FOUR little FULTONS: a place like no other...

Saturday, September 19, 2009

a place like no other...

For years I have told people about my "list", the list of places I want to go & people I want to see before I died. These days they call it a "bucket list". I consulted & attained MANY items off this list BQ, before quads. I was a world traveler. Ask my nieces, they would get post cards from my many travels. Well those days are OVER! I am lucky if I can take a trip to the bathroom by myself let alone a trip to a far off place. LOL! Now that the tribe is getting older & I am getting feistier I have started making plans to take THEM places. When their "list" & mine cross paths I get excited! Since Camryn's godmother Marisa, one of my dearest friends, lives in MN, near the Mall of the America's I knew we would both get items checked off our lists! The Mall of the America's has been on my list FOREVER! It is one of those places that you just HAVE to see in person! It has four floors of shops, shops & more shops! PLUS it has a roller coaster & a buttload of rides like a carnival has. It is AMAZING! I am a shopper, I hate to admit it but I am. I just love to shop! Ok let me clarify myself, I can spend the day shopping even if I never buy a thing! I like to dream of the day when we win the Lotto & the lack of money is out of the equation FOREVER! Don't get me wrong, I can be frugal but I also like nice things, always have, always will. I would much rather save my $ for a NICE item then waste it on something crappy! SO when my dearest friend Marisa moved to MN I knew I would get to check off shopping at the Mall of the America's! WOO HOO! This trip took many failed attempts until the planets aligned just right & we actually boarded the plane & put our feet down on the Minnesota soil. Trust me when Marisa said we'd be spending the afternoon at the Mall of the America's I was psyched! The mall is HUGE! The section with all of the rides in it is done up with a Nickleodeon theme. There was Dora & even Sponge Bob coasters! I am NOT a roller coaster enthusiast at all! But being that this was a once in a lifetime trip I sat my butt down on the first roller coaster I saw. There I was flying through the sky on Sponge Bob! See the things you'll do when on vacation! LOL! One cool thing Marisa planned for us was lunch at the American Girl Bistro. You can actually eat with your doll sitting in a high chair at your table. WILD! If you have a daughter under the age of 10 then you know all about the American Girl & their ability to suck you in hook, line & sinker! We had such a fun time & the food was actually VERY yummy! Years ago I told myself when I had a daughter I would not fall for those gimmicks but there I was! After our yummy lunch I was searching the store for an "Itty Bitty" baby doll that looked just like Camryn. Yep I am one of "those" mom's now! ha! First off, they don't have a sandy blonde "Itty Bitty" with brown eyes! What is up with that!? They have the more expensive American Girl doll in practically any combo just not the "Itty Bitty" babies! When you are buying for four children you go the least expensive route. Instead of just getting a doll for Cam I decided getting a set of "Itty Bitty Twins" was the better deal. Getting two dolls means eventually I will have to get two more, YES, Brendan gets a doll too! I cannot leave him out! He likes dolls just about as much as his sisters. SO there I was being suckered in to buying "Itty Bitty Twins", a brown hair, brown eyed girl for Cam & a blonde haired, blue eyed boy for Bren. I have to admit they are pretty darn cute even if their clothes leave less to be desired. See once they get you to buy the dolls then there's the clothes & all the EXTRAS! CRAZY I tell ya! Needless to say Daddy was NOT a happy camper when he saw that receipt! LOL! This shopping adventure took place in...

a place like no other...

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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