FOUR little FULTONS: Hurricane Ike

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

WINDY in West Palm....

Well, we were SO lucky!! Hurricane Ike took a southern turn & we escaped it's wrath! However, the Turk's & Cuba were not so lucky! All we seemed to get was WIND! I must say that I love a windy day! The babies loved it too! The wind it their hair & the humidity was nill. I am just happy that there was not a rain cloud in sight! We do not need any more rain to add to the lake that was once my back yard! ha! It is weird how we have been in a drought for so long, had water restrictions, etc.. & now after 4 tropical storms we do not the rain! Lake "O" is pretty full to where they almost want to drain some water off if another storm passes our way. Why is that?? I do not think that I will ever understand their logic! I cannot wait for November 30th or should I say Dec 1st when Hurricane Season will be officially over! YAY! For now it is just...

WINDY in West Palm....

Sunday, September 7, 2008

HOT & humid in Florida....

It looks like S Florida might be spared from the wrath of "Ike". I do not wish harm on anyone but I am glad that we are staying out of the cone of destruction! It was looking like we were cruising for a bruising! Thank the Lord that it has steered clear of us! I must admit that after dealing with SO many Hurricane's I can actually say that we made every attempt to be prepared. I mean how do you prepare to bunker down during a category 4 storm with four little one's? This would be our first experience in doing so. We got off lucky last year! Mom & I went to Costco to get all our Hurricane supplies. We now have PLENTY of water, canned goods & ton's of batteries. My niece Lauren advised me on what type of batteries most toys require. She says that they use a lot of double A's. Ha! It is better to be safe than sorry so we stocked up! Now we just wait & see if we need to close up the shutters. THANK YOU Mom for investing in the easy kind of Hurricane shutters! All we have to do is slide them out & lock themin place! If only it was all this easy! IF "Ike" continues to stay away & we are not affected we can at least say we were prepared! This Hurricane Season reminds me of the summer of 2005. We seemed to have a new storm every 10 days! No matter how often & "routine" it may seem for us Floridians it never gets old. It is always on our minds. SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY! So getting back to the preparing four small children part.. Dustyn & I brought a few ride on toys of theirs from home for them to share or should I say learn to "share". Grandma has a bunch of toy's already here so it should not be that bad. To make matters even worse all of the babies are sick. They all have a cold & yuckies in their nose's! I think that this will be a learning experience for all of us. I just hope & pray that we do not lose power. We are spoiled & LOVE our A/C! Remember, even though we have some beautiful beaches & we're known as the Sunshine State, Florida has a...

HOT & humid Hurricane Season....

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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