FOUR little FULTONS: Trick or Treat, Smell my feet, Give me something good to eat!!

Friday, October 31, 2008

Trick or Treat, Smell my feet, Give me something good to eat!!

Well we decided that we would try to do the "trick or treating" thing with the babies this year. We went to my cousin Lori's neighborhood which is gated & has sidewalks!! YAY! It was an adventure!! The girls were mice & Brendan was suppose to be a "hunk" of cheese. That did not turn out very well. We decided to face the inclimate weather & do some trick or treating. My cousin Lori's daughter Raine did their faces up to look like they had whiskers & a nose. They sat still enough for her to paint it on, AMAZING! It ended up rubbing off but looked cute while it lasted! Over all it was a WILD night! First "Auntie Karen" taught them how to do it. She had them say "trick or treat" to people all over my cousin Lori's house & they then gave them candy in their pumpkin buckets. They caught on VERY quick in fact TOO quick.

Lindsey ruined her mouse costume with chocolate drool. It was terrible! I had not even taken their pictures yet! BAD mommy! (= She ended up wearing a ballerina costume of Raine's. SO we now had 2 mice, 1 Angelina ballerina mouse & a half "hunk" of cheddar cheese. Well, Mother Nature was not very nice to us & rained practically the entire evening. The babies did not care but the BIG kids did not want to weather it. We all got DRENCHED!! At our very first house Lindsey toppled down the front steps. She did not miss a beat, just got up and proceeded to get her candy. I have to admit that I laughed after I knew she was ok. That was terrible of me BUT it was funny! She was like the energizer bunny, takes a licken but keeps on ticking! Avery was a pro! She walked up to the house with Raine, put her bucket out, got her candy & walked back down the driveway.

She got to one house that had these BIG glass windows on both sides of their front door. They were floor to ceiling & just tinted slightly, well she walked right into it. Again she was not hurt. Our twins are SO resilent! It was just a sight! This is when I wish I would have brought my video camera! (= As we continued to make the rounds they walked through EVERY puddle, in their brand NEW shoes! ugh! Oh to be a kid! I must say that they cleaned up in the candy dept. Just wait till they REALLY understand what this is all about. We are gonna be in for it!! They be YELLING...

Trick or Treat, Smell my feet, Give me something good to eat!!

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