FOUR little FULTONS: 4 little swimmers...

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

4 little swimmers...

SO much has happened in the last week or so in regards to the tribe & swimming. I know that I have posted MANY times about how difficult & EXPENSIVE it has been to try to get all four of them swimming lessons. SO expensive that basically we just could not afford it so we have taught them ourselves. OK, actually their Daddy has taught them. I do not know exactly how he did it but he did! We went from having those Dollar Store swimmies {Even though they are cheap DON'T buy them!!}, to buying some AWESOME US Coast Guard approved "Puddle Jumper's", to FINALLY not wearing anything at all!!

All I can say is that their Daddy has been VERY consistent & they are actually understanding what he's telling them. I think they listen to him more anyway! LOL! It's really been like a light went off & they finally got "it". My hubby is AMAZING! He has worked with them pretty much every night or every other night plus weekends on getting them to swim sans assistance. It was Avery, his "girl" that took to it first. I hate to admit it but she is our little daredevil so she will try anything at least once! Well it did not take her long to start LOVING it & she has been swimming without swimmies for over a week. Can you guess who our hold out was? It was actually a toss up between Cam & Bren. They were SO scared to part with their "life jacket" that they cried for a good part of an hour just at the thought of having to swim like a BIG kid! If it took Avery a day to learn this it took Lindsey a day and a half! She was right behind her sister in the swimming dept. In fact she can now do "tricks"! Yes, she calls it being a "mermaid". She will flip over as she is swimming to me. I think she looks like a "special" fish but if she thinks it's being a mermaid then it's being a mermaid! LOL! The best part is that she does all of this WITHOUT taking on water OR holding her nose! I am SO proud of her! In fact none of them hold their nose. WOO HOO! I just hope that continues & they don't get to where they need to hold it! Fast forward to today when it was just them & me in the pool. Yes, Call me crazy but this is usually how it goes, them & me! {FYI, I make sure I have a cordless phone nearby just in case!} They were jumping in from our spa to swim to me. It's sad because they are really growing up! sniff sniff... I cannot tell you who was the fastest or kicked the hardest to swim to me! It was CRAZY! I felt like we were like this well oiled machine that ran SO fast! As soon as one child asked "Can I swim to you Mommy?" and took off the next child was right there in the wings about to take off themselves. {FYI, I make them ask to swim to whomever so no one, mostly ME, is ever unprepared to have a kid headed in their direction! [=} Picture this times FOUR & they kept going turn after turn! I do not know who was more tired, them or me! What's even crazier is that by looking at all four of them you would never even know that one started swimming before the other one. They all look just like...

4 little swimmers...

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....

Blog Archive

These words & pictures are MINE & MINE alone