FOUR little FULTONS: baby books

Thursday, October 9, 2008

just like my mom did...

Ok, SEVERAL people have asked me how do I do this? How do I find the time to keep up this blog. Well, the easiest answer is that I multi task. I really do believe that my previous full time job prepared me for this life as a "quad mom". As a dispatcher you have to be able to MANY things at once. I also do most of the entries when they are napping. So this is the "How" but now for the "Why". I had the most wonderful mother that kept up a "baby book" for me, her 4th child. I must say that she did this for all 4 of us. When I say kept up I REALLY mean it. This baby book was unlike any other out there. It is called "All my Life". It starts at my birth & continues through out my life. Each of us kids had one & my stay at home mom kept it up till we could take over. So I have entries from my mom till I was about 15. EVERY program from church, choir is in there. ANYTHING & EVERYTHING that pertained to me she made sure was in my baby book. I LOVED this baby book so much that way before I ever was married I wanted to secure a few of them for my future family. Low & behold the baby book company CR Gibson that made them discontinued this great book. I was lucky to find 2 baby books so I bought them. SO I put them aside with the Christmas stockings I had my grandmother knit for these children I did not have. I ALWAY'S wanted 4 kids so I had her make 4 stockings. It is SO wild how things worked out like they did. I finally met Michael & we married when I was 32. Then we do not think we could any have babies. After beating the odd's God gave me these 4 miracles & I now have a stocking for each one. Now back to the baby books. Since I now have 4 babies I would need 2 more baby books to be complete. I could not find 2 more so what was I to do. I searched everywhere but could not find 2 more. SO I needed to figure something out PLUS keeping up 4 baby books all at the same time would be SO hard so I decided to start a blog. This would be their "baby book". This way I write about things they each do & they can read about all of it when they get older. I just hope that I can keep up their baby book ...

just like my mom did...

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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