FOUR little FULTONS: the party pooper...

Friday, September 17, 2010

the party pooper...

The tribe's school held a fundraiser at California Pizza Kitchen this past Sunday so off we went. Anything to support our FAVORITE school! =] This was being held at the California Pizza Kitchen inside the mall at Wellington Green. We LOVE this mall especially since they have a COOL play area done up like breakfast food for little ones. They even nickname the place the "Fruit Pit". There's waffles, pancakes & various other pieces of fruit for kids to trod all over. I never even thought twice about bringing them in there. Boy was that a BAD idea! Note to self: NEVER go to the "Fruit Pit" on a weekend! YIKES! You see even though there are signs clearly marked saying you have to be NO taller than I believe 42" & people seem to overlook that sign & bring their BIG kids in there to play. Now when I say BIG kids I really mean BIG kids! These children looked like they could have been in Middle School, actually like MINI ADULTS! WAY bigger than the sign posted at the front of the play area! To make matters even worse this day the Mall had had hired someone to paint faces & blow up these CRAZY shaped balloons for everyone. This gave the BIG kids even more to do because now they were chasing after each other with their balloon "art". It was pure chaos! If you think it's hard to keep up with your kids under normal circumstance try thinking about keeping up with them during all of this! It was CRAZY!!

Some of these balloons were done up as swords & they proceeded to sword fight in the middle of this play area! Yes they were acting like Pirates or something, it was rough! A few small children were even lost in the shuffle, knocked down & bruised up. I am not surprised if one of them even get a concussion from the hit they took. Sadly the BIGGER kid never even acknowledged knocking the child over. Again, just TERRIBLE! No parents of that BIG kid ever came forward to talk to their child, it was like they were not even there! I really hope they did not just drop their kids off but who knows they never intervened! People just sat back & took this all in as "play time" or better yet "entertainment". It was then & there I knew I would be writing about this "moment". I even felt compelled to post a small blurb about this "adventure" on our FB page. So if someone of importance took note & a change does occur you can just call me...

the party pooper...

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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