How far along? 22 Weeks 3 Days
Total weight gain/loss: +26.5 <– Not quite sure how I lost half a pound. Although, this time I did weigh myself in the morning.
Maternity clothes? Yes. Although Cam just informed me that we probably won’t be buying any more because eventually even maternity clothes won’t fit and I will just slob around all day in sweats. Doesn’t sound too bad right now, actually. :)
Best moment this week: Cam shaved his beard!! It was a huge day at the Call house. I have been kissing him like crazy. Everyone is happy.
Movement: The boys are big and strong enough to push up against the sides of my belly now. I love being able to feel their little bodies.
Waist Diameter:  too lazy to find the tape measure. Big enough though. :)
Food cravings: Anything and everything. Although food is quickly falling from grace because no matter what I eat, I get reflux. ouch.
Labor Signs: Nope. Keep cookin’ boys!
Belly Button in or out? In. But in is a relative term. It hasn’t popped yet, but it is streeeetttched.
What I miss: The frequent doctors’ appointments at our fertility specialist’s office. Man, we were spoiled! This having to go a month between appointments and months between ultrasounds is really lame. Hopefully, we’ll get an ultrasound at our appointment next week.
What I am looking forward to: Christmas Break!! My last day of work is one week from today. AND Cam got some sweet time off for the holiday and our anniversary. Merry Christmas!!
Milestones: Tonight when I sneezed, I peed a little. I’ve heard of this symptom, but had managed to avoid it until this week. It was oddly embarrassing and I didn’t really know what to do. lol. There’s nothing like relinquishing control over your body. It’s a power struggle I don’t stand a chance in.
Realization of the week: Eventually these babies will grow up and be teenagers, then adults. And it is our responsibility to raise them in righteousness. How do you raise righteous boys in the world we live in? We’re starting with the nursery. The theme of which is “I’ll go where you want me to go.”

Also, Baby B has a thing for Mariah Carey. I hadn’t felt him kick all day and Cam tuned the radio to the Christmas station while we drove up to Salt Lake. A few songs went by and then as soon as Mariah sang her first note, Baby B went wild. He kicked and kicked until the song was over and I didn’t feel him again for the rest of the night. lol.

For the past few months, Cam and I have been pretty much on cloud 9. After 2.5 years of working and crying and praying and hoping and everything else that comes along with infertility, we are expecting! We’ve come to the top of the mountain. We did it!

I caught myself, during General Conference, listening to all the talks about trials and kind of blowing them off. I thought, “these don’t apply to me. We conquered our trial.”

And while, yes, I believe that our successes deserve to be celebrated and recognized, there is a whole lot wrong with this mentality.

It bothered me that talks I would have clung to during the past few years now got ignored or disregarded in my mind. And I tried to figure out what I was supposed to learn from this realization.

When we first got our diagnosis, my initial thought was “this isn’t about me.” It helped me stay away from the “poor me” that was so easy to slip into. This was about my babies, about my husband, about my family. Not to say that there wasn’t a ton of dark days, crying in the shower, etc. But I gained an incredible understanding of eternal perspective and the power it holds. That perspective helped me keep from getting bitter, questioning God, and turning against Cam (for the most part.)

Basically, I was on my A-game spiritually.

And you will never hear me say I would trade infertility for anything. I learned more about myself, my Savior, my Heavenly Father, my marriage, my children in the past 2 years than I ever could have without it. And I am grateful for it.

The thing is, I really hope my trials aren’t over. (And considering there are two little peaches in my belly, I’m pretty sure they aren’t!) While everything when you’re in the trenches seems horrible, I truly believe that during our time of want, our Heavenly Father had never been more aware of us.

Spiritually speaking, I have totally slacked since we got our wonderful news. It’s been 3 months and I have barely cracked my scriptures open outside of our family study.

How terrible to say “thanks! We got what we wanted! We don’t need you anymore!” That could never be further from the truth. I need a perspective shift, again. To realize that I need my Heavenly Father more than ever to guide me as I prepare for this responsibility. To realize that I need His help to get me back on my feet and get my head around being a stay-at-home wife and mother. To realize that I need His help in all aspects of my life, not just ones I pick and choose.

Bottom line is, the trials are far from over. I need to keep my guard up and continually be aware of the influence of Satan around me and my family. Luckily, I feel prepared to deal with just about anything so long as Cam is by my side. And he is. Always.

Those talks still apply to me. I think it’s time to go back and really listen to them with an open heart and learn all that I can from the inspired counsel given to me.

Because there is a serious high when you reach the top of the mountain, and I can’t believe that I will never get to feel that exhale, that triumph, that relief, that joy, that pride again.

I hope there are plenty of mountains in our future. And the time to prepare for them are when we’re enjoying the beautiful valleys.

Because of Pound the Pavement for Parenthood, we met some seriously incredible people. Before the race, I had e-mailed the race coordinator about potentially being sponsored next year. We had emailed back and forth, but in fact, first met face to face at the 5K this year. Since then, we have become fast friends; easy to do when you share such a passion (and struggle) for infertility. Her name is Jill. She is beautiful.

Because of how expensive IVF is, and that Jill and her husband have already been through one cycle, the money to make this dream of theirs happen is hard to come by. Which is why we are holding an online silent auction in their honor THIS WEEKEND on goteamwitt.blogspot.com. We are still accepting donations until midnight on Thursday MST. Donation information can be found on the auction blog.

Here’s how you can help:
1. If you are a business owner (or know someone) and would like to donate an item to be auctioned off, please click here for more information. We are also interested in finding a business that would be willing to match our total donation goal….!

2. Bid on our online auctions starting June 24th!

3. If you are uninterested in either of these options, you can always go directly to http://goteamwitt.blogspot.com and click the donate button to make a monetary donation.

4. Spread the word on your blog, facebook, or twitter! This will be a huge help.

If you have any questions, contact goteamwitt [at] gmail.com

Let’s make a miracle happen!

The past week and a half has been unbelievable for us. We have laughed, cried, let our jaws completely hit the floor more than once, and made phone call after phone call. We have felt your prayers, thoughts, love, and support more than ever these past few days. You’re really not going to believe this. Let’s start on Thursday of last week.

Thursday: We were going in for our 3rd (and last) IUI before IVF was on the table. We knew it wasn’t going to work, but we had to do it before our Dr. would consider us for IVF. We had to do it in order to move forward. In the middle of the treatment, I was sitting in the waiting room and the nurse called me. She didn’t know I was in the clinic, but she wanted to let me know that the Dr. had looked over our charts and wanted us to know that he didn’t recommend us doing this 3rd IUI because our chances were so low. He said we could go through with it if we wanted to, but that he recommended us saving our money for IVF. We spent the next hour meeting with a nurse and asking all of our questions about IVF. Scheduling out everything, learning about medications and procedures, and asking about how everything works. We left the clinic and stopped at Cheesecake Factory (Free slice of cheesecake with purchase of $30 + $25 gift card = AFFORDABLE!) to celebrate actually being able to move forward. We were thrilled!

Friday: Because we were both fully and completely on board for this expensive procedure ($25,000 minimum), we decided to pull out all the stops and really organize our resources money-wise. At work, I got an e-mail letting me know that it was the last day to add money to a tax-free medical account that is put into the account at the beginning of the year and is paid back throughout the rest of the year. It’s like a tax-free cash advance. Love it!

Saturday: We went to support Pound the Pavement for Parenthood. It was my first 5k ever and I was nervous! We were friends with the couple that was being sponsored and they asked how our the treatments were going. We told them how the Dr. stopped our last IUI and recommended us for IVF. They stopped the conversation right there and told us to talk to Jill, the race coordinator. Jill had received an e-mail from a fertility specialist in pleasant grove who was donating 50% off IVF to anyone who ran the race and needed it. WHAT?! We ran really, really fast that day. And this was when I wanted to blog so SO bad!

But we didn’t know the details of the 50% off offer. Both of us thought it was too good to be true, or some sort of scam or something. We had to wait. Jill met with the Dr. (Dr. Foulk) on Saturday. She called us with the details on Sunday night. I will never ever forget what it felt like for me and Cam to be up in the second bedroom hearing about this man who was going to change our life while we had company playing games downstairs. Dr. Foulk is an extremely successful reproductive endocrinologist who has opened practices in Reno and Boise. He is ranked among the top 6 RE’s in the nation. He was at the point of his life where he could retire, go golfing, go  on a mission, etc. He decided to send himself on a medical mission to Utah County in order to help the people here have families. I’ve looked over his statistics and success reports for the past 5 years. 60% of the IVF cycles he has done incorporate a procedure called ICSI that we will need. He is a specialist for our specific type of infertility. Because he’s on a medical mission, he does all of his procedures at cost. He doesn’t make a dime. This is his passion – helping people. So….the amount we put in the account last Friday? It just happens to be exactly the amount for the procedure and the medications.

We are floored. And we’ve been really thinking about what to do with our auction. The support and excitement it has generated is too much to pass up, but we would be incredibly ungrateful to keep it for ourselves. We don’t need it. We want to help another couple reach their dream of parenthood. I asked Jill if her and her husband were taking Dr. Foulk’s 50% off offer. She said they’d like to in the future, but they are still paying off a failed IVF cycle. I can’t imagine the emotional turmoil a failed IVF cycle would cause. My heart hurts for this beautiful, selfless couple that, regardless of their own dreams of parenthood, have started an organization to help raise funds for other couples to have children. Especially when they have a huge debt to pay off from their past cycle before they can move forward and try again.

I asked Jill if, as a way of saying “Thank You” for this amazing offer her organization brought into our lives, we could change routes a little bit and do the auction for her and her husband. We’re still working out the details, but we are so excited to get this going for them. To make things even better, Cam got a phone call on Friday from the insurance company. Remember when our car got totaled? Over 5 months ago? They wanted a fax number so we could sign a form for them to send us another check for our “pain and suffering.”