FOUR little FULTONS: you gotta have friends...

Thursday, July 31, 2008

you gotta have friends...

We have the most AMAZING friends! From the beginning of our quad journey we have been blessed. I must say that the first 6 months were a blur. We did not know which end was up. We had some family, friends but most of all our church, Christ Fellowship, there for us. They moved mountains! We do not live near anything & they enlisted so many volunteers to help feed me, feed the babies, do house chores, etc. It still amazes us at how they helped us. We had complete strangers turn into some of our best friends. Isn't that what the Lord tells us, to love one another like he has loved us. Well, They really showed us his love. We thank you SO much! We met Auntie Jody through CF. She started coming when the babies were a few weeks old & stayed till after their 1st birthday. She would come once sometimes twice a week just to help out. She was our BEST babysitter!! When she moved to SC we all cried! We miss her tremendously!! Now that the babies have gotten older & WILDER (hehee) I have 2 of my best girlfriends help me. It's hard to believe that I have known them both for over 20 years!! This ages me! (= I think about how God had us cross paths & I am so grateful that he did! You can see from previous posts I not only am a SAHM but I also get to work part-time too! I am a police/fire dispatcher (in my 19th year! Yikes!). In the beginning I would only work on the weekends but that was making daddy weary. So I decided I would try & work a few week days so I could have part of the weekend off to spend with daddy & the babies. So Auntie Debbie & Auntie Delia come to Grandma's house to watch the babies. They ask nothing from me & are SO good with them. Taking care of four 18 month's old can be quite exhausting yet they enjoy it. The babies LOVE them too! I have such WONDERFUL friends! I just hope that one day I can repay them for all that they do for us!

oh you gotta have friends....

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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