Thursday, December 27, 2012

The twins have arrived

We are happy to announce the arrival of our sons on December 26, 2012!


 Jax Levi Bergen 
born at 7:20 am 
6 lbs 13.5 oz - 19.5 in

Jase Ryan Bergen
born at 7:21 am
6 lbs 3.5 oz - 18.5 in 


Everyone is doing well and we are adjusting to life as a family of four.  

Friday, December 21, 2012

Partial Nursery Preview

I had planned to show pictures of the nursery after the boys were born since I have a picture of their names on the wall, but instead I'm going to give you a sneak peak that doesn't give their names away.  

 Our house is rather unique.  We have two rooms off of the kitchen and you have to walk through one room to get to the other.  Originally we wondered what we would do with these room and it turns out to be a pretty good situation for twins.  

 In the first room there is a single bed, rocking chair, chalkboard and other baby gear.  



 The second room is has the two cribs, changing table and more baby gear.  

 Stay tuned for the picture of the wall with the changing table.  

Monday, December 17, 2012

Maternity Pictures

Originally I didn't want to take maternity pictures because I didn't really see the point.  However after my belly kept getting bigger and bigger I decided that it would probably be good to document this stage of our lives.  I knew that Mike would not be excited about taking a ton of pictures and I didn't want any half naked super touchy feely pictures, so it works out perfect that my mom has been a photographer and we could have a quick painless photo shoot.  

After 15 minutes and 24 pictures our mission was accomplished and I'm really happy with the results.  Here are some of the pictures.  










Just for a reference of how I look from the back.  My mom thinks you can't tell I'm pregnant from the back.

Pregnancy Documentation.  Check.  

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Showers

I had some amazing showers during the months of October and November.  We had a great time and I am beyond thankful for the wonderful generous gifts that we received.  Here are some pictures from the showers.  












Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who hosted and attended one of my showers.  

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Gender Reveal

On the day we found out the gender of the babies we hosted a Gender Reveal Party.

We had a cake made to serve everyone 

We had people give their prediction of what the babies would be.  Most of the people chose boy/girl. 

When the big moment came we tricked everyone by cutting into the cake shown above, which was actually chocolate.  

After we had a good laugh, we pulled out the real cake that revealed the genders of both babies.  

Of course it was ALL blue. 

We even had three people watching the reveal by Skype and Face Time so we had to give them an up close look at the cake. 

Once everyone knew it was two boys, we had people give name suggestions.  
While there were some good options, we aren't going to use any of their names.  






It was a great evening with many of our friends and family.  

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

34 weeks


I'm actually 35 weeks today, so this picture is from last week.  We have one week until we are in the clear to go into labor without having guaranteed time in the NICU.  That also means that we will be able to deliver in Henderson after that point which is really exciting.  This week I started Biophysical Profiles which will happen every week and Non Stress Test (NST) which will happen twice a week.  Luckily I can do both of the tests in Henderson, so I don't have to drive very much.

At this point

  • Our bags our packed
  • We have learned how to install the car seats and one is in the car
  • I am thirsty for ICE COLD water all the time 
  • I get up every two hours at night 
  • Strangers often comment that I look like I'm ready to pop and people who know I'm having twins thought I would be bigger
  • I also run into people who are/have twins everywhere 
  • The only person we (actually I) have told our baby names to is a random guy working at the Buckle.  He was an identical twin and asked what we were naming them and I just let it slip, but he approved so that was good.   

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

30 & 32 weeks

Time keeps marching and I keep growing.  As long as the babies are health and keep growing I'm happy to get as big as I need to.  Here are my latest bi-weekly pictures.



At this point we know that the delivery will be on, or before, December 26.  While we hope to make it that far, which is 38 weeks, we realize that anything is possible so the bags are packed, the rooms are ready and somedays I feel like a ticking time bomb.

Hopefully I can get some pictures of the nursery up sooner than later.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Do twins run in your family?

This is a question that I have got a lot over the last 7 months.  It is a typical questions that people with twins are asked and I know it is meant as a harmless question but it is rather loaded.  I actually have two answers to this questions that I willingly share.

First of all, twins do run in my family.  Both of my grandma's are actually twins.  There are not many people that can say that.  But I almost always follow the statement that my grandmothers are twin by saying that we did use treatments to get pregnant.  Depending on the person or situation I may or may not go into more detail.

It would be very easy to say that twins run in my family and leave it at that, but I feel like that would be a disservice to anyone struggling with infertility, a topic that many people try to hide and avoid, especially if there is someone I can help through the tough process.  

I'm not necessarily going to give a long narrative about what Mike and I went through to get pregnant, but I do want to give some of our stats, some advice and open up a place for people who are interested to have their questions answered.

So here is our 2.5 year journey to get pregnant by the numbers.

Number of procedures: 9

  • HSG - A test where they run dye through your uterus and fallopian tubes and then take an x-ray to see if there are abnormalities or blockage. 
  • 4 IUI's  - Intrauterine Insemination is the process of insertion of purified sperm, which has been carefully washed and prepared, directly into the uterus.  
  • 2 IVF's - In Vitro Fertilization is a method of assisted reproduction in which a man's sperm and a women's eggs are combined outside the body in a laboratory dish.  If fertilization occurs, the resulting embryos are transferred to the women's uterus.  
  • 2 FET - Frozen Embryo Transfer is process similar to IVF except the embryos have been frozen from a previous cycle and are then thawed before being transferred to the women's uterus.   

Number of trips to Omaha: 45

Number of internal ultrasounds: 30+

Number of shots I gave myself: 75+

Number of times my blood was drawn: 31


Number of follicles (eggs) stimulated in my ovaries during IVF cycles: 84
  • IVF #1: 54
  • IVF #2: 30 

Number of eggs actually retrieved: 33

  •  IVF #1: 20
  • IVF #2: 13
Number of embryos transferred to my uterus: 11
These are the embryos that resulted in our twins. 

  • IVF #1: 2
  • FET #1: 3
  • FET #2: 3
  • IVF #2:  3






Number of embryos we currently have frozen: 0

Number of drugs I took: 17

  • Clomid
  • Pregnyl
  • HCG
  • Pometrium
  • Baby Asprin
  • Prenatal Vitamins
  • Femara
  • Follistim
  • Progesterone
  • Menopur
  • Estrace
  • Ganirelex
  • Endometrin
  • Lupron
  • Vivelle Dots
  • Dostinex
  • Vicodin
Amount of Money Spent: I'm not going to go there, but if you are pursuing fertility treatments and want to know the costs let me know and can give you the details.

Advice I have after our experience:

  1. After one year of trying to conceive on your own go to a fertility clinic.  Don't mess around with an OBGYN, holistic medicine or doctor that doesn't specialize in fertility. While this does work for some people you will most likely just waist time and money.  We were very lucky to be referred directly to Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine in Omaha by our local physician first.  
  2. Having a physicians referral will help you get seen sooner at a fertility clinic.  Sometimes the waiting list is 3-6 months out.
  3. Ask lots of questions when you talk to doctors and nurses.  Ask what each medication you are taking is for.  Ask the pros and cons of each treatment option.  Ask if they have free samples or coupons for medications if your insurance doesn't cover any of the cost. Write down questions you have ahead of time so you don't forget to ask.  There truly are no stupid questions.     
  4. Do as much research as you can.  I followed (and still follow) many blogs by women going through the same process we did.  The best site is www.cyclesista.blogspot.com because you can find women going through the exact same procedures you are each month.  
  5. Make sure you and your spouse are on the same page because neither of you can do it alone. 
  6. This is dumb, but make sure you wear warm clothes and socks to your egg retrieval because you will be freezing after.  Also drink 2-3 bottles of gatorade the day or two before which will make it easier to put your IV in and keep drinking that much gatorade the week after egg retrieval so you don't bloat as much.  
  7. Don't feel like you need to talk about your treatments all the time because it is good to have a break, but have people that you can go to if you need to talk. 
  8. People will say rude things to you.  They aren't trying to be mean.  They just don't know what it is like to be going through what you are going through and probably won't understand either because everyones experience is different even if they are going through infertility too.  
  9. Don't feel bad about unfriending people on facebook or stop following people on pinterest who are pregnant.  They can't help but post all of their happiness which is great for them, but it may make you feel worse.  You can re-friend and start following them again someday because it is nothing personal, just something you need to do to get by.  

I'm sure I have a lot more advice but I think that is good for now. 
 If you have any questions for me about our fertility details, procedures, our experience, etc. Feel free to leave a comment and I will answer them either in the blog or as a comment.  


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

26 & 28 weeks

Here is the progress over the past two weeks.



The shirt I wore at 28 weeks as a little too big a month ago, but that isn't the case anymore.  Here are a few interesting things to note about the last two weeks. 
  • I'm seeing a doctor weekly-biweekly between my doctor in Henderson and Omaha. 
  • Both babies were head down last week, but they can still change positions.  
  • Mike and I are starting to consider buying stock in Tums.
  • The top of my stomach is numb sometimes. 
  • The belly button is flat. 
  • I passed my glucose test!!
  • Sometimes (if I don't concentrate) I waddle when I walk. 
  • Twin steer calves (George and Harvey) were born at my parents house this week.  Glad they didn't steal our names ;)

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Growing

I know it has be a LONG time since I last updated and in those months a lot has changed. 

At first I lost some interest in blogging because I didn't know what to blog about.  In May we found out we were expecting and I was too tired to do much more than work.  Once we found out we were having TWINS I struggled with whether or not I would be able to keep up a blog once we had the babies.  While I think it is going to be hard to update the blog, I think it is important to have some record of what life is like with twins since I won't have time scrapbook and it will be a great way for family and friends who live farther away to stay in touch with us. 

So here are the belly shots so far. 







I'm not making any promises on frequency of updating the blog, but I will try to update it more than once every 8 months.