I'm moving to Europe

I am so sick of Missouri's conservativeness!!!!  I guess I could at least move across the river, Illinois seems to have a little more sense.

A photo recap of October!

The second weekend of October, Chris and I headed off to Washington DC for Chris' friend, Belen's wedding.  We were excited to get a chance to have somewhat of a reunion with a lot of Chris' college friends while on the trip.  Also, it was our 5th wedding anniversary (October 8th), so vacationing was an excellent way to celebrate!

Strange reptile at the Smithsonian Zoo

My favorite -- an elephant shrew

The view from inside Amsterdam Falafel House in Adam's Morgan

My delicious falafel (they have an amazing toppings bar from which to pile onto your falafel and pita

The BEST fries!

Fancy pumpkin soup appetizer at the wedding

The newlyweds!

Friends chatting

The only seats in the house were overlooking the cake -- I wasn't complaining!

After our DC trip, it was time for "Melissapalooza" to quote my sister-in-law.  Little did I know how true this phrasing was!  I invited my close friends and family to join me in trying a new restaurant (new to me) called The Shaved Duck to celebrate my birthday on the actual day (October 15th).  Most people on my invite list showed up!  We had a wonderful time and DELICIOUS food!  More shocking than how large our party ended up being, was the amazing birthday present I received from Chris, my parents, and his parents:

They all pitched in together to buy me a Canon Rebel T1i.  It was so thoughtful, and waaaaaaaay more than I expected for my 30th birthday!  Chris made the point that we need an SLR camera for the impending babies!  Not to mention, it shoots HD video, which will be awesome for catching all of those baby firsts!  But, really, Chris got it for me so that I could enhance my blogging capabilities.  Unfortunately, I'm not off to such a great start, am I?  Things will slow down in November (as evidenced by the fact that I am posting this in November).  

My first pictures with my new camera (I unfortunately ran out of space on my SD card pretty quickly, and didn't get all the pictures I wanted):

Father and brother

My chili sampler (one came with a shot glass of milk because it was made from the ghost pepper!)

Chris' pulled chicken sandwich and gooey mac and cheese

My mother-in-law's duck flatbread

Tim and Faith get cute (as usual)

Jenn and the frisee showing off the new found depth perception

Jenn and Tim

BFF Katie M

Parents (not posing for the photo, as usual)

Trying out macro setting in low lighting

Somehow I missed out on getting photos of Katie K (who sent me BEAUTIFUL flowers to my work), my in-laws, and Jenn and Justin!

So, you might imagine my surprise, after so many of my friends and family showered me with love on the night of my birthday, when Chris led me to a surprise 30th in Tower Grove Park!  What a guy, right?!  He planned the whole thing himself!  It really was Melissapalooza!  Almost all of my lovely friends and family members were able to join us for a beautiful afternoon in the park with a wonderful picnic.  Thank you Becky, Katie, Ella, Josie D, Maureen, Steve, Jeff, Tyler, Jill, Howpa, Nancy, Bob, Peggy, J'aime, Matt, Josie J, August, Mom, Pop, David, Julie, Dave, Nate, Jenna, Micah, Jenn K, Justin, Tim L, Faith, Octavia, John, Atticus, Delphi, Bella, Jenn H, Tim H, Katie K, Paul, Chris, and Grandpa Schumann for coming to my party!  It meant so much!

The next day we went to Pere Marquette Lodge for brunch, which was delicious as usual.  Then, we attempted apple picking, but mostly trampled over fermented goo.

The next weekend, I headed to the Lake of the Ozarks with the Catty girls!  I will let you check out the Catty blog for more on that.  We had a blast!  And they were so sweet to celebrate my birthday . . . yet again!!  

I MUST go to bed now.  I need to keep up on this blog so that it doesn't take me an hour and a half to write one post!

Where do I begin?!

Wow, it has been entirely too long since I last posted.  Part of the problem is that October is probably the busiest month of the year for us, and this year even more so!!

First, an update on the A-Bies: I have had 2 ultrasounds since the last time I posted about them.  One was with the RE for a final check-in on their progress, and the second one was with the Ob!!  I finally graduated to the Ob.  See the following ultrasound pics for the most current update.  I have another ultrasound scheduled for this Thursday to check on Baby A.

I am going to split this post up, because there is just too much to recount from October!

Baby A is still lagging behind at 7weeks 6days, its sac just isn't growing quite right, but we still have hope, its heartbeat was 145!

Baby B is looking good and measuring almost right on schedule.  B's heart rate was 162bpm!! Nice and strong!

This is the ultrasound picture from my first Ob appointment.  There are definitely still concerns about Baby A, you can tell how developmentally behind it is (measuring 8 weeks 1 day).  Baby B "looks fantastic" according to the Ob and is measuring right on schedule at 9 weeks 0 days.  Both babies have good, strong heartbeats.

The exciting Part II . . .

So, as I said yesterday, last week's ultrasound showed an empty sac A and a yolk sac, fetal pole, and visible heartbeat in sac B . . .

Look what we have this week!!!!!!!

Baby A has appeared from nothing!! We now have what my parents call "The ABs (ay-bees)".

Baby A's heart rate was 121 as demonstrated here. B's was 127. They said normal is between 120 and 180, so they are on the low end of normal.

Baby B's solo debut!!

Baby A's solo debut!!

Both babies are measuring behind, but I think they are within the one week margin? We go back in for one LAST ultrasound next Tuesday. If everything looks okay, and the ABs are still growing, they will graduate me to the OB!

This is the best birthday present ever! I turn the big 3-0 this Friday, and was dreading it, but this makes it all better!

I'll be back soon with some more posts. I have a lot of photos in my camera of things that I meant to blog about, but October is the busiest month and I just haven't had time to unload the pictures!

And the results are in . . .

Sorry for the delay!  We had our ultrasound last Tuesday, and then left the next day for a wedding in Washington DC, so there was no time to scan and post photos!

Our ultrasound went pretty well.  Everything was in its right place, which was the main thing they were looking for at such an early ultrasound.  They actually found 2 sacs, as you can see from the photo!  BUT, A appeared to be empty.  B was there with a fetal pole, yolk sac, and a visible heartbeat.  However, it was too small to get a read on the heartbeat, so they scheduled another ultrasound for today (October 12th).

We also found out at that appointment that I have the Rh factor, which just means that I will have to get a Rhogam shot at 28 weeks, and after the birth if the baby/babies are Rh positive.

Baby B was measuring behind a bit, but we are hoping he/she will catch up!

Empty Sac A, and Baby B (it's hard to see that anything is in there on this ultrasound pic).

This is the picture showing the measurement of Baby B, you can barely see that anything is even there, because the measurement line is covering the fetal pole.

Exciting update to follow tomorrow . . .

2837

That's my second beta number.  We actually had to drive over to the Doctor's office to get it, because they never called us today with the results.

They gave me a thumbs up for the number, and said it was good.  But, in my head I was hoping for a higher number.  It's a doubling time of 55 hours, and they want to see between 48-72 hour doubling time.  I was hoping for closer to the 48 hour doubling time.  I'm still so eager for the ultra sound, that will tell me what I really want to know, and what I am most worried about -- whether or not it's ectopic.  They said that they couldn't tell from beta numbers, and we'll just have to wait for the ultrasound to ensure that the embryos implanted in my uterus and not my tubes.  I wish there weren't so many worry hurtles to get through!  But, at least I am supposed to go in on Tuesday for the ultrasound, so I won't have to wait another week to know what's going on inside!!

I should just be happy that I'm pregnant and that the hcg is doubling as it should!  That's all I can be for now!

Aaaaarrrrrrrrrggggh!

I have been on pins and needles all day awaiting the results of my second beta . . . I asked them to call me before 3:00.  Two-thirty rolled around and I still hadn't heard any news, and was on my way to a different work building.  I had a meeting at 3:30 and still hadn't heard from the Doctor's office at 3:30.  I got out of my meeting at 4:30, walked outside, and my phone all of a sudden decides to let me know that I have 4 new voice mails.  The doctor's office had been trying to call me all day, and my phone - never - rang!!!!!  I had had it on vibrate in my pocket all day long as I usually do, and I kept checking -- full bars.

So, the secretary at my Dr.'s office left 2 messages saying she had my results and was trying to get a hold of me (duh!) and also wanted to schedule my ob ultra sound.  BUT, she didn't' leave the results in the message!  So, now I have to drive myself crazy for another 18+ hours thinking, maybe the beta didn't double, but maybe it did, but maybe it didn't?

I HATE MY PHONE!!!!