FOUR little FULTONS: Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night...

Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night...

CHRISTmas was much more memorable this year than the past. The tribe really enjoyed themselves! We have been reading them the story of Jesus's birth. They really love Jesus. They even sing Happy Birthday! TOO cute! The other person they love talking about is Santa. They do not really like him they just know that he might bring them presents especially if they are good! Now that they are almost three they knew exactly what to do & did it VERY well!No sleeping in at our house! We were awoken VERY early to children on scooters/bicycles trying to enter our room, all at the same time mind you! LOL! They apparently stopped by the tree & found what Santa brought them, SCOOTERS! One glitch to the master plan was that Santa could not get all the scooters together due to a missing part. I guess that's what happens when "he" puts things together last minute! haha! Aave must have thought she was not good enough to deserve on because she said no scooter for me. Ahhh... We told her how Santa left us a note saying he could not find an important part on one of them. He wanted to make sure it was safe so since he could not do that he left us a special certificate to bring to the store to get it fixed & get a safe one! She liked that & went on to the next toy. Oh to see the joy on their faces from opening presents, presents & more presents. They really got the ripping open presents down to a science. This year it was NOT all about the box! hahah!Last month during one of my MOPS get togethers one of the women told us how they do Christmas in their house. Her husband happens to be one of the pastors from our church and way back when their kids were little & she attended MOPS a woman passed this along to her so she in turn passed it along to us. Giving your children three gifts just like Jesus received. You know the gifts the three wise men brought, Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh. I LOVED that idea! I wish she would have told us this in like April, when I started shopping! {Buying for 5 I have to start EARLY!} Trying to keep CHRIST in Christmas has been hard to do since everywhere you look there is Santa & not enough Jesus! We need more nativity sets around town too! That is why we now have a nativity set in front of our house this year. Keeping Christ in Christmas! Do not get me wrong Santa definitely visits the Fulton home. I think in the end they each received 5, hopefully next year we will be able to accomplish that feat. At the end of this busy & chaotic day we can say...

Merry CHRISTmas to all and to all a good night...

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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