FOUR little FULTONS: listening to music

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Let's get Physical...

I can remember it like it was yesterday, I was about ten years old and my mom had sent me to go visit my oldest brother Jim in Maryland. It was my very FIRST flight & due to some family connections I was able to fly FIRST Class on Eastern Airlines. {Remember that airline?} You see my Dad's cousin Pete worked there & on the day of my flight we stopped in to see him. Somehow he finagled me a FIRST Class ticket. Don't know how but he did. I was excited just to be going on a trip let alone FIRST Class! This was back when they served you fancy food on REAL plates. Don't remember the food but I do remember that they did not seat anyone next to me! I was a talker even back then so no talking for an ENTIRE flight was just plain awful! When my brother arrived at the gate to pick me up I was literally speechless! LOL! My brother Jim is twelve years older than me so he had his own apt and a COOL job working at the Pentagon. I remember his stereo system the most. It was not normal tapes but something that looked like a movie reel. He had ALL kinds of albums for me to listen to but the one album that I really loved was Olivia Newton John. I listened to it OVER & OVER! By the time my trip was over I knew EVERY song by heart including the one I mentioned, "Let's get Physical". Boy am I dating myself!!

Fast forward to the other day when I had to bring Dustyn in for his fifteen year check up. He graduated from the eighth grade & next year it's High School! YIKES! So off to the Doctor we went! From the moment the nurse said "I have a few things I need to check you on for this physical" I just knew there would be a GREAT post in those words! Hehee! I immediately took out my camera & started taking some pictures! [=

Besides getting two vaccines he had his vision tested {FYI it was NOT as good as his Dad's}, his hearing tested & lastly his blood pressure. Let's just say that D was NOT happy to have me taking his picture! LOL! What? I write about the mundane yet funny things we do! And just like almost every other activity we do a song comes to mind when we do it! So the next time you have to take your kid in for a check up just remember me and sing...

Let's get Physical...

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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