FOUR little FULTONS: grown up

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...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

a BIG round of applause!

We have a NEW look here on the four little fultons blog site! I felt that since our kiddos are now 2 they deserve a more "grown up" looking blog. We found this WONDERFUL blog designer named Hilary through a "new" friend Gen McNulty & after MANY ?'s on my part this is our new design! I am still tweaking things but this is it. What do you think? Looks good huh! You should check out her web site. Her work is AMAZING! I am SO computer illiterate that this has been one BIG work in progress for me! She has probably received more emails from me about what I like & what I didn't like, etc. Hopefully I did not drive her CRAZY! LOL! I think the FINAL product is AWESOME! SO please join me in giving Hilary...

a BIG round of applause!

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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