FOUR little FULTONS: adventures from toddler HOOD...

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

adventures from toddler HOOD...

Working for a police dept. you hear a lot about "hood's". You know, where you are from, your neighbor HOOD. Well my "hood" these days is Toddler HOOD and I am DEEP into it with NO chance of turning back! MANY people have scared me by saying 2's are nothing & I need to watch out for the 3's! YAY! Having that knowledge I wish we could just skip over the 3's entirely! Yes I love our children BUT remember we do have 4 of them! 4 whiny, CRAZY, neurotic and sometimes cannibalistic children! Who would have thought human flesh tasted so good!? LOL! Some days life here just really sucks! Sorry to use the "S" word but that is really how I have been feeling lately. I have never been one to hold back how I felt so why start now? This past week has been a real eye opener for me about my Mr B! He seems to have taken on a new role in our house, our CMM, better known as Chief Mischief Maker! I have found him on several occasions wreaking havoc in their bedroom. He has ALWAYS been the "good one" & now I am beginning to re think that title! He has singlehandedly given me SO much EXTRA work this past week! Diapers strewn all over the place, shampoo squirted all over the floor, pulled EVERY wipe out of the wipe container & today smeared zinc oxide all over himself & his sister! What am I gonna do with this boy? I am going to have to do some bedroom furniture re arranging ASAP! It may not look pretty but it will get the job done! (= What makes matters worse is that I am STILL recuperating from having my wisdom teeth extracted. I am the WORST patient when it comes to pain in my mouth! Not feeling all warm & fuzzy if you get my drift! These children have gotten on my very last nerve & it's only Tuesday! ugh!! I think my hubby wishes that I would lose his number so I would STOP calling him when they push my buttons. It's hard dealing with the 4 of them on a good day let alone a BAD one. Our life is just plain HARD! I just want some relief. Last night RELIEF came in the form of Daddy taking the tribe to the grocery store by himself & leaving me home, ALONE! I cannot tell you how much I needed that! I did not even have to ask him to do it! WOO HOO! Being that I was "off duty" & without kids I could then take a pain pill for my jaw. I try not to incapacitate myself when it's just them & me at home alone. That one pain pill did wonders! My head felt better, my jaw stopped throbbing & for once the house was QUIET! No one at my feet screaming my name or upset because one of their siblings ticked them off. I actually felt like myself again & not the lunatic that has been so upset lately. I actually cleaned up & organized a bit. I remembered how much I LOVE organization! (= I got to watch a TV show that I have had on the DVR for the past month. YAY! I love it when I can actually accomplish things! They were gone a little over 2 hours but it felt like FOREVER! I actually looked out the window wondering where they were! CRAZY but true! Oh to think of the MANY gray hairs I will get from these munchkins & it's just the beginning of...

adventures from toddler HOOD...

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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