FOUR little FULTONS: I'll be right back...

Thursday, December 30, 2010

I'll be right back...

Oh how much fun CHRISTmas was this year! There was MANY a present unwrapped WAY before it's time! This Mama got quite the refresher course in ift wrapping this season! LOL! We had our good friend "Ollie the Elf" visiting us daily & not even his prescence curbed their mischievous ways! I begged, pleaded & even tried bribing them to behave. They just do NOT listen! One day I had all 4 of them help me load ALL the presents from under our tree to give to some more deserving children! Unfortunately they did NOT care! There they were, helping me load each & every package from under the tree into the back of our 'burb. This time they actually listened to me! Now if they would just behave I would be one HAPPY mama!

The week of CHRISTmas we had a Santa encounter. He actually took time out of his schedule to stop by our house for a visit. At first the tribe did not know what to do, when he walked inside they just stood & stared. The good thing was that they did NOT cry! Santa sat down & starting asking them if they had been listening to their Mama. {We all know that was not happening! LOL!} He reached into his bag & handed the first present to Camryn. As she opened her present which happened to be a Barbie purse with a cell phone, camera & sunglasses, Santa asked her if this is what she wanted.

Leave it to Camryn to speak her mind. She shook her head & replied, "No, I wanted a Dora Doll!". Well that right there shows you how my week was was going! hahah! Needless to say Santa brought 2 more of those purses for her sisters so no one would fight. Luckily Avery LOVED her purse! In fact I think they grew on each of them! He brought Brendan a Buzz Lightyear hand held toy. It is suppose to be educational but I think in the end it's just going to be another thing that makes NOISE! =]

This year I was actually wondering how we were going to "do" CHRISTmas. I know it is about the birth of Christ and not about giving or getting gifts but our tribe is young & they do not know any different. They definitely do not get a lot through out the year & especially not for CHRISTmas but this year was much harder. Finances have been rough. The economy is terrible & just like eveyone else we have been struggling. The tribe attends school which is really strapping us, actually it is putting us further in debt than we need to be. But that discussion will be for another day. Just last week I received the most wonderful call from my Aunt. She had been given MANY hand-me-downs from a mutual friend & wanted us to have them in time for CHRISTmas. Let me tell you how grateful I was for that! I have to say that 3/4th's of what the girls asked for was in those bags! She really made our CHRISTmas! So again I need to say "Thank you" to everyone that has helped our family survive! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Now let's fast forward to CHRISTmas morning. Avery came & crawled into bed with me like she normally does. She was partially awake but awake just enough to remember that she saw a baby stroller by the CHRISTmas tree. I turned to her & said "Santa brought you a stroller?!?". She looked at me with WIDE eyes & said...

I'll be right back...

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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