FOUR little FULTONS: flying solo...

Saturday, July 31, 2010

flying solo...

For the past two weeks now I have allowed one child to make the trek down to Grandma's with me when I have to go to work. I always stay over at Grandma's if I have an EARLY shift, just makes life easier & less driving in the middle of the night. It was only recently that I decided to let one child tag along with me. I think I realized how important it is for each of them to have that "special" time ALONE without the others being around to pester them. I also know that they need their one on one time with their Mama too! Last week I brought Brendan. Do not ask me how he got to be the "first" one to fly solo but he did. I was working a short shift {3am-7am} so other than making sure it was ok with Grandma I had NO worries about doing this. I have to say that he was AWFUL during the hour drive South. UGH! Not only did he ask me a million questions, scream at the top of his lungs then he even picked up his flip flop, hit me with it & then laughed! Man is he becoming quite the terror lately! I told his he will NOT be coming down to Grandma's with me again for a VERY long time! {Sadly a LONG time will only be more like 4 weeks since I am trying to rotate this "treat" around! LOL!} This week it was Miss Avery's turn. It's only fair to do this rotation in age order. LOL! You should have seen her once I told her she was coming with me! She started bragging like she was in middle school not like the 3 year old that she really is! It was crazy! There she was in the middle of the restaurant saying "I'm going with Mama in Daddy's truck and your not going!" then "I'm going to Grandma's!". Except this time she was going to stay overnight at LuLu & Uncle Bob's house not Grandma's. You see Grandma was out & I did not want to take a chance of her not agreeing to watch her, the little pistol that she is, till Daddy arrived with the rest of the tribe. I was SO happy that Uncle Bob agreed to let her spend the night. FYI this is not the first time she has spent the night away from us just the first time by herself. I dropped her off w/ her blankie, her new stuffed "Pooh", PJ's, an extra set of clothes & Pull Up's. I think LuLu was just about as excited as she was to be staying over! I said my goodbyes & off I went to catch some ZZz's before my early shift. I knew that she would be just fine...

flying solo...

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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