FOUR little FULTONS: Stone Mountain

Friday, July 22, 2011

Stone Mountain....

One of our first stops on this "adventure" of ours was in Atlanta, GA. We have family there so visiting some of the attractions there made perfect sense! Lucky for us my brother, their Uncle Jim, took off from work on what I think was one of thee HOTTEST days of July to hit the trails of Stone Mountain. If you have never heard of or been there you really need to go. It is said that it's the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. The most interesting part is that we only get to see 1/3 of the "mountain" because the other 2/3 of it is underground! They say it continues almost 10 miles below! AMAZING!!

They have a little theme park going on there, most of which were for children older than the tribe however I would definitely go back one day for them to enjoy. Besides the theme park there are camp sites, a train, a sky ride to to the" top of the rock", a night time laser show that makes the carving come to life & much much more. This is one of my most favorite photos from our trip! & I have to say that I still think Uncle Jim sort of looks like a park ranger! Must be the hat! hahah!

** One unadvertised tidbit of info for those wishing to lug their family there you do NOT have to buy admission to the theme park if you just want to see "Stone Mountain" **. Yep the "mountain" is FREE, you do however have to pay for parking but that is a HUGE savings when all you want to do is see God's creation! You can hike to the top for FREE or pay to ride the sky way. Pretty much everything extra costs $ so if you live in the Atlanta area it just might pay to get a seasonal pass. That way you can visit & do whatever you want whenever you want!

So this mama of quads highly recommends that while in Atlanta you make sure you stop and visit...

Stone Mountain...

Monday, July 26, 2010

surgery recuperation...

Just to recap I had emergency gallbladder surgery while on vacation in GA. Yes that is my luck! I go on a vacation which I really did enjoy only to have it interrupted with of all things an emergency surgery! CRAZY but true!

They did the surgery laporoscopely so it was not as bad as it could have been. I left the hospital with 4 bandages on my belly. What's even harder to believe is that we were literally suppose to drive back home to FL the next day. Again this is my luck! You all know that trip home was not going to happen! The Dr told me I had to stay there an EXTRA week to recoup.Luckily we have family there so we stayed with them. It was one WILD week! Daddy & the tribe stayed at my one brother's house & I stayed at my other brother's house. This way I did not have to do anything strenuous with them while I recuperated. I have to say that Daddy & his bosses were real sports. They told him to do whatever he needed to & take care of me. Awhhh... I LOVE it when people really care how you are feeling. So that started his week of single parenting the tribe! Off Daddy went keeping the tribe occupied while I was basically on lock down "recuperating". He took them all over the place just so they would not get restless! The first night he took them to Stone Mountain to see the laser show with my cousins. This was something I wanted to do but I knew my limits & MADE them take plenty of pictures! I was surprised when he actually did email me pic's! This is SO unlike him! I did not say one word for fear he would revert back to his old self & I'd be left TOTALLY in the dark! At least with pictures I could feel like I was there with them!

Hanging out while the boys played football!

What an AMAZING mountain!

I think this pictures makes the mountain MUCH prettier! LOL!

The next day Daddy & a few of my nieces took them to some game ranch about an hour away from where we were staying. It's sort of like a zoo but with less wild creatures & NO walls separating you. The animals were out there amongst them. SO cool! They said they saw deer, goats, bunnies & many other animals. Again I was left at home. This was getting old REALLY quick!

All I can say is that this week was one LONG...

surgery recuperation...

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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