FOUR little FULTONS: oooh...

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

oooh...

As I am sitting here starting to write this post Avery has walked up to me telling me "potty". So I ask her if she has to use the potty & she says "yes". She is my "yes" girl. I mean that she is the only one of them that uses the "yes" word. The others will say uh huh, yeah, or YAY but not really "yes".After answering "yes" to my question she proceeds to put the death grip on my hand & starts dragging me off to potty central. Potty central is my name for the area in the middle of our home that I put all of their potty's so we have less accidents. I lined them up in front of the TV so they can do their business & watch some Sesame Street at the same time! LOL! Having Avery drag me there was most likely so I would witness her going pee but what I want her to do is POOP! I know TMI but this is my wish! It's just one step closer to not having to buy any more diapers! We have not had many of those monumental moments where they poop in the potty so I keep dreaming! It is my dream that if they poop more in the potty then we will be closer to having fully potty trained children on our hands. If this is not the case please do NOT burst my bubble. I am the mother of two and 1/2 quadruplets that I'm trying to potty train by my lonesome so let me have some hope! LOL! This past week has been a BUSY one around here. The tribe has reached many new milestones and we couldn't be any prouder!First off Avery attempted to "swim" to her Daddy without hesitation or prompting. I know, SCARY! There she was in Grandma's pool pushing off from the steps to Daddy who was about 5 feet away. He had NO idea that she was going to do this! If I did not witness it myself I would not have believed it! She is our "dare devil", absolutely LOVES the water. Swimming lessons are a TOP priority now! The next "adventure" has been in the potty training dept. This is where I want to pull my hair out! Potty training four munchkins is not much fun! We have tried this for the past 7 months, off and on. Even with Linz being the best "trainee". I dread training them each day. I sort of gave up for a bit just to keep my sanity while Linz kept at it. She will take her diaper off & sit on the potty for just one drop. Oh how I love her! Even with her being the best at potty training Camryn one upped her! She pooped on the potty WITHOUT freaking out! She has pooped before but ALWAYS had a melt down. She literally sat there & pooped. Oh I forgot to mention that she did this on the BIG potty! She received MANY "high five's" & the best present ever, chocolate covered raisins! Not a day goes by when Brendan then out does that! He did #2 while we were swimming! No he did not poop in the pool! Not that we have not had that happen but this time he did it in the potty! I have started to bring one of their potty's out with us when we go swimming, just in case. Usually Linz or Aave will pee at least once while we are out there but never have we had a poop! Yesterday was Brendan's big day because he did the deed. I was SO proud of him! I think he was a little proud of himself as well because he then tried to show it off! I do not think his sisters believed that he did it because they gathered around to see. After seeing that he did in fact poop they proceeded to say...

oooh...

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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