FOUR little FULTONS: indoor activities....

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

indoor activities....

Since we are in the start of an ACTIVE Hurricane season I have decided to clean house & see what we really have stored away for a rainy day. We have been SO blessed by receiving so many hand me down clothes & toys! I have hoarded them away for just the right opportunity and it looks like the time is now! I discovered a ton of baby clothes, won't some new mommy be happy when I show up with that box!!, quite a few wooden puzzles & a "ride on" toy that they almost outgrew. I put it together yesterday when they napped. Boy you should have seen them when they saw it for the first time! I should have known better than to have only 1 new toy because all they did was fight over who was going to ride it. Luckily the horn, gear stick, center console thing came off so I could give that to one child, another could sit on it & one could push the child that was sitting on it. I had three of the four covered, oh to be the odd man out! I decided the one left out would get to spend some quality "mommy time". Whew! I escaped that trap! If a Hurricane comes what am I gonna do?? I need to get better prepared! So I am starting to organize all of their stuff. Not only do I have to organize the stuff we use but I also have to get rid of TONS! I have started a box of toys to give to Miss Janet, their former developmental therapist. We met her through "Healthy Start" where our little ones received developmental therapy from her in our home. She is truly one of a kind & works with mostly premature babies that qualify for her program. She brings a bag of "tricks", developmental toys, that she purchased on her own. SO whenever I have a developmental toy I try to pass it along to her. Then I have a box for a deserving family associated with the NICU full of clothes they have outgrown & then last but not least one for Goodwill. I always want to return the favor when we have been SO blessed. I never throw things away, I always find them a good home. Those last two boxes are the hardest on my hubby BECAUSE they never leave our house till they are full. He likes a CLEAN house full of no clutter! We have baby stuff EVERYWHERE! See what having four babies does to you? ha! I should have done this a LONG time ago! But I thrive under pressure! hehee! So I better get started while they are napping. I hope everyone enjoys their...

indoor activities....

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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