K @ 16 months

Here we go again...

We'll see how long it takes you complainers to realize that I have put up a new blog post!

So, it's been awhile since I've posted. That's okay, I've been busy! We sold our house, moved, got pregnant, quit my job, moved again (all the way across the country this time), opened a jerky store, and are in the market to move again (hopefully for the very last time).

Kaylee is so much fun these days and absolutely exhausting! She does not stop moving! We are getting used to our new surroundings, making some new friends and exploring our new "home". We try to get out as much as we can because I am sure once winter and baby Jack come, we will be home bound for awhile.

At her 15 month well visit Kaylee weighed in at 25 pounds and she was 30.5 inches long. She is hitting all her milestones and is starting to talk. She is a crazy climber and very independent. She goes and sits on the potty (with her clothes and diaper on) when she needs to go, but goes on the floor when she doesn't have her diaper on. She just got a toddler bed and is waiting for her daddy to move the computer, so we can set up her new big girl room. Dogs are her most favorite things in the world, all other animals come in at a close second though. Some days she may eat me out of house and home, other days she will eat nothing but cheese. I've stopped buying her toys because she would rather play with sticks, rocks, clothes or shoes. She is still bald and gets called a boy just about every week (even when dressed all in pink or in skirts).

Pregnancy number 2 is seemingly identical to pregnancy number one. I was just as sick, just as exhausted and just as happy to be pregnant! Right now I am 22 1/2 weeks. We found out 2 weeks ago that we are having a boy. His name will be Jack and his middle name is to be determined. I was really sick in first tri and lost about 9 pounds, which is almost twice as much as I lost when I was pregnant with Kaylee. I am working on gaining it back and I am sure will be back to where I started at my next appointment. I have the WORST sweet tooth this time around. Although, I remember it being pretty bad last time too. The baby is starting to move around a lot. I have an anterior placenta again, so it took awhile for me to feel strong movements. I am due on December 14.

Here's a one quick pic, she still looks the same just a little taller and with more teeth. Someday, she will have hair!


Here's to not waiting another 6 months to post!

9 months

Big, fat FAIL on the countdown to Christmas pictures, I know. Let me get this 9 month info before she is 10 months. I think I have missed a few months anyways. So...

At 9 months Kaylee...

weighs 21 pounds, 4 ounces
is 28 inches long
has 2 teeth
crawls
pulls up on anything and everything
stands unassisted (for brief moments)
is still basically bald
tries to eat the dog's food any chance she gets
loves to eat
hates getting dressed

Here's what she looks like these days:

my new toy

bath time

ready for my play date

look at all of my hair!

at the Children's Museum

at my friend's ballerina birthday party

9 days 'til Christmas...

but only 1 day until VACATION!!!!

18 days until Christmas...

...and I'm a crawler!!

19 days and counting...

Kaylee's first Christmas party!

Oh, and I officially crawled today!!!

day 5, 20 to go!!!

breakfast @ Brian's...

21 days and getting into the spirit!

23 days to go...

Day 2

Time to start baby proofing!

Countdown to Christmas!!!

No advent calendar for us. Instead we will do a photo countdown to Christmas! Hopefully, this will get me back into the blogging spirit and it will definitely get me excited for Kaylee's first Christmas!

Day 1, 24 to go!

Having a snack...

Wow, I can't believe that my last post was about Halloween!! I'd like to say things are settling down and I can update this more often, but that is far from true.

First off, we are celebrating the first of December with no mortgage payment!!! Woohoo!! The selling the house/moving into a new place has been the center of most of the chaos as of late, but now we are down with it. We can breathe a little easier and the pocketbook will be a little fuller! The challenge of condensing a 4 bedroom house into a 2 bedroom apartment isn't ideal, but we really like our new little home (emphasis on little)!

Kaylee was a trooper through it all! Luckily Grandma Janie was visiting to help watch the munchkin while mommy and daddy packed and moved. The dog, on the other hand, is not enjoying the moving process so much.

Kaylee enjoyed her very first Thanksgiving. She tried a little bit of everything but especially liked the sweet potatoes and the mashed potatoes!!!


Kaylee also has teeth now! Well, little bits of teeth poking through. After only one day of real pain and unhappiness, her two bottom teeth broke through. Last week she wouldn't even let our fingers close to her mouth, but now we can ask her to show us her teeth and she opens her mouth right up!

We are still technically immobile. This is a good thing for the time being. There are way too many boxes of stuff for her to get into. She wants to crawl so badly and gets frustrated when she can't get herself to where she wants to be. Frankly, I'm okay with not having to chase her around just yet!

it's been awhile...

Sadly, I haven't updated this blog since August! Time is just flying by. The school year started and now I am officially a working mom. It's been about a month since I have been back and I am still adjusting. Kaylee started daycare. While I hate the fact that she has to be cared for by someone else, I do really like our daycare and her teachers. So, I guess it's the best of a not-so-ideal situation. We made it through our first cold and whooping cough scare. All is well in the Bergs household and we are simply trying to enjoy every moment, as it goes by all too fast!

At five and half months Kaylee:

weighs 18 pounds 1 ounce
is sitting by herself for short periods of time
rolling over like crazy
trying to move herself across the room
does a little baby backwards "worm" to move across the room
has started solid foods
loves sweet potatoes and peas
hates green beans and applesauce

we gave in...

I have heard about "Sophie" FOREVER! I really didn't think it could be that good. I thought it was just the latest fad and was just an overpriced chew toy. After buying tons of other chew toys (I guess she isn't a dog, what are they? teethers??) anyways, after buying a bunch and not finding any that she liked, I gave in and bought Sophie (from Nordie's no less, I didn't even search to find her on sale).



She really is THAT good and Kaylee loved it from the moment we gave it to her. Should have listened to everybody and bought her first. Would have saved myself a few bucks in the long run!

(and Grandma just had to buy her a new fancy headband)

4 month check-up

We had a 4 month well visit a little late. The doc says she is hitting all her milestones and developing very well. She weighed just over 17 pounds and was 25 1/2 inches long. She was off the charts for weight and in the 90th percentile for height. At 4 1/2 months we are packing up all the 3-6 month clothes and moving on to the 6-9/12. She is in size 3 diapers. She has a seemingly insatiable appetite as of late and the doc said that we could/should start solids soon. I was planning on waiting awhile longer but she is hard to keep up with these days. I should add that she weaned herself from breastfeeding about a month ago. So, I am exclusively pumping, which just gives me more to do each day. It is good though because Kaylee is starting daycare soon (boohoo) so at least we won't have any bottle feeding issues.

Here is my cutie, just before she got all her shots:

the face of success...

Here it is:This is my proud little girl right after she managed to finally roll over from back to belly. She has been trying really hard for the past week or so. She managed to crunch and curl her body up into a "C" shape, but couldn't manage to make it all the way over...until today!!! I am sure she is just responding to my cheers of joy, as opposed to being proud of herself, but who cares. One more milestone checked off the list. I probably should keep a video camera/real camera to catch these moments with a little more quality, but for now, blurry iPhone shots will have to do!

Kaylee at 4 months

Kaylee's 4 month "birthday" came and went. Life around here has been getting busier and it has caused me to neglect my blog. I'd like to say that I will get better about updates but I go back to work in two weeks, so I can't make any promises.

At 4 months Kaylee is...
smiling and laughing a lot
rolling from belly to back (when she wants to)
rolling from back to well, her side (she can't quite make it all the way over)
grabbing her feet
"talking" herself to sleep
loves her jumperoo
hates the bumbo
exclusively fed by bottle (still breast milk only)
utterly entertained by the dog
sleeping in her crib (for the first 5 hours or so)

Daddy's girl

Time for bed!

This is daddy's idea of jammies. Yeah, it doesn't look so bad from the picture BUT it's basically an undershirt and leggings. haha, I can't wait until he has to get her dressed for school!

The gear

One of the good/bad things about being a parent is all of the "stuff" that comes along with it. I really like trying out new things and having a variety of things to choose from but I don't like how much space it takes up in my house. We were blessed with lots of hand-me-downs so Kaylee has tons of things to choose from. Lately, she seems to be getting "bored" and wanting to move around more, do more, explore more. Unfortunately, she is just not quite big enough for a lot of the fun stuff that is waiting for her. Her toes just graze the ground in her jumparoo, all the toys are too far away from her on her exersaucer and it's definitely too soon for the jogging stroller!

Who is this child?

I think my child has grown exponentially in the last 48 hours. I feel like last week she was still a blob of a baby, that couldn't move, only cried when she was either tired, hungry or wet, and wasn't interested in anything but her hands and mom.

Now she is rolling over, working out her ab muscles like a maniac (she tries desperately to pull herself up when laying down), "talking" up a storm, tries to put everything in her mouth (even the dog), is entertained by some toys, complains (i'm sure that goes along with talking but she does this weird moan thing that is not quite a cry and not a cute coo), DEMANDS to be fed (she may have gotten some of her moms impatience), laughs at her dad and just all around seems like a different baby. I am loving every second of it!

We often say I can't wait until she...(insert milestone here--talks, crawls, walks, has hair, etc) but I really try to stop myself every time and focus on all the amazing things that are happening every day. They really do go by all too fast...

Sitting. Coming soon to a baby near you.

I was really trying to get a cute naked booty pic of her to use to embarass her when she is older and because it's just plain adorable! She was not having it. She would not stop rolling over! She probably rolled over 10 times during our little mini photo shoot and was clearly amused by her own little plot to ruin my plan (maybe she knew it would come back to haunt her). This shot was the best I could do with my iPhone.
Note to self for baby #2--take cute naked booty pic BEFORE they can roll over.

The story...

Before you read on, be prepared for maybe a little TMI. This is the story of our infertility journey and while I have become quite comfortable talking about my uterus and sperm and the steps we have had to take to conceive--your ears and your brain may not want to peek into that side of our lives (If that is the case, just stand by idly until the next post). But, infertility is all too common in today's world and more couples are going through what we went through (and more difficult challenges) so I might as well share my story as it may comfort, educate, enlighten or amuse someone out there...

short story: unexplained infertility, 5 IUI's, thousands of dollars, lots of drugs, & 1 beautiful baby girl

long story: So, today is the day we conceived. Well, between now and 24 hours from now. Yep, I know the exact date of conception. Not because we were vacationing in some exotic land or had some especially steamy romp in the sack, but because I was sitting on the cold table in the doctor's office waiting for her to "prepare" the sperm that would eventually become this little ball of chubbiness and smiles that is our baby girl.

We all know how the story ends, so I will go back to the beginning...

We met in 2004, fell in love and got married in 2007. Before we were married we talked extensively about marriage, family and children and we were both excited to take the next "big" steps in our lives. We got married in July of 2007 and were ready to get busy and grow our family. It all started out innocently. First it was "whatever happens, happens". Nothing. Then it moved on to tracking periods. Nothing. Then it became a bit more obsessive--tracking periods, intercourse and ovulation. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

About 8 months into it, I was ready to head to the doctor to find out what was "wrong" with me. I expressed my intense desire to have children, soon. She ordered some preliminary tests to see if anything could be easily ruled out. OK, GREAT! Let's get started. I now felt like I had a little more control over this midly frustrating situation.

So starts the barage of tests. Blood test (looks great!). Thyroid test (perfectly normal!). Hormone test (typical woman!) Sperm Analysis (fabulous specimen!). HSG--which is a hysterosalpinogram where they inject a dye into your fallobian tubes to make sure there is no blockage (all clear!)

The doctor was less than helpful, only telling me to come back after I had tried for a year. Really? I have to wait that long? I've already waited my whole life. What difference is a few months going to make? Ugh. So I waited, 3 months (not the 4 I was told to wait). I called that doctor and talked her receptionist. Me: "I've been trying to conceive for 1 year now and have done all the preliminary tests and I would like to take the next step, whatever that may be." Recepcionist: "Call Dr. Schmidt. Her number is blah, blah, blah ... Good luck." REALLY? You made me wait 4 extra months just to give me a phone number?? We're just wasting eggs at this point. Fine.

So off I went with my renewed sense of "control" over my childbearing prospects. This was in August, but I didn't call right away. Suddenly, I was a little nervous. Maybe, because I was afraid they would tell me that I would never have children. I waited out that cycle, holding out hope that that was the one that worked. It wasn't. I got my period and decided I had to call and get things moving. Now it is September of 2008.

This is the start of my life revolving around my menstrual cycle. Even in calling to make my appointment, they wanted to know what cycle day I was on. What? I don't know 4? 5? 6? I haven't really been paying attention. Receptionist: "Oh, honey, we HAVE to see you on cycle day 3. So call me next month as soon as you start your period and we will make you an appointment. UGH!!!! There goes another month.

Finally, I got an appointment and the doctor wanted to do a few more tests. Turns out Dad's side of things is (in her words) phenomenal. Mine, not so much. I was apparently killing off his swimmers before they even had a chance. I think the term "hostile host" was used. The doctor told us that our first step would be to start IUI's, yes, I'm pretty sure she said plural right from the start. IUI is intrauterine insemination. Basically, the doctor takes the part of his stuff and injects it right into my uterus and then we all cross our fingers and hope that an egg is fertilized before my evil uterus has the chance to kill it off. So we continued on our journey.

Our round of IUI's happened on New Year's Eve & New Year's Day 2009-2010. Yes, that is a testament to our fabulous our doctor was. She came in to do the procedures on not only her day off but essentially two days worth of holidays. I think most doctor's would have cancelled the cycle and tried again next time.

In the meantime, I was trying to do ANYTHING that would increase our odds. I changed my deoderant because I read somewhere that the aluminum in regular deoderant can effect fertility, I wore a St. Girard's metal pinned to my bra everyday, I started going to acupuncture every week, I drank room temperature water (to warm my cold uterus--that was from a book, more on that later), I stopped drinking milk and tried to eat only organic, I went vegan (for a week) but stuck to a nearly vegetarian diet for awhile (until the pregnancy cravings kicked in), cut out caffiene, positive thinking, wished on the new moon, started learning about the adoptions process, started taking USANA vitamins upon my doctors request, drank herb teas, used chinese herbs (don't do this unless you are under the care of a professional -some herbs have an unknown effect on fertility). Not to mention I was charting my basal body temperature every morning before getting out of bed and using home ovulation predictor kits. Phew, it was a lot of work!

Five, it took us five cycles to get it right!

Round #1-- 50 mg clomid, back to back IUI's (Dec/Jan)
Round #2--100 mg clomid, back to back IUI's (Jan)
Round #3--150 mg clomid, HCG trigger shot, back to back IUI's (Mar)
Round #4--150 mg clomid, HCG trigger shot, back to back IUI's (May)

Four rounds with no positive results. I think that therapy should come for free to women doing fertility treatments. It is absolutely agonizing! Putting so much hope, money and time into something that is SO desperately wanted and not easily attainable is one of the hardest things I have gone through. Note to yourself, if you know someone that is having difficulty conceiving DO NOT tell them "try not to think about it so much", "just relax and it will happen", "you're too stressed about it", "forget about it and you'll get pregnant", "think positively". Really, if someone is at the point where they have to seek help to get pregnant they --won't forget about, --can't stop thinking about it, and --are already thinking as positively as humanly possible. You will only annoy them and they won't want to talk to you about it anymore.

Round #5--(AKA the miracle round) 10 days of birth control pills, 6 days of lupron shots in the thigh, 5 days of 150mg clomid, HCG trigger shot, back to back IUI's, progesterone oil shots for 4 months. (July)

On a fluke, I had to go in for an appointment two days earlier than normally schedule. From that blood test the doctor learned that my progesterone was rising too early, which was essentially ruining any chance of fertilization. She put me on the lupron to supress the hormones and the birth control pills because I had developed ovarian cysts. That was going to be our last cycle and we had decided that if it didn't work, we would stop trying IUI's and begin saving the $12,000 it would cost to do IVF treatments. Mind you, none of our IUI treatments were covered by insurance either so our savings was non-existence at this point.

Okay, so we start the crazy cycle--birth control pills, giving my self shots everyday, my short stint as a vegan, and the realization that if this didn't work, it could be a very, very long time before we might conceive. We did the back to back IUI's on July 14-15 and then there is the dreaded 2ww (two week wait). Those two weeks are the absolute worst! You are filled with hope and positive thoughts, but also have to keep in mind that it might not have worked, just like in the past. You do a lot of soul seraching during the 2ww. There are lots of converstions with yourself--trying to prep yourself for what might come. It is a time full of tremendous hope and anxiety.

Stay tuned to find out what happens in our next episode...
(really this is already too long, will be continued next week)

Oh, but the most wonderful book that I found was The Infertility Cure. My acupuncturist, Beth Peckham lent it to me and it was extremely informative, gave reccomendations on steps to take to increase your fertility naturally based on your personal "symptoms". It kept me motivated and positive in a time that could have become very dark. It made me feel like I had some control, that there was something I could do to help "fix" what was "broken".

and now some eye candy after all that reading...