FOUR little FULTONS: hard work

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

he was jealous...

OK, There has been SO much talk about the woman from CA with the octuplets that I just HAD to post this. My hubby told me that he was jealous, that he wished we had eight babies to love! Can you believe that!? Not me! I love the four I was blessed with and am quite content! I about passed out when I heard she had 8! I think she did not think that decision through. Hopefully the babies are healthy & she will get some help! Lord knows she will need it! Having one baby is HARD work but to have 8, YIKES! After thinking about what 8 would be like I just wanted to knock some sense into him for saying it! He was JEALOUS! Is he CRAZY!? He then said he would have LOVED to have four more just like ours! First that he would want ANY more kids at all and then to want 8! I'm telling you he is CRAZY! I think he forgot exactly how HARD that first year was, heck it still is hard! Now don't get me wrong, he does a ton around here to help me with these children & no matter how much I love them I do not wish I would have had 8! I am perfectly content with our "party of 7". I just cannot believe...

he was jealous...

Friday, January 23, 2009

4 times in a row!

That's how many times Lindsey has pee pee'd on the potty! Could we go for 5?!? Nope... 4 seems to be her record for now. I must say that she is definitely getting the hang of this potty training business. Speaking of business, trying to potty train four of them at the SAME time is HARD work! I feel like I am ALWAY'S in the bathroom waiting for a urine sample! I thought those days were over! LOL! They LOVE the idea of everyone sitting side by side, in their "special" potty, yes they think each potty is different just by where it sits on the floor. Sometimes they drive me crazy by how many times they switch seats & then scoot around on them across the floor. I told you this was difficult! ha! Sometimes I am caught saying "Just sit down & pee!". Terrible but it works! Then there are the days where they "pretend" to go. Do they think they can fool me? LOL! SOMETIMES they surprise me & actually do go. Then there's the flushing of it down the BIG potty, oh how they LOVE that! I just wish they would dislike the diaper more so this process would be a whole lot quicker! Now Brendan is the only one that has not peed at all on the potty. I just do not get boys! I asked Michael how he potty trained Dustyn & he said he had him pee when he did. Well, times must have changed because this boy LOVES sitting on the potty, fully clothed & then will proceed to point into his EMPTY potty saying "Pee Pee". Oh to be that cute! I NEVER thought I would be SO happy to have a child pee...

4 times in a row!

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....

Blog Archive

These words & pictures are MINE & MINE alone