Week 23- Another week down!!

These weeks are flying by and I am getting more and more excited to put names to these little miracles of mine. I get so excited thinking about delivery day! The anticipation of meeting these "littles" that God has given our family and just knowing that we did everything we could to get them here safely gives me little butterfly's in my tummy. I just can't wait. I have loved all my labors and even though this time it will have to be a c-section I am sure the day will be just as wonderful as April 2, 2008 when we meet our sweet little girls and June 21, 2010 when we welcomed Drew into the world. 

We had another wonderful week of growing quads. Paul again worked on the nursery. We had a family friend that started the mudding process of the new walls and next weekend it will be finished. Paul and my step-dad then painted the old part of the nursery on Sunday and it looks so awesome. I can not wait to see it all finished. While the painting was going on my mom took the girls grocery shopping while I rested and I think she forgot how much work it is to take 2 four year olds shopping! When they got home my mom made about five meals for us to have frozen in the freezer for the week. It has been so nice to not have to think about preparing dinner. I just go to the freezer and choose! Thank you mom and Jerry for all you have done for us lately. My mom has been coming over every evening that Paul is gone to bathe the kids and help get them to bed. It has been wonderful to have her help in the evenings.

I am still feeling amazing. I really have to remind myself sometimes that I am carrying four babies and not just a full term kiddo. The things I have noticed this week is that I can constantly hear my heartbeat in my ears. It gets really annoying but the doctor confirmed that I am feeling it because of the blood volume that is circulating inside me. I also have a lot of pressure/pain down below. For those who have been pregnant it is the last month pressure you feel. I mentioned it to the doctor and she recommended a belly support band. I used one with the girls when my belly got really heavy but hasn't gotten to that point yet in this pregnancy. The doctor explained that just supporting my belly may help relieve some of the pain. So I will try that this week to see if it makes a difference. She also said the pain may never go away until delivery since this is my third pregnancy and the muscles are just weaker now. She said if it gets worse during the day then I know I need to rest more. The babies again looked great with good fluid levels and my cervix went from 3.4 to 3.9!!! I love anytime it is above 3.5. Again no new restrictions and we will have another appointment next week with a growth scan. Hoping for the babies to be between 1-1.5lbs. 

Paul's mom and grandma arrive on Tuesday and I am so excited. It will be nice to have company and also to have more help around the house. The kids are also excited and need some activities to run off energy. They are starting to drive their mother crazzzy!! I am going to start working with a program online called care calendar to coordinate different things that we will need help with once the kiddos are born. It is a website that with a password that will be given out by Paul or I people will be able to sign up for talents that each person has. Whether it's helping bring meals, laundry, playing with the older kids, or coming over to help watch babies so that mom and dad can get some rest. As far as the feedings go we are planning on having a small group that we can rely on consistently to help with the feedings. Since they will be preemies and may not have the best eating ability when they come home we want to be able to teach a group of people what works best for each baby so that the babies can gain weight as they need to and have as few feeding issues as possible. We will also be bringing the kiddos home right at the beginning of RSV season and want to do everything to prevent the babies from getting this. We don't want to be rude to anyone but we want our babies health  to be our number one priority. If you are interested in being part of the group that helps with feedings let me know. We are hoping we can get people that can consistently fill a certain day of the week so we can get some kind of routine going.

Now for something a little fun!! We thought it would be interesting to start a poll to see what people think these babies are and when they will be born. A small prize will be given for the person closest with all guesses (don't expect the prize to be mailed the day they are born...we may be a tad busy for a little while!!). So either comment on the blog, facebook or email Paul or I with your guesses. Remember there are four babies to guess for. I will be 28 weeks on July 20, 32 weeks on August 17 and 34 weeks on August 31. My prediction for these babies are 3 little men and one princess born on September 2. Happy guessing!

Baby A (above)

Baby D sucking his/her thumb

Drew & Grandma having some kitchen fun

I just don't think all seven of our kids will be able to line up for morning cartoons on the coffee table! And yes Drew has a hair clippy in...it's what happens when you have two older sisters!

Still no bed rest at 22 weeks!!!

So this morning I decided to get the nasty glucose testing done that all pregnant women have to have done. Can I just say I dread this test so much. I had to do the one hour test with both the girls and Drew and still remember how yucky it made me feel with the girls. Well my doctor decided to have me do the two hour test this time. I had to fast for 12 hours prior to the test which is a long time for someone feeding a total of five people! I then have to get my blood drawn three times in a two hour timeframe...not bad, but the feeling of your blood sugar going sky high I could live without. I can't wait to get to the car and eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Don't think I have ever been so excited for protein! 

We did have a little excitement this week in quadville. On Sunday evening we went swimming and it felt so great to just float around. After we got the kids into bed I noticed my tummy was feeling tighter than usual and I was occasionally having a contraction. I told Paul I need to lie down and everything seemed to settle after some rest and fluids. But the next morning I noticed the same tightening so took it easy and rested from about 2-6 in the afternoon but I couldn't sleep because I was nervous and debating between going into the hospital or resting because I had just been too active. I talked to my mom and she was quick to remind me that it's not worth the risk of waiting so I made the call to my doctor and he had me come down to the hospital. My mom came over and Paul and I left. On the way to the hospital he was going a really weird way and I asked him if he remembered how to get there? He looked at me and said you need a Dairy Queen. Sure I was up for it but I really think he just wanted one! After we arrived at the hospital and got hooked up to the monitors I was able to show them a very nice contraction right away. I was having them about every 12 minutes which wasn't awful. They get worried when you have 6 or more in an hour. I was given some vesteril which slowed things down and was sent home at midnight. I slept like a baby once we got home and my awesome husband was kind enough to let me sleep til 9:30 the next morning! 

 I had a routine appointment the next day so I was interested to see if the contractions had done anything to my cervix and if bed rest would start. All the babies looked great and their fluid levels are still adequate. Baby A and B are both head down and Baby C and D are transverse butting heads in the middle. My cervix shortened from 3.7 to 3.5 which I immediately got nervous about. The doctor could tell right away that I was worried so he was very quick to let me know this is not significant. My cervix was still closed and no funneling so I got another good report on the all important cervix! I did get a prescription for the vesteril to take as needed if I notice the tightening or contractions starting up again. I had a discussion with the doctor about bed rest. I told him I don't want to wait to go on bed rest until we realize I should have gone on it two weeks ago. He said there are two reasons for bed rest; a shortening cervix or pure exhaustion. He explained that my cervix is still great and I'm still doing well with activity. He wants to continue to see me every week but is happy with how things are going. Yay, you gotta love when the doctor is happy!!

Paul's mom is arriving on the 19th and I can't wait. I know I will be spending a lot more time resting than I have been and I know that is what I need right now. I am tired and I have a hard time doing much with the kids and I feel guilty for this. I know Grandma will have lots of fun projects, baking and outside time for the kids and I will be able to do the quiet activities of reading, singing them songs and just snuggling while watching a movie. 

On Friday we will be at 22 weeks and I am getting so nervous. At 24 weeks the "littles" will reach a point were they could survive outside the womb with lots of medical care but their mortality and risk of long term health complications are high. I am excited to get to 24 weeks and we are so close but I want to do everything I can to not have them born between 24 and 28 weeks. I will be so excited to check off each of those weeks with the munchkins still growing safely in my tummy. 

I do have to tell a story from the doctors office yesterday just to keep this blog real! I was lying flat after the doctor had checked my cervix and I was talking to him about my weight gain which is now up 30lbs...yikes! I was a little concerned about the weight coming on too fast now and what woman likes to see the numbers climbing on the scale even when you know how important it is. The doctor grabs my tummy, which when I am laying flat looks a little like bread dough, and starts literally squishing and kneading it! Okay talk about mortified!! I already have issues with my self confidence and here is a man telling me "this is what I call a belly of gold!" I just about died. I can't even begin to imagine what kind of "dough" I am going to have after these babies are born. So not excited for the post baby body with this pregnancy. 

Paul is gone for the next two days for work so the kids and I will be vegging out on the couch watching way to many movies and luckily grandma and auntie will come over to help with dinner and baths. We may even go through some of the baby clothes that have been gifted to us. So hoping for a quiet week until our next appointment on Tuesday. Again thank you everyone who has let me know that they are still praying for our "littles". It means so much to Paul and I.

Baby B (above)- the pictures are not as good as they once were because there is less room each week and they tend to be all curled up.

Baby C- a tad squished!

My little man!! Love him

Week 22- My wedding rings still fit but I hate having anything constricting on right now!

Week 21: Nursery remodel and Wedding Engagements

I have to start this post off by letting everyone know my little sister is getting married!!! I am so excited for her because though she knew a proposal was in the works she had no clue it was going to take place when it did. At least now when I find myself on bed rest her and I will have lots of fun looking through everything wedding! Brings me back to when I was planning my own wedding and here I am ten years later with 7 kids, a dog and two cats. Wonder were Nicole and Jess will be in ten years?!? I love you both and can't wait for the big day and Jess thank you for making my sister so happy.

Nicole & Jess

Last weekend was the big nursery remodel and I know I will never be able to live in a house that is under construction. Paul, my stepdad and my sister's boyfriend worked a very long Saturday tearing out walls and building new ones. Then Paul spent two more days hanging sheetrock. It was a lot of work but looks amazing. Paul keeps joking that he is going to take the babies room because it turned out great. We now just need to wait for the texturing guy to come over this week and then its time for paint. I will post pictures as soon as we have paint on the walls. We almost have a place to put these four little munchkins and that makes for a very happy momma!

Our weekly appointment showed absolutely no change in the good old cervix. My doctor took a look on ultrasound, did a couple measurements and said, "hurry up get off the table, get dressed and get out of here. Your doing so well I don't want to see you again until next week so go." So another week down. The weekly appointments do get tiring because it is a little bit of a drive to each appointment but I think knowing I get to see the babies each week helps the time pass so quickly. I only have about two more weeks that I can still get a cerclage if my cervix would shorten before the risk are higher than the benefits so hopefully there will be no changes in the next two weeks. 

The kiddos continue to kick away in my tummy and instead of just the little flutters they are now doing full flips, throwing right jabs and kicking each other back and forth. Very seldom is someone not moving. It could get very interesting in the next couple of weeks. Other than that not much more to report. I took a picture this week in the same shirt as my last picture so you can see how much growing happens in about a week and a half. 

19 1/2 weeks

21 weeks

(Please ignore the way I look in the 21 week picture. It was night time after a 100 degree day and a three hour nap! I just wanted to be able to compare one week to the next and the HUGE changes!!!)

The "20's" and our anatomy scan

We have:

Four perfect little heads,

Eight perfect little arms with forty fingers,

 

Four perfect little beating hearts,

 Four perfect little spines,

 

Eight perfect little legs,

 Eight perfect little feet with forty toes,

 

the sum of these parts are four 

perfect little babies

 

made to perfection by God & loved by their 

mom & dad.

We are so in love with our little munchkins and can't wait to meet all of them! This week flew by and we have officially entered the "20's"! I feel like we have now rounded second base. From now until week 28 we will be making the stretch from second base to third. Then onto home base until week 32 and then after that each day will be a celebration at home plate after a grand slam. We are getting closer and closer and the anticipation of loving on them is building each day. In the last two weeks I have felt these babies come alive and they are moving all over. I love it and it has to be my very favorite thing about being pregnant. Paul felt the first baby move last night. I think Baby D was thanking his daddy for taking his mommy out on a fabulous date night! 

I want to thank everyone for their support last week. It was just one of those weeks and after I put it into words and admitted my fears I could face them head on. I am asked many times a day how I am feeling and for being twenty weeks with quads I can't really complain compared to my other pregnancies. Occasional back ache, round ligament stretching, getting up to the bathroom more times a night than I can count and just being plain exhausted most of the time would be on my list of biggest complaints but now that the nausea is completely gone day to day life is that of a full term pregnant person with a little more sleep. 

We had our doctors appointment on Tuesday which included lying on a table for two hours in a dark room so each baby could have their moment of fame on ultrasound. It was a long two hours only because it was nap time and I really do think I was falling asleep at times and I know Paul was because I was watching his head bop up and down! In the end we had a great report that all the babies parts were as expected and appeared normal. There were no evidence of clefts or other anomalies. We also got our first official weight on each baby and they weighed in at 10oz, 11oz, 12oz, & 11oz. These weights have them falling into the 35-76% for a singleton. I asked if we need to worry about the smallest one and the doctor laughed & said, "these are percentiles for singletons, they don't have charts for quads so they are all doing fabulous". We then moved onto how I was doing and the good old cervix. I actually got a "I can't believe how well you are doing" from the doctor and that was all I needed! Another week down without restrictions and I couldn't be happier. My blood pressure still remains low which will be watched closely throughout the remaining of the pregnancy and my weight is finally going up like it should. I gained 10lbs in three weeks so now up 23lbs for the pregnancy. Still hard to see that number on the scale but I also know its going to get a lot higher over the next 12 weeks. Thank God for plastic surgeons!!

I have to share a cute little story from Wednesday. We had to go pick up Paul's new work truck about two hours away from home. After pretty much being in the car for four hours the kids and I were ready to get out. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a couple of things for dinner. On the way into the store a lady kept looking at me. One of those moments when you are trying to figure out if you know them and I knew I didn't. She came up to me with a smile on her face and commented that I was the busiest person she had seen all day. Thank goodness my kids were actually behaving themselves and all just standing holding hands at that moment. I was thinking to myself if only she knew the whole story. So I told her thank you and was ready to continue picking up our groceries. She then pointed to my belly and asked if we were having a boy or girl. I now got a huge smile on my face and said we don't know but we are having four babies. The love her face showed was amazing. She congratulated us and said, "I now know you ARE the busiest mom I know." It was one of those moments that God gave me to tell me that what we are doing is all in His plans and we are not crazy. We will be busy but we will have seven little people to love unconditionally for the rest of our lives.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial weekend of bbq's, boating or just staying dry if you live in MN! We will be busy, or I should say Paul, expanding the nursery. SO excited to get this project done because we can then start preparing their nursery! 

Week 20: Momma and babies

Week 19- Hospital visits and mini melt-downs

Week 20 is just right around the corner and I feel like a teenager that is done being a teenager. It's time to make the big step into the "20's". 

Last week was again quiet and uneventful at the beginning. I continued to grow and tried to rest when possible. We had our weekly appointment on Wednesday and again got a great report. Cervix a little shorter (3.6cm for those following) but still long and closed. This was a measurement that was taken with very little time off my feet during the whole day. In the morning we all went to the airport to welcome Olivia home from Ukraine and snuggle with the most beautiful little princess for a fraction of a second as she was passed from one set of loving arms to another. Talk about one very loved little girl! We then came home and had a quick lunch before the babysitter came. Paul and I went to look at another van that will hold the Von Traps and are undecided between two. One is much more appealing on the outside but lacks many "upgrades" on the inside. The other looks like a mini semi truck from the front but has many nicer bells and whistles throughout the interior. Oh and a price difference of about $15,000 between the two but we will be having this car for probably the next ten or more years! We then headed to Sacramento early for a tour of the hospital I will be held captive in and where our "littles" will make their debut. I will summarize more of the hospital tour in a sec. We then went to the doctors appointment and got the above report. Still no bed rest but I have been cut off from long shopping sprees. No more Costco runs for me. I was so exhausted by the time we got to the appointment that I could hardly communicate with the doctor or the ultrasound tech because I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep. The appointment ended just in time to hit rush hour traffic so we stopped for a bite to eat before heading home and I officially had mini-meltdown one of the week. More coming on this too. By the time we made it home I found the couch and that is all I remember from the day.

Hospital tour: I have trained in the nicu at the hospital the babes will be born at but had never been to labor and delivery so I was excited to see where I would be in lock down and I wanted Paul to get a feel of the nicu. We had a wonderful lady from the hospitals moms of multiples program give us the tour and answered so many of our questions. We first went to the nicu and the neonatalogist (who I work with) were quick to make sure I was just there for a tour and not being hospitalized already. Paul got to see what a 30 weeker looked like and he couldn't believe how small he was and I was telling the nurse that he was a good size for 30 weeks! Guess that's what happens when I am use to taking care of babies in the 2-3 pound range. After the nicu tour we toured the labor and delivery unit. The hospital is old, as in they still have many shared rooms. They are currently building a new hospital but I am a year early to enjoy the new luxuries so I will have to make do. At least I get Sutter priorities for being an employee. I will be using that for all I can to get a private room when the time comes. We also got to see the OR room where I will deliver. They explained to Paul that he is to follow the babies and I will still be in surgery for at least 30 more minutes after the babies are out. He looked at me as if he was asking permission and I just laughed and said yes you go with the babies, I will be just fine!! Having the hospital tour took some of the anxiety away from knowing where to go when the time comes and also made us very excited for the day that we get to meet our "littles".

Mini-meltdown #1: We got to dinner and you have to remember I am exhausted at this point. After we had ordered Paul looked at me and said the most meaningful words to me, "I don't know about you but I can't wait to see our four babies." As we are getting further along it is becoming more and more real that we are going to be parents of quads but as the weeks get closer to viability and then the 28 week mark each week seems so much more important. The next 9 weeks are huge and we have to keep these babies inside me. This seems like such a daunting task for me right now. I am measuring 36 weeks already. For those of you who have been pregnant remember how your last month of your pregnancy was. You can't bend over, you get winded just walking to the door, the braxton hicks contractions from wearing pants that are squishing a little too tightly on your belly, and the stretching skin. Yes I just made a great infomercial for those who have never been pregnant but the problem is I don't just have four weeks left; I hopefully have 13-15 more weeks to go. It's only going to get worse from here. Issue #2: I am also having a hard time dealing with what I am not able to do with my older kiddos right now. Some days I feel like a totally inadequate mother. I have a hard time setting limits and telling myself I am just going to let things go and not do them. It is not my personality. Issue #3: And to top it all off we have nothing ready for these kids. As in no place to put them when we get home. We will hopefully be completing the closet in their nursery this coming weekend but then we have to wait for bunk beds to get here for the big kids before we can clean out the toy room (aka nursery). I already know that I will not be the one completing the nursery and it will be a surprise for me when I come home after delivery and I am okay with that. I just wish it looked like we are some what prepared for these kids. This was the basics of my meltdown and many of the above issues have continued to resurface this week. I  am hoping its hormones and I can get off this pity party ride soon because it is not fun.

The exciting news is we did confirm with a family friend/photographer that she would love to be in the delivery room to capture the miracle of out "littles" making their entrance into the world. I am so excited for this and don't feel bad at all that my mom won't be in the delivery room due to the already overcrowding of the room and the two person rule of who can come in with me. Now I just need to find someone to hand the video camera off to that day and we will have all our photography needs met!

Thursday: a day of recovery for me and the quadlings. I got up and took the girls to preschool and Paul took Drew on some man errands. I came home and was just going to lie down for 10 minutes. I was woken three hours later by two excited four year olds telling me all about their day at school. Oops!! Got up and had lunch and crawled back into bed for a two hour nap with the girls. Had another wake period of about two hours before I was back into bed because I seriously could hardly stand up due to being so tired. I guess Wednesday was just a little to much for this momma.

Friday: Paul is gone for the whole weekend so I pawned the girls off on my awesome sister for the night. The girls have been talking all week about spending the night at auntie Nikki's new house. They were so excited to just do girl things without Drew there. I was excited to drop them off, get Drew to bed by seven and then just have some quiet time without having to retuck kids back into bed for the fiftieth time. This quiet evening quickly came to an end as a lady re-ended me on the way home. Our truck was fine, hers not. Drew was safely tucked in his car seat and I was okay too except for some pain at the top of my uterus. Remember I am measuring the size of a 36 weeker, so a call was made to my ob who said I needed to make the 30 minute trip to the hospital to get monitored. Phone calls made, a Drew happily at the neighbors until my mom could get over and I and the quads tried out the information we received on Wednesday on how to get to triage. I wasn't really planning on using this information this soon! After three hours of being monitored and not a single contraction(!) I was sent home. My relaxing evening totally got thrown out the window but at least all the babies were okay.

So hopefully the next couple of days will go off without incident and fewer melt-down moments. We have the two hour anatomy scan on Tuesday, the last two days of preschool, swim lessons and a prenatal massage to check off our list this week. Oh and hopefully some more fattening up of babies too.

All four "littles". Baby D didn't get the memo that they were all suppose to be breech so he is the only one showing off his bottom!