Maiden Voyage

January 19, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 18 Comments

When we purchased our Runabout stroller, we anticipated not being able to use it until the spring. We figured the babies would need to sit up without support and the weather wouldn’t be appropriate until the spring. However, today was an absolutely lovely day in Texas! If I didn’t know better, I would say it was April. The sun was brilliant and it was temperate; the perfect day to head outdoors. Normally we would use our twin strollers, but I saw that the Jones Quints (who live nearby) were using their Ruanbout this week. If they could Runabout why couldn’t we? Our babies may not be able to sit independently, but they have reasonable neck and trunk control. So, we took our Runabout in the neighborhood for it’s maiden voyage!

The entire family, including the furbabies, loved it! I think the babies enjoyed being able to sit up and see what was in front of them. When we got back, they were all relaxed and in a great mood. The stroller is so easy to maneuver and we even took turns jogging with it. After all, it is a jogging stroller than can go up to 10 mph. Not that I envision either of us ever running 10 mph with our without a Runabout. It was easier for one of us to wrangle the dogs while the other pushed the stroller. As far as neighbors and onlookers they were all so nice! We got plenty of marveling glances and a few cute questions from kids, but not one rude remark. One little boy asked if it was heavy to push because it was so big while another inquired about Sydney’s hemangioma. When George explained it was a birthmark, the boy replied, “Like Harry Potter?” Too cute! We live in such a great place for the quads to grow up.

I like the babies to wear sunglasses to protect their peepers. Sydney’s glasses were too big so she wore Mason’s. He wore his Build A Bear’s aviators!

I think George looks handsome with his Runabout!

hugs!

Amber

PS- the best part about the Runabout is that I can now walk the babies solo!

Preemie Prints

January 12, 2013August 13, 2014Amber 7 Comments

Back in November, we were given the gift of photography courtesy of Preemie Prints. It is a charitable organization that provides complimentary photography sessions to babies in the NICU and NICU graduates for the first year. They are willing to meet on site, which was perfect for us since getting out is a feat. We took advantage of this wonderful gift just in time for grandparent Christmas gifts and cards. Our photographer, Ashlee, captured fantastic family photos in an hour’s time. The babies really could not tolerate more than an hour as they began their nightly transformation into Gremlins. I spent the last month deciding which photos to print and then mulled over where and how to display them. As I considered the lack of wall space in the house, it occurred to me that we could use our entry way niches to display the photos. While my two cousins, aunt, and a family friend were kind enough to babysit, George dashed out for a little jaunt around town. (Yes, that is correct, it took FOUR babysitters for us to snag a date.) We enjoyed dinner at Mi Cocina and then bought paint and accessories for our weekend warrior project.

Our entryway was bathed in a deep crimson with dark, heavy accessories for at least six years and it was high time for a refresh. We coated the once dark walls with a fresh splash of cream and accented it with bright, cheery picture frames of various sizes and textures. At Hobby Lobby, we found some kitschy iron art that says, “Family” and a plaque that reads, “Friends are God’s way of caring for us”, which I thought were fitting. I absolutely LOVE the results of this mini weekend project and the way it captures our family’s personality. It makes me want to refresh other areas of the house, but who knows when we’ll scrounge up the time for that!

Before

After

Below are some of my favorite photos taken during our session-

Our friend, Terri, worked behind the scenes to help us dress and entertain babies. I know she is not fond of this shot, but I think it’s precious. You can see a bit of our living room with baby gear. It’s a slice of life!

Sydney & Rylin

Mason & Harper

Rylin, Harper, Sydney, & Mason

This one is priceless! George may have worn this expression when we saw four little circles on our first ultrasound. I bought the cutest socks for the babies to wear in the pictures and I later noticed 1. George is cupping their feet with his hands so you cannot see them 2. George is barefooted! That is life with quads for you.

It is not exactly easy holding four babies simultaneously. Poor Mason was being squished out here.

I like this candid shot of me trying to load all of the babies in George’s arms. Notice Sydney is in my lap with her feet sticking out!

George managed holding all four better than I did.

Rylin slept through the majority of the session, but I thought her below the Christmas tree picture was absolute perfection. Sydney, on the other hand, was not too keen on laying there.

For more information about Preemie Prints, check out their blog:

http://preemieprintsinfopage.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html

hugs!

Amber

A Day in the Life

January 8, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 15 Comments

When the babies were nine weeks old, I exhausted my FMLA and returned to work two days per week. The cost of daycare is astronomical for one baby let alone four, so that was never under consideration. My mom has been gracious enough to come Fridays, sometimes with help from a faithful friend. George had flexibility in his work schedule so he arranged to have every Wednesday off and sacrificed Saturdays. His father aka Grandaddycame on Wednesdays as a helping hand. That arrangement was working quite well, until George accepted a different position in his company. He now works Monday through Friday, which is great for family weekends. Not so great for childcare. With thoughtful consideration and prayer, we approached George’s aunt, Carol for the gig. To our surprise she accepted! George’s father will continue to come Wednesdays to help her and spend quality time with his grand babies. Carol came over last week for a little “on the job” training, but tomorrow is her first official day without George or I here.

I know the babies will be in loving, capable hands so that is a piece of mind. I also know that caring for quadruplet infants is no easy task and not for the faint of heart! I made a bit of a road map for them. I jotted down our daily schedule with a few painstaking details about the major stuff: diapering, feeding, playtime, and sleeping. I figure I would want a road map so Carol and Grandaddy might appreciate one too. Here it goes:

7:45 am

Change Diapers
Give the girls juice from the tiny labeled bottles in the fridge (they will take it cold.)
Feed
Dress them in day clothes (Yes, they wear clean clothes every day even if no one is visiting and we are going no where. They sleep in their pajamas over 12 hours so they sweat and sometimes leak from their diapers. Eww! Also, they need to wear all of the cute clothes generously gifted to us. Plus, they look cute in pictures!)
Playtime

9:30 am

11:00 am

Change Diapers
Feed
Playtime

12:30 pm

2:00 pm

Change Diapers
Feed
Playtime

3:30 pm

5:00 pm

Change Diapers
Feed

Quiet Playtime (e.g. books, Baby Einstein DVD, rock, chatter, swings)
Baby Massage with lotion OR bath, then pajamas

6:30/6:45 pm

Power Nap

8:00

Change Diapers and add Diaper Booster Pads
Dream Feed with one tablespoon of oatmeal added to the bottle
Bedtime

Every time it says “nap”, imagine me morphing into a white tornado that tackles enormous loads of laundry, scads of bottles, Crock Pot cooking, blogging, and slurping a cup of cool coffee. On occasion, I force myself to indulge in a bit of television or maybe a power nap, but that is rare. By the end of each day we have changed 20 or more diapers, made and served 140 ounces of formula, settled babies into cribs over 20 times, and washed 130+ bottle parts. No rest for the weary here! Now that the babies settle in for the night after their 8:00 pm feed we find ourselves trying to wrap up WAY too many projects in addition to the existing chores. Sometimes it’s difficult to not do things that need doing, but our bed is calling. That’s all a day in the life of quadruplets!

hugs!

Amber

Here are some pictures of our playtime activities from today:

Sydney and Mason are doing a bit of supported tummy time with a flashy toy. They are starting to press buttons! Mason is especially good at grabbing things and pressing buttons.

Harper and Rylin are also trying supported tummy time with a flashy button toy.

Elmo makes appearances in our den, which really entertains the babies!

Elmo makes appearances in our den and the babies just LOVE him. He is a tad annoying, but look at the grin on their faces. They sometimes even laugh out loud when they see Elmo.

We now put the bottles IN the bottle buddies. The babies have gotten really wiggly and the buddies help stabilize them. I had to cut the elastic for the Avent bottles, but Sydney’s Dr. Brown bottle fits well.

Harper is apparently enamored with this barnyard toy.

Sydney is trying to get a burp out while the others are in “stations”.

Here are some of our “stations” The boys are in bouncy seats while Rylin is on a playmat and Sydney is still trying to burp. That girl has the worst time trying to burp!

Everybody loves a rattle! Harper can’t wear rattles on his ankles anymore so his are wrist rattles.

Good luck Carol and Grandaddy!

Heartwarming

December 22, 2012February 10, 2013Amber 7 Comments

With four babies at home, it is easy to get wrapped up in everything that needs to be done, especially with Christmas just days away. We have diapers to change, baths to give, bottles to make, babies to feed, and clothes to wash. I find myself constantly thinking of my next move to tackle that daunting to-do list, but then realizing that I forgot to savor the moment.

Usually, during the winter, George and I enjoy sitting fireside in the evening as we unwind. We have a wood burning fireplace and just love hearing the crackle of the wood and smelling the aroma fill the air. However, we’ve been having such warm weather, we’ve been running our air conditioner more than the heater! A few days a go we finally had a nice cold snap. George seized the moment to build a nice fire just in time for the final bottle of the day. When I came into the living room with Mason, I found George and the girls gazing into the majestic fire in awe. The babies had never seen fire and were totally mesmerized by it. This was a truly heartwarming moment and the perfect time to neglect the routines and to do list. Sydney in particular enjoys looking at novel things so she was situated to see the fire during her feed. Then after all bottles were drained, I situated the babies in their Boppies and let them stay up a bit later than usual for some cozy fire gazing. It was all worth it! What warms your heart this time of year?

hugs!

Amber

Here’s the scene I saw when I entered the den. So sweet!

Notice how Sydney is watching the fire while eating.

Here’s everyone lounging in Boppy pillows.

Now everyone can see the fire!

I think Sydney enjoyed the fire more than anyone.

Even Lily snuggled up by the babies and rire.

Even Lily snuggled up by the babies and fire.

Special Helper

December 18, 2012February 10, 2013Amber 28 Comments

Since the arrival of the crew, it’s been difficult to manage everyday things that involve leaving the house. Basic home maintenance is manageable, but running around town is a feat. We never enjoyed errands before, but it was nice to go together to take care of mundane things like grocery shopping and oil changes. Now, any type of errand happens when one of us is en route from work to home in the evening. This is after one of us worked a full day outside the home while the other contended with four babies all day and witching hour is looming. Needless to say, many errands take a backseat to sanity. Yesterday some special friends, Billie and Bob volunteered to care for the crew so George and I could take care of errands together. We arranged it so we would get the babies late morning feed done, dart out, and get back for the late afternoon feed.

When Billie arrived at the door, she stood alone as she glumly stated, “I’m really sorry, Bob wasn’t able to come with me today.” I looked back at her with a tinge of dismay. I was sad to hear Bob couldn’t make it, but I felt even worse to leave Billie on her own with the quads. She is totally capable of the challenge, but I felt guilty to ask her to stay alone. I think she relished this quick tease as she brightly announced, “But I brought a special helper instead.” I thought perhaps Billie brought one of her daughters along, but there was no sign of either of them. All of the sudden, Santa popped from around the corner of the house with a big a”Ho Ho Ho” and a twinkle in his eye! I don’t think I’ve been so excited to see Santa in over two decades.

Many have asked if we’d take the babies to see Santa for their first Christmas and the answer has always been a resounding, “NO WAY!” Not that we don’t want them to see Santa because it is a very special Christmas. It’s just that it would be excruciating to wait in line with four infants. Then, we would have to attempt to shield them from the bazillion germs finding sanctuary on Santa’s crimson suit. I would undoubtedly be the insane lady who doused Santa with two cans of Lysol and slathered his arms with GermX. I am fully aware that the babies haven’t the foggiest idea who Santa is and haven’t the slightest desire to meet him just yet. However, it is their first Christmas and I thought skipping Santa was almost a travesty. However, I knew skipping our first Santa visit was all in the name of good health. At the same time a tinge of jealousy ran through me knowing how a few of our quad friends had private visits from Santa this year. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of Bob and Billie, the babies were able to meet Santa this year. I hope they look back at our special pictures in years to come in awe knowing Santa made a special visit at our house when they were so small.

A year ago I never would hava imagined we would have EIGHT stockings hanging along our mantle. We used a curtain rod and brackets to hand them instead of stocking holders. It worked great for so many stokings.

A year ago I never would have imagined we would have EIGHT stockings hanging along our mantle. We used a curtain rod and brackets to hand them instead of stocking holders. It worked great for so many stockings.

Santa sees you when your sleeping (Rylin and Harper) and he sees when your awake (Mason and Sydney).

That is a lot of babies for Santa!

Sydney kept tugging at Santa’s beard. Here she has a handful of it! When I put the girls to bed, I found wisps of Santa’s beard wrapped between their tiny fingers.

Everyone gathered around Santa.

Rylin and Santa

Mason and Santa

Sydney and Santa

Hugs!

Amber

Table for Nine

December 11, 2012February 10, 2013Amber 10 Comments

After 10 weeks of strict bed rest, a 7 week NICU stay and now lock down with quadruplets, we have a full blown case of Cabin Fever. The only antidote for Cabin Fever is of course, to leave the house. Thus, we decided to take our very first outing with the entire family, that is excluding the doctor. We opted to go out to dinner in honor of my mom’s birthday while taking as many precautions as possible.

With five adults, we finally outnumbered the babies so we figured it could work. A bustling restaurant full of onlookers would be a total nightmare. So, as our maiden voyage, we decided it best to start with a low key pizza joint in our neighborhood called Polenzo’s. It’s within walking distance from our house so the original plan was to load the Snap ‘n’ Go strollers and just walk. However, that was a few days ago when we were having highs in the 80’s. When the temps fell to the 30’s we were forced to contend with the Routan instead. You’ve gotta love Texas weather; we’ve literally run both our air conditioner and heater in the same week!

Mason dressed up for the occasion and wore his “Bro Bib” with his Little Johnnies

In order to make the whole field trip as smooth as possible, we hatched a well prepared plan. First, we perused the menu online and made our pizza choices. We then fed the babies so they were full and content. Next, we called Polenzo’s to place our order and reserve a table for nine. Polenzo’s is a mere minute from our house by car, but it takes about 10-15 minutes to load the van, leaving ample time for the pizzas to cook.

How many adults does it take to load a van with quadruplets? Looks like four at least.

Upon our arrival, my sister took care of our order while, the rest of us nonchalantly took one baby each. We simply sashayed into the restaurant right to our reserved table situated in the back corner. Honestly there weren’t many people there this Sunday evening and I don’t think a single patron noticed our shenanigans. We situated the babies on the corners of the table so each one was supervised by an adult. The babies were all very alert and seemed to contemplate their new environment. I just love moments like that!

Rylin finally had an occasion to wear hear bear bottom tights with ballet slippers attached. So cute!

Rylin finally had an occasion to wear her teddy bear bottom tights with ballet slippers attached. So cute!

Our plan worked perfectly! As soon as we were situated, the pizzas arrived at our table. We had plenty of time to enjoy a few slices and a glass of wine before feeding time loomed again. Harper pretty much slept and munched his thumb, Mason looked googly eyed at his surroundings, Rylin maintained her pensive look, and Sydney looked at everything with wide-eyed curiosity. And then it happened….Sydney screamed! I knew the chances were high that someone would be upset, it was just a matter of when and who. After all, the dinner hour is also “witching hour”, when one or more of the babies fusses A LOT. Thankfully, Grandpa was able to save the day by talking softly to Sydney and lulling her to sleep. He bought us just enough time to wrap up dinner and settle the bill before an escape was mandatory.

Thankfully, Harper discovered his thumb and was calm the whole time.

Sydney was situated at my corner. You can’t see her feet, but she is wearing shoes for the first time.

Mason was Nisey’s charge for the night.

Grandpa kept an eye on Rylin until he had to take Sydney for me.

Smiley little man

Everyone is ready to head home. Here is what it looks like to have quads sitting on a restaurant table all together.

When the last slice of pizza disappeared and all of the wine glasses were drained, we left just as nonchalantly as we entered. The only person to chatter with us or ask any questions was actually our waitress and she was very sweet. I think she only asked us what it is called when there are four babies at a time. I don’t know when a full fledged family outing will reoccur, but our first table for nine was really nice.