FOUR little FULTONS: gifts

Thursday, December 25, 2008

the BEST gift ever!

We here in the Fulton home want to wish everyone a beautiful Christmas. Ours was a rainy one. It drizzled all night & during the day today. The sun is trying to break through the clouds to give us a bright & shiny day. This year Christmas was EXTRA fun! We started out having a house FULL of Fulton's for Christmas Eve dinner. Our 6 year old nephew Aidan, who came dressed as Santa, stopped playing for a moment to tell us this was his BEST holiday EVER! I wanted to make sure it was this Christmas or just Christmas in general. He said being here. What a WONDERFUL child! I was SO happy that we made his day! The only thing missing was Dustyn. He spent Christmas Eve with his mom so we missed out on having him with us. Everyone missed him. Maybe one day soon we can all be together. He joined us this morning & we all got to be together on Christmas. The babies eyes lit up when he walked in their room this morning. They all grinned from ear to ear & yelled out "Dustyn!". They just love him so! Oh what fun will we have as the years go on. They all filed out of their room & walked directly to the den where the Christmas tree is without any coaxing. I was AMAZED! I guess they really do notice "new" things. There in front of the tree was their presents & they each gravitated to the toys they liked. Santa did good & they loved it all! Dustyn made out too! CLOTHES! You all know how much kids LOVE getting that! hahah! No, he also got his router & wireless connection for his XBox 360. I know nothing about these sort of things but he LOVES it. I think the best gift God gave Michael & I would have to be these 5 happy healthy children. That is...

the BEST gift ever!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

baking cookies...

My hubby bought me the "coolest" stand mixer about 3 years ago & I have never used it! Michaels Aunt used it once while she stayed with us but I have yet to use it. I know I feel bad but my life has been BUSY!! (= SO.. Today is the day. My mom & I are going to make cookies while the babies watch. Maybe soon they will "help" me but not yet. I am SO excited to finally get to use this contraption! My 13 year old cousin gave me a quick demo on the one they have at their house. I could not believe that he knew how to use it & even makes cookies with it ALL the time. I need to get Dustyn in on this so he can start baking too! Now what kind of cookie will it be??

baking cookies...

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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