objects she can hold onto while standing, she typically walks the distance between them these days. She only crawls when she'd have to walk a long way without holding on to anything. She also managed to climb up onto the beach chair by herself one time. She also loves to climb!


The fifth one Paul took early one morning when he was taking Nadia for a walk on the beach at our resort.

The sixth one shows several pelicans on an island (photo taken on our boat tour on Friday).


The seventh one was also taken on our trip on Friday.

I'll be dropping Nadia off at Sarah's at 3:30 this afternoon on my way to school. I have office hours and then teach from 5:00-8:00pm. I'll get home about 8:45pm. Paul will pick Nadia up at Sarah's at 5:30 on his way home from school. She's going to Sarah's on Tuesdays, and Paul is coming home by 3:30 on Thursdays.

P.S. For singleton pregnancies, at 19 DPO (which I was yesterday), the average HCG level is 303 mIU/ml, with a typical range of 111-514 mIU/ml. So you can see that although there is no guarantee I'll have more than one baby, it does seem rather likely. :-) I also realize my number might not be doubled tomorrow as the higher the numbers go, the longer it takes for them to double.
For HCG levels <1200 mIU/ml, the expected doubling time is 48-72 hours.
For HCG levels 1200 to 6000 mIU/ml, the expected doubling time is 72-96 hours.
For HCG levels >6000 mIU/ml, the expected doubling time is >96 hours.

Beta Results!

My hCG today was 1,033 compared to 395 on this day with Nadia. I think those of you who selected twins on the poll were correct! I'll have another Beta on Wednesday and then my first ultrasound next week. Paul is in shock. I am thrilled. I always wanted to have at least 3 children, and for awhile there I began to lose hope I'd ever have any. Then I thought Nadia might be our one and only. I am so excited to think we might have 3 children after all although our hands will be full to have 3 under the age of 18 months! I can't wait for the ultrasound next week when we will find out for sure if I'm carrying one, two, or three babies. I am definitely pregnant! PTL!!! YAHOO! :-) Here are the hpt pics. I didn't do one today, and I don't plan to use the last three.

Vacation in Review

I haven't gone through all the photos yet. I will keep posting some of the best ones over the next few days. I have deleted a few, but I still have about 150 to go through - some taken with the underwater camera and some with my regular camera.

May 8 - We left our house at about 6:50pm, but at about 7:15 Paul remembered we had forgotten to bring the pack n' play with us which Nadia was going to sleep in that night at Paul's parents. So we drove back home and therefore arrived at Paul's parents an hour later than we had planned to arrive. I went straight to bed as I knew we'd be getting up very early the next morning. Unfortunately it took awhile to get Nadia back to sleep and then she woke up at midnight and 3:30am. Since she was sleeping in the same room we were, we didn't opt to let her cry. So we didn't get much sleep that night. We had planned to get up at 4am, but since Nadia got up at 3:30 - so did Paul & I.

May 9 -We pulled out of their driveway at 4:15am. We somehow managed to get 4 suitcases into the trunk of my Corolla. We arrived at Newark airport at 6:30am and parked in the economy lot (which is still rather expensive - $15 a day!). After taking the shuttle to the terminal, we checked in and went through security and then had breakfast. Our flight landed in Antigua a little early as we had tailwinds on our way down. The process of going through customs and immigration was TERRIBLE. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes! Usually when we land on an island in the Caribbean we are in the taxi headed to the hotel in less than 30 minutes (sometimes less than 15). After we checked into the resort, we headed to the pool. Nadia loved it! After that we went to a large grocery store which was about a 5 minute walk from our resort. We bought prepared food for dinner (they sold subs, pizza, burgers, roti, fried chicken, etc.) as well as groceries for snacks and breakfast for the week (soda, milk, OJ, cereal, bagels, yogurt, etc.). Every day we ate breakfast and lunch in our suite and went out for dinner.

Our suite was really nice. It had a fully stocked kitchen (blender, microwave, toaster oven, oven, refrigerator, dishes, utensils, waffle maker, etc.), living room, patio, laundry room, two full bathrooms, and two bedrooms. We put the crib in the laundry room so that became Nadia's bedroom (and we also did a few loads of laundry there as well). Our only complaint with the suite was that there were many mosquitoes that bit Paul & I in there. Paul's parents didn't get many bites, and Nadia thankfully only had 3 (all on one hand). Paul is allergic so his bites looked worse than mine although I still had many bites especially on my legs.

May 10 - We stayed at the resort all day. We spent some time at the beach in the morning (after Nadia's first nap) and in the pool in the afternoon (after her second nap). We ate at the Castaway's beach bar for dinner which was just a couple minute walk from our suite. I was pretty wiped out this whole day as Nadia didn't sleep well the first night we were in Antigua. She didn't get to sleep until 8:30 (very late for her) and then she woke up at 4:30 (very early). I definitely was aware of the fact that I was a mother on this Mother's Day as I would never get up at 4:30am on vacation otherwise!!! The latest she slept in was 6am (May 11). From May 12-16 she woke up every day between 5:05-5:35. We got into a routine that I would get up with her and feed her and play with her for about one hour, and then I'd go back to bed and Paul would take her for a walk outside in her stroller and play with her until it was time for me to put her down for her first nap.

May 11 - After Nadia's first nap we took the public bus into St. Johns (the capital). It only cost a little more than $1 per person. We toured a cathedral (see photo at left) and a museum on the history of Antigua & Barbuda, did some shopping, and had lunch before heading back. Nadia slept in her stroller while we ate lunch.


May 12 - We had planned to stay at the resort this day, but due to the heavy rains, we decided to rearrange our schedule and head to Nelson's Dockyard instead. This proved to be a wise decision. We were going to take the taxi there until we found out it was $40 one way. So we took the bus back to St. Johns and then took another bus to the dockyard. After touring the dockyard, Paul & his dad walked to a nearby fort. Then we all took a taxi up to Shirley Heights. We were planning to take the buses back, but at that point we decided to "splurge" and take the taxi back instead. We had dinner at Castaway's after spending some time in the pool.


May 13 - We spent the day at the resort and had dinner at the Dogwatch Restaurant on a dock about 5 minutes from our resort to celebrate Paul's parents 42nd anniversary. :-)


May 14 - Paul & I were supposed to go on a day trip to Barbuda, but they called us the night before to say the trip was cancelled. We all spent the day at the resort and had dinner at a steakhouse about a 5 minute walk from our resort. This was our favorite meal. Paul and his mom had steak, and Paul's dad had swordfish. Paul's mom and I took home doggy bags as the portions were huge.


May 15 - Paul & I went on an Eco Tour that made a few stops - some involved hiking and others snorkeling. I have to say the water at Antigua isn't nearly as clear as all the other islands we've been to (although it's still much clearer than say in New Jersey!). The snorkeling wasn't that great either. It was a nice vacation, but it definitely wasn't our favorite island. Our three favorites so far have been St. Lucia (we want to go back some day), the British Virgin Islands (we did Tortola and Virgin Gorda), and St. Kitts. Our other favorite Caribbean location is Mexico where we also want to return some day (not right now though with the swine flu!). The underwater camera works very well though so I look forward to using it again some day! It was great to spend the day with my hubby although we often would be talking about what we thought Nadia was probably doing at that particular time. We picked up dinner at the grocery store (Epicurean) before heading back to the suite and were very pleased to hear that Nadia had been a very good little girl for her grandparents - even took 3 naps for them! One other thing we really enjoyed at the grocery store was the bakery. The croissants and cookies and other pastries were very inexpensive and very tasty. The strawberry shortcake cookies were one of my favorites. :-) We played our 3rd game of Pinochle after Nadia went to bed, and it was the first one Paul & I won that week.



May 16 - We had planned to take one more trip to the pool or beach in the morning, but we ended up just spending the time in our suite before heading to lunch at 11am and the reception area at noon where we were to meet the taxi taking us back to the airport ($24 - much more reasonable). The airport was again a rather zany place in terms of checking in. They opened EVERY suitcase and went through things very carefully by hand, but eventually we made it to our gate. Unfortunately we sat in the plane on the runway for well over an hour and we had headwinds so I was very tired by the time we landed in Newark as Nadia spent most of the 6 hours squirming in my lap. After going through immigration and customs, Paul gave me my shot and then we took the shuttle back to our car. The driving conditions were NOT good (heavy rain much of the way and dense fog at other times) so it took longer to get home. We first dropped Paul's parents off at their home, and then we finally arrived at our home about 2am. Thankfully Nadia didn't wake up until 6:45 am although that still felt very early as I had only slept 4 1/2 hours! She made up for some of her lost sleep last night as she fell asleep in my arms at 5:30pm and didn't wake up until 6:25am. She slept 13 hours!! Usually the longest she'll sleep is 11 hours. I feel much better today. Yesterday I was exhausted and lightheaded most of the day. Overall, it was a great trip!

Mother's Day Blessings

I didn't go on the computer at all on Saturday or Sunday (Mother's Day) so I am doing a belated Mother's Day post in the form of a list of some of my favorite moments as a mom as well as a few other things I'm grateful for that have nothing to do with motherhood. :-) I am thankful...

1. For my mom - as we were growing up, we children were a very, very high priority in her life. She drove us to and from school, listened while we practiced our instruments, etc. We are still a very high priority in her life. Now that I have a cell phone (same company as her) we talk rather frequently on the phone which I enjoy. Whenever I have a concert or do special music, I miss seeing her in the congregation when she's not able to come (she still comes when possible). I am thankful that she and my dad will be celebrating their 40th anniversary this year.

2. For Paul's mom - I knew it was quite an honor when Paul told me (when dating) that I was one of his four favorite women. I knew the other 3 were his mom, Nan (mom's mom), and Aunt Debbie (mom's sister). Grandma loves our little Nadia very much which of course means a lot to me! They celebrated their 42nd anniversary this past Wednesday while we were in Antigua.

3. For Nadia - I had my first Mother's Day with a baby in my arms last Sunday!!!

4. That we were able to go to Antigua - It was great to spend a week in the Caribbean with Nadia, Paul, and Paul's parents.

5. For the little one (or ones) growing inside me!! It was the best Mother's Day gift possible to get a BFP the day after. I have done one hpt the past 7 days, but I think today will be the last as I don't think the test line can get any darker. I have 3 hpts left, but maybe I'll give them to whomever I give my unopened vial of Follistim (anyone know someone who would have to pay for it themselves and could use it?). Yes, Lucia it's finally sinking in that I am pregnant, LOL! Since we ttc for 5 1/2 years before we found out Nadia was growing in my womb, I think I am in shock that it happened so quickly this time around. Of course we did go straight to ivf which we didn't try until we'd ttc over 5 years the first time around. I am so very thankful. I was told my odds were 25% since I am 37 years old, but it seems we've been given at least one more miracle. YAY!!!

6. For my hubby - I am very proud of how well he's done in his doctoral program at PSU this year. In the fall semester he had a 4.0. He didn't get a 4.0 this semester, but his lowest grade was an A- which I still think is impressive considering he has taken really hard classes like Quantum Mechanics 2. In all his years as a student (from bachelor's to the present) the lowest grade he's gotten in a chemistry class is an A-. Way to go, Paul!

7. For my brother's recent accomplishment (see photo) - Yesterday Maurice graduated from Capital Bible Seminary (in MD) with a graduate degree (Master of Divinity). He is going to candidate school with a mission board in Philadelphia next month and hopes to serve as a counselor (what his degree was in) in Ireland. We'd like to go visit him some day over there as we haven't been to Ireland yet. :-)

8. For my newest niece - Rachel will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. Most of the photos in this post are of her. I can't wait to meet her and also meet my nephew (Nathan) who will be 6 months old next Sunday. I should meet him in late July.

9. For the wonderful feeling of Nadia sleeping in my arms or on my shoulder and for the other moments when she cuddles with me such as when I rock her before her naps and bedtime.

10. That I'm Nadia's very favorite person. Of course I want her to love her Daddy, grandparents, etc very much, but it is a wonderful feeling to be viewed as the most special person in her life. :-)

11. That I was able to nurse Nadia for 7 months. What a wonderful experience (not at first but eventually it was!)...

12. For Nadia's smiles and laughter - they are priceless!!!

13. For the joy we experience watching Nadia learn and grow.

14. For the 3 weeks I've had off of work. I start teaching again this week (Tuesday night).

15. That the Lord was in control of how many embryos we needed. I have been praying for months about that. I kept praying that we wouldn't do ivf and end up with zero children, and I also had been praying that we wouldn't have triplets plus have a lot of frozen embryos. I was sad when I found out we didn't have any others that made it to blastocyst by day 6, but now I realize the Lord knew we didn't need any frozen ones this time because He enabled us to get a BFP from the fresh transfer. I am very glad we don't need to think about things like giving up a frozen embryo through adoption. Whew... I am dying of curiosity though as to how many little ones have implanted and are still growing!! With my first pgcy my first u/s was at 5w0d (which I'll be on Wednesday), but my 2nd (Nadia) it wasn't until my 6th week (can't remember exactly which day). Hopefully my first u/s will be next week. That also will mean the end of shots for me although of course I am very glad to continue them as long as our baby or babies need them!!

16. For the date Paul and I had on Friday (almost 8 hours long!). Although it wasn't the type of setting where we had much time for private conversation (we were on a boat with about 25 other people), it was great to have all that time for just the two of us. :-)

Simultaneous

Well today the test line wasn't any darker than yesterday, BUT it showed up at the same time the control line did for the first time. The first 3 days the control line popped up first and it took awhile for the 2nd line to show up. On Monday it felt like many minutes passed. I think time was moving super slowly though. It was probably just 1 minute, but I thought for sure that day I was looking at a BFN. I am hoping tomorrow the test line might be darker than the control line. We shall see. At least there are still 2 lines!

Yesterday afternoon Nadia tasted sand again, and that time didn't like it. GOOD! She likes digging around in it with her hands. Today she only licked a toy that had sand on it once so she ingested less sand than she did yesterday which pleased Paul. Unfortunately our tour for today was cancelled so we won't be seeing Barbuda - famous for pink sand beaches and the Frigate bird sanctuary. Hopefully tomorrow's tour won't be cancelled - a snorkeling trip for Paul & I as we haven't gone snorkeling yet and that's usually my favorite thing to do in the Caribbean. So hopefully tomorrow will be our first date in 11 months. When we get back we need to start paying a babysitter to watch her maybe one night a month so we can go have dinner together or something like that. Of course we love being with our peanut, but dinners are rather rushed when you're trying to consume your meal before your baby gets fussy!

One thing I haven't mentioned is that her 4th tooth broke through on Friday night, and her two top teeth (although they haven't fully descended) are very visible now when she opens her cute little mouth.

Speaking of "peanut," Paul says we can't call the next baby by that nickname. I used that term during the pgcy until we learned her gender. He thinks of Nadia as the peanut. I asked what should we call this baby, and he suggested jellybean. I guess that will work just fine. :-) I can't wait until we have the Beta and the ultrasounds. Even the darker hpts don't take away my worries. It does help me pray a lot though! :-)

Someone mentioned not understanding all the abbreviations which is totally understandable - I assume all readers who haven't struggled with infertility might not get them so I'll define a few.

hpt = home pregnancy test
bfn = negative hpt (one line) - stands for Big Fat Negative
bfp = positive hpt (two lines)
Beta = blood test to determine hCG level
hCG = pregnancy hormone (human chironic gonadatropin)
10dp5dt = what I am today which is 10 days past 5 day (embryo) transfer

15dpo = another way of saying where I am today - usually used in reference to all cycles except ivf (days past ovulation) since you actually don't ovulate with ivf (they retrieve the eggs just before they'd pop out of the follicles on their own as they'd be impossible to retrieve after they've popped out)

Hope that helps!

Sand is Yummy!

The hpt was still very positive today, and it is much darker. In fact the test line is almost as dark as the control line. I don't think it will take until Sunday for the test line to pop up first and be darker than the control line (it took until 18dpo when my hCG was about 300 to do that last time). I am 14dpo, and the line today is much darker than at 14dpo with Nadia. So either this blastocyst implanted earlier than Nadia or more than one implanted. :-) I see many of you are voting for twins. That sounds awesome to me as I always wanted at least 3 children, but I think Paul will need smelling salts if we have 3 under the age of 2, LOL.

Today Paul was really grossed out because Nadia was licking the bottom of her sandy shoes at the beach. We assumed that if she tasted sand she wouldn't like it and would stop eating it. Wrong! She thinks sand is yummy. Paul was having a cow, but the other three adults (myself included) just smiled. It's not like we were letting her dump handfulls into her mouth. She loves swimming in the pool and the Caribbean in our arms or in her little "boat" as we call it (floating device that has a canopy).

Paul and I are going on our first date tomorrow since Nadia was born (and she's almost 11 months old). Paul's parents will watch her while we go on a day trip to Barbuda (neighboring island). I'm sure we'll miss her, but it will be great to have some couple time. :-) I think Maurice might want to tag along as we're visiting the world's largest Frigate bird sanctuary on Barbuda (my brother is a birder).

A little darker

There were still 2 lines on the hpt this morning. You can only guess how many times a day I have held the hpts in my hand and stared at the 2 glorious lines. I just looked online at the photos from 11-07, and today's looks very comparable to the one at 8dp6dt that time (which would be the same as tomorrow in terms of days past retrieval). I see that when the line got MUCH darker (as in darker than the control line) was 18dpo last time. That's what I'll be on Sunday. So that helps me keep my expectations in check so I won't be disappointed if it's not super dark on say Thursday. My heartburn went away. I just had it 2 days. I would say my only "symptoms" lately have been that I am more prone to nausea especially in a car or bus AND that I am very, very hungry in the mornings. Also I notice that if I don't eat when I get hungry, I progress to feeling nauseous sooner than usual. I am expecting the heartburn to reappear and stick around, but I would LOVE to be wrong and not have it the whole 8 months this time around (well actually 7 months last time since Nadia came about 1 month early). I am still just SOOOO glad that I am pregnant. I am of course anxious for the Betas and also the ultrasound so we know how many babies are growing in there. I will say I am praying about 100 times a day (at least) these days. I have been "praying without ceasing" - that the baby or babies would keep growing and hang on tight!! Well I'd write more, but the mosquitoes are eating me alive out here where they have the computers (it's free at least which is nice). So I'd like to know who are the two people who guessed the poll correctly (BFP on Monday)???? Just curious... :-) I'm starting a new poll regarding how many babies you think we're expecting...

TWO LINES!!!

I'll write more later about our trip, but I had to come over to the internet cafe here at the resort to post the VERY happy news that I saw TWO lines on the hpt this morning! PTL!!!!!!!! YAHOOO!!!!!!!!! At first only the one came up and I was trying to tell myself it could be too early (7dp5dt) and not to get upset yet, but then the second line popped up! It's not very dark, but it's DEFINITELY there. With my pgcy with Nadia I had a BFN at 5dp6dt and didn't test again until 8dp6dt so this is earlier than last time. I have to wait an entire week for the Beta, but I brought enough hpts with me so I can test once a day until we leave. Hoping the line is darker by the end of the week! I am sooooooooooo thankful!!! Please keep our baby or babies in your prayers. My due date is January 20, 2010 in case you were wondering, LOL. :-) Nadia is going to be a big sister!!!!!!!! I told Paul right after I tested (5am) and told Paul's mom when I saw her at 6am and told Paul's dad closer to 8am. So they were the only ones to find out in person, and although I'd rather call my mom to tell her, I sent her an email before writing this post. Thanks for ALL your prayers up until this point, and please keep praying. As one who has had a miscarriage before I know not to take anything for granted! Praying for another super sticky BFP!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!

Antigua here we come!!!

Last night we drove to Paul's parents after Nadia's bedtime, and very early this morning got in the car and drove to the Newark airport (near NYC for those of you not from around this area). Our flight is scheduled to depart at 9:15am and arrive in Antigua a little before 2pm.

These are the last of the photos from our latest Sears photoshoot. I only ordered some of the ones I shared on Thursday, but I still think some of the ones I posted yesterday and today turned out pretty good. She's our cutie pie!!! Hopefully we'll get lots of good pics in Antigua!

Feel free to vote in the poll (top right corner). To answer Regina's ?, I'll contiue the PIO shots until 17dpo. I won't take it on Sunday night (18dpo) if it's still negative because my Beta is early on 19dpo. That's what I did with the BFN fresh cycle in 2007 (although I had the Beta at 14dpo not 19dpo). I've never had a different result from a Beta than what I got with a FRER (even got a BFP with a FRER with an hcg of 11.6 in 2005).

I became a mom in 2005, but last year was the first time I felt like celebrating Mother's Day, and many people consider this to be my first Mother's Day since it's the first one I have a child in my arms! My sister-in-law sent me a really nice Mother's Day card a few days ago that I plan to keep for years to come. Today I am 10dpo. I am hoping for the best belated Mother's day gift possible - two lines on a hpt! If that doesn't happen, it's still a great Mother's Day because I get to spend it with my daughter and hubby in the Caribbean! Paul's parents' anniversary is next week while we're away so they get to celebrate two events (Mother's Day and their 42nd anniversary) in Antigua!! Hope the 5 of us have a wonderful time!!

Right or Left?

It's interesting to see which hand Nadia uses more frequently for different activities. When she turns off the light switch (something she now does with 100% accuracy), she always uses her right hand (usually her index finger). However when she's feeding herself (she now favors Kix over Cheerios), she uses both hands but tends to favor her left hand.

I've been trying really hard not to obsess over perceived "symptoms", but yesterday I will say I had heartburn most of the day, and it's returned again this morning. The first time I ever had heartburn was during my pgcy with Nadia. It started during the 4th week (which I'll hit in 5 days) and continued even through labor. I kept telling myself yesterday that it's probably from the PIO shots. If I get a BFN of course it will be hard emotionally especially considering unlike last time, we don't have any frozen embryos. What will make it easier to take will be the fact that I can go hug my sweet little girl. I am not trying to minimize the pain of those who have secondary infertility, but I think a BFN is harder when your arms are empty. The second thing that will help is being on vacation. I hope it will help distract me if we get the bad news that we lost another set of triplets. Of course I'm hoping and praying for the best belated Mother's Day gift possible - a BFP!!!

Nadia has learned how to climb. This morning she almost got herself up into one of our kitchen chairs! I stopped her before she accomplished her goal. She had pushed one of her gyms over to the table, stood on the bottom part, got her knee up on the top part, and was holding onto the kitchen chair trying to get into the seat. Oh my goodness! We have to keep a close eye on this little girl who is definitely into exploring her world!

Paul felt his presentation went well yesterday. The last two nights put together he's had less than 6 hours of sleep. He's going to sleep well on the vacation I think! Today he's finishing writing a paper that is due next week, but since we'll be away he must submit today.

I weighed Nadia this morning, and with her clothes on she weighs a little over 20 lbs. She's a growing girl! Her 3rd tooth is quite visible now (more of it has descended), but although you can see the 4th tooth clearly through the gum, it hasn't broken through yet. I'm taking some infant Tylenol with us as I think it will break through while we're in Antigua.