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.

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.  

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 ;)

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.  

Crazy Runners

Mike and I decided to take in the Minden Christmas 5K on Saturday, December 3.  There were light flurries as we traveled to Minden which turned into heavier snow when we pulled into town.

During the race we ran in 2 inches of snow.  On the ways out we were running into the wind and snow, but after the turn around the race was fairly enjoyable.

I even manage to finish 2nd in my age group.

Overall this race was a really great experience even if the road were a little treacherous on the way home.

Cruise 2011

As in past years, Team B (the Bergens and the Baldwins) took our annual winter vacation in the form of a cruise to the caribbean on the Oasis of the Seas.  

You may remember our last cruise on the Oasis of the Seas in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

 Waiting for the hotel shuttle at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. This was the first time that we experienced a large crowd waiting for shuttles in Ft. Lauderdale, which may be to the fact that we landed before midnight.

 We decided to spring on this trip and upgrade our rooms to a Jr. Suite.  We didn't expect to get much out of the room beside our double cruise point. The room was amazing.

 More sitting room and more room between the bed and the vanity which doesn't seem like a big deal but it was so nice. 

 Extra drawers to store all of our stuff. 

 A larger bathroom ..

 with a shower/tub.  Way bigger then the corner showers in normal rooms. 

  

 Not to mention a walk in closet.. 

 with robes. 

 Last but not least, a balcony with a table, chairs and two lay out chairs.  

 A vacation must (may be daily) is ice cream cones on the pool deck. 

 Already relaxing and we haven't even left the port yet.  

 The solarium where we spend most of our day time hours. 

 Our annual set sail picture. 

 Formal night.

 How we spent some of our relaxing mornings. 

 Labadee Haiti.  I think this is my favorite port.  

 It was really hot, so it was nice to be in the shade. 

 A look at the beach we sat on from the boat.  

 Leaving Labadee. 

 A group that put on a little show while we set sail. 

 Dinner at Chops is a cruising must in our book. 

 After walking 3.5 miles to get to Margaritaville was a little longer than we expected... 

 but the volcano nachos were so worth it. 

 Sushi at sea and a mound of wasabi. 

Believe it or not, Mike and I actually kept up with a running schedule on the ship running 4 out of 7  days, which was good considering all the food we ate.  

After 5 years of cruising Mike and I still can't get enough.  We are already booked for January 2013 sailing out of Galveston TX on the Mariner of the Seas.  

It's that time of year again

I bet you thought this was going to be a Christmas post...

Well, even though I spent the weekend decorating for Christmas and baking Christmas cookies, I thought I would first post about ways I can tell it is time to get ready for Christmas.

 The "drift" of corn leaves is as high as a snow drift should be in front of our shed. 

 Mikes hunting trophy is on display on our radio tower. You can compare the rack to last years deer displayed below. (I'm sorry to any animal lovers out there that you had to see this, but it is a truth of the farm)

 My fall display has dried up and is ready to be thrown away.  

Ironically, my mums stopped growing while a gourd displayed in a glass jar on my dining room table decided to start growing.  

I guess it is time to move on to the next season because fall has decided to be done at my house.   

I did it

I completed my first race and boy can I pick them.  This morning Mike and I decided to participate in a 4 mile (according to GPS it was only 3.78 miles) trail run race at Quarry Oaks Golf Course near Ashland Nebraska.  While the overall experience was fun and I trained well for that distance, I did not train well for the hills this course contained.  Mike and I decided there was less than a 1/4 of a mile that was flat the rest of the race was either up or down.  Mike decided to run the race "for fun" and ran my pace, which was really nice because I would have ran much slower and probably would have walked if it wasn't for him.  I may have uttered the words "I can't" at one point, but we kept going and made it the entire way.  The craziest part was running through ankle deep water twice about one mile from the end and having to finish with wet socks and shoes.

The good news is we both had smiles at the end of the race and both felt it was a good experience. It would have been smarter to choose an easier race for my first time out, but all and all I'm happy with my time and am pretty sure I gave it everything I had.  If I run this race again next year I will definitely run more hills that are steeper for my preparation.  

Lately

As you can tell, lately I haven't been posting as much.  While some people have a break over the summer and are able to post more on their blogs, my summers are usually the opposite until Community Days is over.  So here is a run down of what we have been doing lately.

• Irrigating (or as Mike likes to call it, irritating)
• Henderson Farmers Market
• Adult swim over the noon hours
• Sunday afternoon naps
• Mod Reunion in  Oklahoma
• House warming party
• Stockham 4th of July celebration
• Hosts at a wedding
• Church meetings
• Visiting friends 
• Wednesday night wings 
• Trips to Sweet Treat
• Gardening
• Pulling weeds (yes there were so many it deserves its own bullet point)
• Hosting friends 
• Grilling
• Sitting by a fire pit 

Our summer has included alot of other activities as well, but these are some of the bigger and more consistent events. 

With that said, our summer meals consist of BLT Sandwiches, watermelon, cucumbers, and corn on the cob, so my cooking especially from the church cookbooks has been rather lacking.  However, I do intend to start cooking more again, so Mennonite Monday will return even though it has been a little sporadic this summer.  

It is a bird, its a plane, its actually a plane

 This time of year, there are a lot of planes flying around the country side spraying fields.  One evening I was in the garden pulling weeds (the only thing I have "harvested" from my garden) and noticed that a plane was starting to spray the field around our house.

For those of you who have never experienced this, I will let you know that this is very loud.  I thought about going inside to wait for them to be done, but decided it would be fun to catch some pictures instead.

 One thing that makes the spraying so interesting is how low to the ground the plane gets.

 It makes sense that they stay so low because they want the spray to go into the corn and not up in the air, but it is amazing how they barely rise up to go over the yard.  The picture above isn't very good, but you can see the plane is well below the top of the shed as it goes over the corn.

 It almost skimmed the top of the shop door as it flew over our yard.

 And it just missed the wire running from our barn to the light pole.

 It is really pretty amazing to watch these planes fly, if you can get past the sound they make.