Drum Roll Please……

April 11, 2012April 11, 2012Amber 26 Comments

Today was a very special appointment with Dr. Tabor. He did an examination of anatomy and gender reveal! It is absolutely amazing what you can see on the ultrasound. We saw the hemispheres of the brain, four chambers of the heart, stomachs with intestines, liver, lungs, rib cages, femurs, arms/ legs/ feet/ hands/ fingers/ toes, eyes, and ears for each baby. They all were growing according to schedule, had good fluid levels, and no anatomical anomalies. That is what every parent wants to see and hear! I can sleep well tonight.

On to the really fun part! Babies B and D were very easy to determine as they had their legs all over the place. Babies A and C thought they would be modest and cross their legs, which made determining gender a little more difficult. However, Dr. Tabor and his sonographer were not going to let these little darlings get away with that. They prodded and poked until we determined everyone’s gender. Here it goes…..

Baby A- GIRL, Baby B- BOY, Baby C- GIRL, and Baby D- BOY!!!!!!!! This certainly makes our room sharing much easier, and I can’t wait to choose bedding and fun decorative touches for their nurseries.

hugs!

Amber

Tut, tut it looks like rain!

April 7, 2012Amber 7 Comments

I have been assigned to Bonnie Brae Elementary for five years now, and I’ve come to know the staff there over the years. I’ve always known the staff was special and sort of like an extended family, I never expected the wonderful shower they planned for the quads. The original date was set for this past Tuesday, but the weather turned quite tumultuous that day. Severe storms and about 13 tornadoes ravished the metroplex. By the time school dismissed, most of the teachers only wanted to get to their families and homes, so we postponed the shower. This was perhaps one of the worst series of storms in the area in a long time. In fact several towns are considered “disaster areas”. There were homes and building that were completely flattened. 18 wheeler trucks were tossed like toys and dropped on homes. However, despite the destruction, there were very few injuries and everyone survived. It was quite miraculous!

Postponing the shower did not make one bit of a difference for our Bonnie Brae shower though, the staff touched me with their love and support for George, me, and the quads. They did a lovely job decorating and making it special. Our art teacher, Jen, custom made each of the babies a turtle picture frame and onsies labeled “Baby 1”, “Baby 2”, “Baby 3” and “Baby 4”, which hung on a clothesline. Another teacher, Danielle, and her daughter, Abby, made an amazing diaper cake! It was three tiers of diapers (that we will use later) adorned with spoons, bottle brushes, tiny socks, and pacifiers. I was taken aback by all of the thoughtful gifts each person gave brought, and was amazed that even very new staff members were there too.

When I came home in the evening, George was completely amazed at what the staff of Bonnie Brae had done, and was so appreciative of their generosity. We spent several hours going through each gift and talking about who brought it. Then we sorted everything and stored it on the new shelves George built in the nursery closets. A week that started out with a terrible storm ended in a beautiful shower of love!

hugs!

Amber

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Mission Organization!

April 2, 2012August 13, 2014Amber 13 Comments

When we bought our house six years ago, we thought we’d grow into it, but we had NO idea how much. In six years time, we’ve done a lot of stuff collecting. That means both spare bedrooms and their closets were filled to capacity. That does not make for good nurseries, especially not shared nurseries. George was willing to part with his exercise equipment and sold all of it on Craigslist, but the closets were still full of photos, gift wrap, miscellaneous junk, camping gear, and the list goes on. We cleaned out as much as we could, but the stuff still had to go somewhere. It migrated to our upstairs room where it sat for weeks. While no one that visited our house saw the enormous pile, we both knew it was there and we had lots of stuff that needed a home. It caused that annoying nagging feeling within us. So, we went on a mission to tackle it this weekend! Thankfully, George is a ~~good~~ fantastic carpenter. He expanded the shelving in all of the closets in our house, including the pantry and laundry room. These expansions helped us to store more stuff than before, but it would not contain everything. We then found cabinet kits at Lowe’s for our upstairs room. By the time we headed to bed last night, all of the stuff had found a new home (besides the nurseries) and it no longer consumed our home. It gave us both a sense of preparedness and control over things that we can actually control, which felt great! Now we can focus on important stuff like outfitting the nurseries! If we only knew what colors to choose….

hugs!

Amber

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Remaining Gender Neutral

March 29, 2012August 13, 2014Amber 7 Comments

Our appointment with Dr. Tabor went well today. We only waited about 15 minutes, which was great! Last time the wait was 90 minutes. All four of the babies have grown and he said their fluids were good, no organs were herniated, their nuchal folds were normal, and my cervix was fine. Everything checked out perfectly! The ultrasound was pretty cool today; we could see the brain hemispheres! However….no news on genders yet. No one was in the right position and it is still on the early side. So everything is still gender neutral for now. We go back in a week and a half and Dr. Tabor is certain he will be able to determine genders then. I’m looking forward to that! I’m ready to pick nursery colors, and names.

hugs!

Amber

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!!

March 27, 2012August 13, 2014Amber 5 Comments

While George and I have known we are expecting quads for over seven weeks, last week was the time we told all of our extended family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. It has been an amazing week sharing the news. I only wish I had a camera to capture all the facial expressions. Better yet, video footage. It would be a hysterical you tube montage! Reactions ranged from excitement, amazement, shock, and I think even some fear. My favorite reaction was when a co-worker hugged me because she could see I am expecting, but literally jumped back three feet when she heard it was four. It was almost as if having quads were contagious. One principal squealed in delight. It was priceless.

The funniest thing was what my boss did. I told him the day before we went on spring break, but waited until after spring break to tell everyone else. He asked if it was a secret and I said “no”. I was thinking he might mention it to our secretaries or other people in the administration office. However, I did not expect the “Welcome Back” email he sent to our department the Monday we returned. The memo read:

“Good Morning!

Hope everyone got in some good relaxation time last week. It’s been a busy spring break for some, however.

Amber told be Friday before the break that she is expecting and I’m sure she spent time getting ready.

Danny had a baby girl Friday. Her name is “Zoey Elizabeth.” Mom and baby are fine.

Amber is pregnant.

Claire emailed me Friday to say her doctor scheduled her delivery for today. No distress but thought it wise to do.

Amber is expecting.

So, I hope all is well with you. We’re very happy for Danny and Claire.

And I should mention Amber is expecting a fourth time, since they are quadruplets!”

When I read the memo, I literally wanted to crawl under my desk. I’m not a person who feels comfortable in the spotlight and this certainly was like putting a high-powered spotlight on me. I didn’t get much work done that day because my phone exploded with calls and texts, and my email kept pinging. Most people said when they read the memo they thought our boss had really lost it this time and forgot what he typed. Too funny! I also got quite a few office visitors that day, as my office mate kept sending people in saying I needed to meet with them. When our assistant principal came in he was panicked that something crazy happened with a student. He seemed relieved to find out it was just news that I am expecting quads (no big deal ya’ know).

It has been fun sharing this news with everyone, but I have really appreciated the warm, supportive response we have received. Everyone seems to share our joy and many people have offered to help in some way or another. I think I should start taking names of volunteers now….just in case they forget. So far I have baby rockers, feeders, launderers, cooks, and housekeepers- not bad!

One of my schools has already organized a shower as well. They are all so sweet and excited about being a school where there are quads on the way.

hugs!

Amber

Diapers, wipes, and formula, oh my!!!!

March 24, 2012Amber 9 Comments

Huggies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over spring break, my dear friend, Melissa insisted that I start a registry at Babies R Us (she is very worried about me going on bed rest before things like this are done). She came along with me and gave lots of great advice on what you really need. We ran out of steam to head to Target so that registry was left for another day. George decided he wanted input on the registry. So today we went to Target to get started. He was totally floored about the prices for formula and diapers. The poor guy did not have the foggiest idea about what baby stuff costs, much less for four babies. Since we found out we were expecting quads, I have been nagging him about where to cut back and such, but he hasn’t taken much stock into that….until today! After our little Target jaunt, we went to Costco to pick up a few things. Funny thing, George started really paying attention to price comparisons. For example, instead of choosing real maple syrup he decided Ms. Butterworth’s would be fine. It turned out to be a very good thing that he helped with setting up a registry! He may have never realized the cost for diapers, wipes and formula otherwise.

Fun quad fact #1

A set of quadruplets will go through approximately 40.000 diapers!!!!!

hugs!

Amber

Sometimes God whispers, but you have to pay attention

March 23, 2012August 13, 2014Amber 13 Comments

Let’s rewind a little more….there is a reason I can manage to stay calm about having quads (at least most of the time!)

November 22, 2011

Our miscarriage proved to be much more emotionally painful and difficult than I ever anticipated, and it happened right before the holiday season. George and I decided to take a trip to Mexico over Thanksgiving week as a means of reconnecting and leaving some of our pains behind. We wanted to find a “last minute deal” (by the way….I’m not sure if those actually exist) so we didn’t book until about a week prior to the trip. I thought I found a wonderful hotel on the beach, but it didn’t quite live up to our expectations. I’ll say it was a little more “authentic” than the other hotels we visited in Mexico before. We learned that the water in our room was “non-potable”, the food was comparable to a school cafeteria at best, our sheets were made of some sort of weird rubber that was not cozy, and the building was made of some sort of concrete that funneled noise from the stairs to our room. Needless to say night one was rough and we didn’t sleep much. That night I remember praying to get through the tumultuous journey of infertility and for health and happiness.

We awoke apprehension about traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday. Should we have stayed home? Had we made a mistake? Nonetheless, we slathered ourselves in spf 50, got dressed, and headed out to take on the day all by 7:30 am. We had been to Puerto Vallarta in the prior year with George’s company so we went on a mission to walk down the beach several miles to where we stayed before. As much as I tried to avoid it, thoughts of infertility crept into my head as we walked along the beautiful coastline nestled between the mountains.

Then something amazing unfolded right in front of us. A group of four baby sea turtles was making their journey from their safe dry sandy nest to the sea. I have been to the beach many times during my life, but never in November, which is the time when sea turtles make this journey. Mother sea turtles spend their days in the ocean until nesting season when they take a huge risk to come inland to nest. Going inland is difficult for them as their bodies are built for ocean living not land. The mothers generally return to their own birthplace where they take time to find the right spot to lay their precious clutch. Once the baby turtles hatch, they instinctively crawl towards the water where they will spend their lives until they return to nest. Baby sea turtles are about the size of a small orange and stand out with their dark bodies along the sand so they are easy prey particularly for birds and lizards. We watched these babies trek through the sand for about 15 minutes and all four made it!

At that moment, I got an overwhelming, unexplainable feeling of calm that everything in my infertility world would eventually be okay. It was as if God was whispering a message directly into my ear. If a mother sea turtle can take the risk to nest and eventually her babies could make that trip, I knew that someday I will have babies that would survive like that too. It was a beautiful experience and I am grateful for it. I will think of these little guys when life gets tough; they never give up, they keep surviving. Here is one of the four making it to the water-

PS- A friend of mine later told me that sea turtles are a symbol of motherhood and fertility. Coincidence? I think not. Also, at the time, I didn’t think much of there being FOUR sea turtles, but now I look back at that moment as a sign that we were meant to have four.

Interestingly, the morning of the IUI, George and I were the only ones in the RE’s waiting room since it was New Year’s Day. The TV was on, but there was no sound. George looked at the screen and nonchalantly pointed out that there was a special about sea turtles on the screen. It reduced my pre-IUI anxiety tremendously because I thought of those little sea turtles on the beach. On our way home from the IUI, George and I stopped by the video store to rent a movie. In the new releases section was a documentary on sea turtles. These sea turtles seem to be constantly there as a reminder that it will be okay. I never in my wildest dreams imagined having quads, but I do believe we are going to be okay.

Rewind

March 23, 2012August 13, 2014Amber 7 Comments

Okay….I am a bit behind on starting this blog since we are already almost 14 weeks along. I’m going to start out by rewinding a bit to where this all began.

January 16, 2012

The horrible, treacherous 2 week wait technically ended for me this past Sunday, but my beta (blood test done by the doctor to determine how much, if any pregnancy hormone is present) was yesterday. I did exceptionally well until about 10 days past IUI when I started to feel pregnant and my mind started going down all the rabbit trails. I held off on a home test until Sunday because I figured by then I’d get an accurate result. I debated about whether to go with the digital test (less sensitive, but easier to read) or the pink lines test (more sensitive, but dodgy to read). I was terrified to test because it would either make or break my day. I woke up early (mind you, it was still dark outside and it was Sunday) and snuck into the bathroom to test. I opted for the digital test. I figured I was or I wasn’t so pink line confusion wasn’t in the cards. To my delight I got a beautiful “pregnant” on the screen. I wanted to scream!!!! However, I didn’t want to wake George just yet. Instead, I put the stick on the counter by his sink and crept back into bed. He didn’t wake up for another hour or two. When he finally stumbled out of bed, I watched him fumble around in the bathroom and glance at the stick before heading into the water closet. After he was done in there, he came back to the sink and did a double take. He said something like, “Is this what I think it is????? I thought it was a toothbrush!” The poor guy is practically blind without his contacts so I’m sure he couldn’t read it, but had enough where-with-all to connect the dots. We kept it entirely to ourselves on Sunday and basked in it. I think a little piece of me was still worried the beta would come back negative despite the positive HPT.

Yesterday I had blood drawn in the morning and of course they didn’t call with the results until after hours (thank goodness I already did the HPT!). My poor mom on the other hand spent the day thinking it was bad news and that’s why I didn’t call. I think she panicked! When the nurse finally called, I had to get her to repeat the number twice….1212! (I wasn’t sure it was 12.12 or 1,112) OMG!!!!! For reference…..my last first beta was 119 and they want something over 50. Dr. Elkins said I got a good beta because of the black eyed peas I brought her on the day of the IUI (it was New Year’s Day). George protested it, but I knew that was good idea! Tomorrow I go back for a second beta. The RE said it probably won’t double, but should increase. We shall see.

So as this marks the end of my 2 week wait, I pray that it symbolizes the beginning of many new adventures. Before the New Year, I thought to myself, I hope this year will be the last time we go through all the milestones and holidays in a year without children so we can start celebrating firsts instead.

I don’t think I’ll be relaxed until I have a healthy baby in my arms. In the meantime I’ll remember my new mantra, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of it’s troubles. It empties today of it’s strength.”

January 18, 2012

Yesterday I went in for a second beta. It was 2779! Looks like it did double after all. I had a little panic when I read in my Mayo Clinic book that high betas can mean either multiples or a molar pregnancy (e.g. a big bunch of nothing!). I would be happy with multiples, its the bunch of nothing that is scary. Thankfully, a friend also dealing with infertility reassured me that my betas are nowhere near molar levels. Whew!!!!

It will be another week before the next beta. What I really want is to see an ultrasound though! I considered asking for an early one, but decided not to since it’s too early to see a heartbeat. That might bother me. This is like two week wait part two!!!!! Seriously, it is a FOUR week wait…..excruciating.

January 26, 2012

My third beta was 42,129!!!! The RE said that it was progressing right along.

February 2, 2012

When George and I went to the RE for my first ultrasound I felt pretty confident there was a healthy little bean (or two in there), but was still a little anxious for this first peek. Honestly, I felt confident since the first beta, but those little worries tend to creep up when I least expect them. We had absolutely no idea what surprise lie ahead. As soon as the RE began the ultrasound, I could see three prominent dark circles on the screen, but couldn’t see much else. I worried it was a lot of nothing in there. She started probing and pretty quickly found one baby with a fluttering heartbeat that we could hear! A huge sense of relief came over me. She kept probing a little more and George commented that he saw an empty sac. The RE agreed that one didn’t appear normal and was likely empty. She continued to probe and behold, she found another baby with a fluttering heartbeat we could hear. Okay, there were two viable ones. However, she wasn’t done yet, she probed more. Yep, there was a third little fluttering heartbeat. She was convinced there were triplets and a fourth grainy, empty sac. I thought so too. Yowzers, triplets! I never imagined having more than two! However, the other RE came in and wanted to check things out himself. He began to probe around and quickly found the three from before, but to our surprise, he found a FOURTH baby also with a fluttering heartbeat that we could hear. He said something about finding a little bonus. Um, did he say there were FOUR???? I don’t know what state of shock may have been on our faces, but I’m sure it was there. Both REs also seemed a little surprised and worried about finding a fourth one as well. My numbers this cycle were nearly identical to the prior cycle when there was only one. George crunched a lot of numbers and figured out that the chances of all four follicles producing a mature egg and being fertilized are about one in a million. Maybe we should buy a lotto ticket?

After getting lots of pictures of the little beans, the RE’s left me to get dressed so we could consult in the office. Once I got dressed, I think they left us to simmer in the office for about 15-20 minutes. It seemed like an eternity as our brains raced all over the map. I knew there was a procedure called “multi-fetal reduction”, which is generally recommended when there are high order multiples. The theory is that taking out one or two improves the viability of the others. When the RE returned to his office, George immediately told him that we would not consider a reduction, we were going with the four. How on earth could we consider taking one of these lives away as they were clearly meant to be? The RE talked to us about some things to expect and being referred to a high-risk OB. He also mentioned something about the body possibly “self-reducing” some of the babies. We were digesting quite a lot of information so I don’t think we asked many questions. We made another ultrasound appointment for a week later to check the progress.

When we got home, I only wished I had a ticker box to count the number of times George said “Four.” He must have said it hundreds of times within a matter of a few hours. What an adventure this will be!

For reference regarding beta numbers, check out this link at Beta Base: http://www.betabase.info/showBasicChart.php?type=Triplet