FOUR little FULTONS: Help

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

It takes a village...

Some days I wake up feeling that I may not get through the day. That the kids will not eat their breakfast or lunch & will be just plain CRANKY! Which ends up making my life even HARDER! This is not exactly the life I imagined when I asked God to allow me to be a mommy! They have turned into little busy bodies that seem to get into EVERYTHING! OR they like to antagonize their siblings & take toys from one another so I can become the "referee". I do not like that job in the least! The house is a wreck, there is SO much stuff to clean up, put away, etc. I feel like it will never get done! Do I care? Lately, NO. Then there is the days that we have activities to attend. I have to make a conscious effort to plan for those days. Because pretty much each activity we attend it's just me with them. Yes there are the few days that they throw me for a loop & do everything I need them to do. But most days it is just hard! That is the reason I do not plan that many activities during the week. It is usually just me & them so I keep my battles to a minimum! This past weekend we went to a family birthday party. Our cousin Denny was turning 5 & they had his party at a "water park". Just the thought of a water park scared me but I knew that I had to bring the quads. Monika & Don, my cousins, have helped us SO much! Almost all of our hand me downs come from them! So we were there! Now I just needed to rearrange my work schedule so I could get the day off, then find some helpers! Luckily I was able to swap my shift to get the day off. All the helpers I thought of were busy so I enlisted Grandma! (Daddy could not make it due to work) He would miss out on the FUN, can you tell the sarcasim!? hahah! I slathered them all up with sunblock, got their bathing suits on & then loaded them up. We had about an hour drive which they slept 30 minutes of. Once we arrived there I had to figure out how to get them to the "kiddie area" safely. There was a HUGE adult pool at one end & the kiddie area on the other. Usually I just ask them to hold hands & they will pair off in two's. Some days they do this willingly other days it is a challenge. Well, today was a good day! There I was leading our "tribe" past the pool into the play area as they followed gazingly behind. The water in the "kiddie area" was about knee deep so once they got used to it I knew they'd LOVE it. Maybe TOO much! LOL! The only BAD part was that Grandma did not bring her beathing suit & was NOT going in the water so that left just ME to corral them. UH OH! Well, this is what I thought was going to happen. I was pleasantly surprised when most of my relatives came to my rescue. They willingly helped me! I did not even have to ask, they are just there to help! I SO love that!WE WERE THE VILLAGE! I LOVE having a BIG family! There was SO many set's of eyes watching the "tribe" that I could actually relax a little. Well sort of. They LOVED the water a little too much & did not want to leave. Camryn even tried going back in AFTER getting her bathing suit off! There I was in my capri's & sandals running in after her! Luckily she did not get THAT soaked! Can't say the same about me! (= I just want to say a BIG "THANK YOU" to everyone for all of their help! Some days I can not say "Thank you" enough! Other days I am SO tired that I can barely get a "Thanks" out. Just know that I appreciate all the assistance I get! When I am having a "bad" day I just think about all the mommies out there that have it harder than me, whether with children that are sick or just having MORE kids to deal with. I take a DEEP breath and remember...

It takes a village...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Little things...

It is the little things that matter most to me. Today I was reminded of that! Why I took on this job, why I wake up at 730 am & go to bed way after 11pm. It is in the little things they do! These kids of ours bring me SO many happy moments. Each day a different child steps up to the plate to give me joy! I guess they realize how I need a little joy each day to even out the hard times! LOL! Today was Camryns day to shine! She always likes to be asked to do things for me. It is like she is older than her siblings. There are times when she will take care of things just like I would do. She will go around shutting all the doors something I always do! If we are going out she will get everyones shoes passed out. She even attempts to strap them in their car seats! Oh how I appreciate her help! She even gets everyone's sippy cups & places them where each of them sit. When we are going to eat she'll put each of their bibs on them. I am not surprised that she wants to help me it's just that today she did something EXTRA ordinary! I had to make their beds before nap time so as I worked Camryn was being "Mommy". Little did I know that while I was in their room Camryn was cleaning up. The rest of them straggled in to see what I was doing. After changing the last bed I went to clean up their plates, I should say MESS! Well, Camryn had already started taking care of that. She had picked up the food they dropped by their table. She TRIED to clean up their mess & then proceeded to take her fork and scraped their leftover food into the garbage. I could not believe what I was seeing, she was imitating what I do day in and day out! It is in these moments that I appreciate the...

Little things...

Our Story...

Ok I am now over 8 years into this "job" of mine, being a mommy to multiples, high order multiples to boot! They say that if you try to conceive without protection for one year with no success then you are infertile. Those words were a lot to take in. I sought answers from everyone. We started out with our 1st OB/GYN Dr William Casale doing the normal testing that they were equipped to do. We did it all, IUI's, spermwashing, etc. I then contacted RESOLVE, a wonderful organization for people like me (could not get pregnant). I started making mental notes of what I needed to achieve my dream, to be a mom! The next step was to go see a Fertility Doctor. We chose to see Dr Mark Denker. After checking me out he then referred Michael to see a Urologist who ended up putting him on clomid. Yes, men can take this RX too! It helps make more sperm just like it helps a woman create more follicles. It is AMAZING the things you learn when you are trying to conceive! After further testing we were both told we had fertility issues, I had fewer eggs than a woman my age & they were "tough", Michael had double vericasils so that in order for us to have the "best odds" we needed to go the IVF route. I had this feeling that it was not going to work right away, call it my intuition. So we bought a package, can you even believe that they sell "packages" like a travel agency? Our "package" included 3 rounds of IVF with ICSI, minus all the meds I would need. The drugs are an expense we did not even think of but had to purchase for this entire thing to work. Well, it ended up taking all 3 rounds of IVF & accupuncture courtesy of Dr Susan Schiff for me to get pregnant & boy did I get pregnant! (Trust your intuition!) We started out with very few follicles, only 3 fertilized into embryo's and all three took. I was finally pregnant! 8 weeks into my pregnancy one of the embryo's split & became identical. Can you believe that!? What are the odds? No one told me that could happen! AMAZING! We had a lot of decisions to make. No one thought that we should keep all four. In the medical world it is called a "selective reduction". Only a few doctors even do this procedure. We did not know what our future would hold just that we could not reduce anything! In the beginning we had a hard time finding a doctor that felt like we did & wanted our four babies to thrive! We finally found Dr Moises Virelles, a fellow Christian & my now OB/GYN. He then referred us to an AWESOME Perinatologist, Dr Gary Cohen. Having the two of them on our side we knew ANYTHING was possible! My pregnancy was really uneventful. I was put on "bed rest" at 22 weeks. I later found out my "bed rest" was unlike other women's bed rest. I was just not allowed to work. I continued to do things, just stayed off my feet as much as possible. If I went shopping I would ride a motorized scooter. If I went to a party I sat pretty much the entire time. I had no issues, my cervix was long & rock solid. I really feel that God wanted me to be a mommy! The babies were great! They kicked each other more than they kicked me! People would look at me & could not believe that I had four babies inside me, I tell you I was meant to carry quads! Now don't get me wrong, it was not a joy ride, I was miserable towards the end & felt it very difficult to breathe. I never even went into the hospital prior to January 15th. Even though I asked them to admit me MANY times!! On January 17, 2007 we welcomed our GBGG quads; Camryn, Brendan, Avery & Lindsey into this world. 1 set is fraternal & 1 set is identical. They weighed 4 lb 7 oz, 4 lb 4 oz, 3 lb 6 oz & 3 lb 3 oz. I made it 32 weeks 5 days when I delivered them at St Mary's Medical Center. They were all HEALTHY and they did not need to be intubated! WOO HOO! They were little miracles destined to be here! I had nurses come up to me & tell me how wonderful it was that I carried them so long, that it was a better gift holding onto them as long as I did than a Harvard education! WOW! We were SO happy, excited & most of all unprepared for how much our life was about to change. I will say it was a GOOD change! I cannot imagine my life without them! Everyone watches our little ones in amazement & they still do. This is their story....

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