FOUR little FULTONS: Teddy Bear Park...

Monday, September 28, 2009

Teddy Bear Park...

OK, While on a recent vacation to MN my friend Marisa brought Camryn, Clare, her friend Eden & me to this really COOL park. Once I saw it I just RAVED about it, so much so that I decided I should do a post about it. It would be a dream come true if someone down my way would build a park like this near us! But since I doubt that will happen any time soon I can just dream! (= First off the park is located in downtown Stillwater, about an hour outside St Paul, in what looks like the side of a mountain. I think they call it bluffs, what do I know, I am a native Floridian. LOL! This is one COOL park! I took as many pictures while we were there & researched it once we got home. It is fittingly called Teddy Bear Park because children can never have TOO many Teddy Bears! There is this HUGE one near the entrance that reminds me SO much of the Teddy Bear from in front of the Children's Hospital at St Mary's. The adjoining hospital to where our quads were born. I think they got it from FAO Schwartz. You know the coolest toy store ever! It's BIG & bronze! Has plenty of room on it's lap for many a child to sit & pose for a picture! Trust me! We took MANY a picture! (= After taking a walk around I found this plaque about how the park came to be. A family must have donated a LOT of money to have this park built for the children of Stillwater. COOL beans! What a nice thing to do for the children! They spared NO expense. There are man made tree houses, a replica bridge to match the one they have in town, a zip line, cliffs to climb on and TONS of cool play areas designed like trains & boats. They say the park is designed for children from the age of 6 months to 7 years. Heck I am no longer a kid but enjoyed it just the same! They even have a building to house parties in! COOL huh!? The girls LOVED every part of this place! I made sure to get as many pictures that I could. My picture do not even come close to capturing this park at it's best! You really need to check out their website. Here is a picture of the girls before we left! Aren't they adorable? Always posing for a camera! (=If you are ever in the neighborhood you should definitely check out...

Teddy Bear Park...

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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