FOUR little FULTONS: once in their life...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

once in their life...

We were SO lucky this past weekend to get away MINUS the munchkins! My 2nd cousin Jackie & her fiance' David got married in Louisiana & they invited us! We were SO SO appreciative to have this mini vacation I cannot tell you! This was not the first time they had an overnight HOWEVER it was the first time we split the foursome up! We are SO lucky to have such WONDERFUL people in our lives offer to take them just so we could go away. AMAZING! Debbie, aka "Auntie Debbie", took Camryn & Brendan. It was a no brainer for that choice! She LOVES Camryn! Not that she has a favorite! LOL! She has been SO good to us. She will watch all 4 of them when I work during the week. Our cousin Linda took the "twins", aka Avery & Lindsey. She has a grandson, Roman, that is one year younger than them so there was another child there for them to play with. We are SO blessed having them in our lives. Not just anyone would offer to watch your kids when you go away on a mini vacation let alone out of the state! I prepared the munchkins for weeks on who would be where. I wanted to make sure they knew were everyone was. Like a two year old can tell! ha! Anyhow one day I quizzed them, I asked them to raise their hands if they were going to Auntie Debbie's. Both Camryn & Brendan raised their hands, I was in TOTAL shock! I guess those brains are sponges! I think they needed this mini vaca as much as we did! I just hope they do not wear out their caretakers! This is how it all went down... I put Camryn & Brendan's car seats into Debbies car a day earlier. Then I arranged for my good friend Delia to spend the night at my mom's house the night before we left. She planned it perfect & was there to play with them before they went to bed. Our flight was EXTRA early so I did not want them to have to spend another night away from us. It worked out perfectly! We left around 530am for the airport as they were sound asleep in their own cribs. They got up around 8am & had their breakfast not knowing we were LONG gone. Then Debbie & Linda came to get them shortly there after. They each had pack n'plays for each child PLUS highchairs & a BIG bag full of all their stuff. I packed for it all! They had toys, snugglies, clothes to play in, eat in, swim in, sleep in, go out in & even COLD weather clothes! (Just in case! LOL!) Then there was the diapers. It was hard for me to figure out how many diapers 2 children would go through! I figured it's better to have more than less! Linda had her hubby drop her off at my mom's so she could just take the BURB with Avery & Lindsey's carseats already in it. MUCH easier for me! I told them before we left that I would try to call twice a day but not before bed. I did not want them missing us & then have to go to sleep thinking about how much they missed us. Well... that was in my dreams because they never even missed us! There were times we would call & they said they did not want to talk to us! Can you believe that!? Those little rascals! They were having the time of their life while we were away! We felt so good knowing that they were being loved on even if it wasn't us doing the loving! LOL! We kept ourselves busy so we did not miss them too much! The first day was SO strange! There was NO food to cut up, NO nap time or schedule to follow, no baths to run. It was VERY surreal! I hope everyone with a ton of kids can feel this...

once in their life...

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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