Our babies!

I am excited to write this post because yesterday I got to see the babies and they are all doing wonderful! They are healthy and beautiful! It was a very emotional visit to my perinatal doctor. The night before I couldn’t sleep and I just kept thinking about my appointment, I was so nervous! When Lois and Ada came to pick me up, I was a mess. I am always a little nervous before my appointments but this time it was the worst. I thought maybe something is wrong, maybe I didn’t take it as easy as they tell me, maybe I walked too much or didn’t rest enough ( I do my best and try to listen to everything that the doctors tell me but I just can’t help but worry sometimes ). Even when we were driving to Northside Hospital, I felt sick to my stomach, just thinking something might be wrong. I mean, it’s not one baby, or two…there are four of them in there! But it felt good to be out of the house for a little bit. Oly was so funny, I didn’t tell him how nervous I was, but he knew it and he texted me “Please don’t worry about anything!!” 🙂   The girls were very encouraging and they did their best to calm me down and get me to relax. Once we got there, I already felt better. I was excited to see my babies, get some new pictures of them and see how much they grew in the last 2 weeks. It was the best ultrasound we had so far. We were able to see their little faces, hands, feet, just all sorts of details that I didn’t think it’s possible to be seen already. They were moving all over the place, Baby A (our first girl) stretched out her whole body, I think she was showing off, knowing her 2 aunties were there 🙂 It is just amazing to see how well they all progress. Many people think that because there are four babies, they are smaller than normal babies for this stage. They are not! They each measure and weight exactly what they are supposed to:

Baby A (girl) : 11 oz
Baby B (boy): 12 oz
Baby C (boy): 12 oz
Baby D (girl): 11oz
We have some cute pictures of them, I will share some of them with you.

A ~ baby girl, stretching out

B ~ baby boy, cute button nose

Baby B’s little face

C ~ baby boy ~ up side down

D~ baby girl, looking up

the whole team 🙂 it’s getting pretty crowded in there!

This picture was taken earlier in the pregnancy but you can easily see how they each have their own “space”

On Tuesday I will be right at 20 weeks. A big step in this pregnancy. I am so happy that everything is going so smooth. I know things will move on in the right direction and the babies will continue to develop beautifully, because God is watching over them every second. Every 2 weeks or so, a representative from our health insurance calls me to check on the pregnancy and see how I am doing. They are always surprised to hear how great the babies are and that I am feeling so good. “Keep doing what you’re doing, seems to work great!” they tell me. Well, we are praying, our families are praying, our church and friends are praying. That’s what we are doing. And it is the best medicine for the body, heart and soul.

Lori.

19 weeks, 2 days

World’s greatest Baby Shower!

Flowers, diaper cakes & diaper crib!! lots of hugs and smiles 🙂

Whoever doesn’t believe in fairy tales, better give me a call! Last night was more than a dream come true! I never imagined that my baby shower will be so special. Our family went over the top getting everything ready, every single detail was just perfect. When Oly walked me in… I was speechless! There was a slideshow of pictures with me and the quadlings running on the 2 screens! Diaper cakes (lots of thanks to Andreea and the most beautiful twin girls Kiki&Adi for working so hard on those), even a crib with 4 babies inside, made all out of diapers! I have never seen anything like that before! Our friend Tannya and her Mom did an amazing job with that crib. All the decorations were so cute, I loved the baby clothes that were hanging on the wall -Thank you Lois& Ada, Andreea&Andreea!! We are truly blessed to have such an amazing family, every single one of them worked so hard to make this baby shower perfect for us! Again, thank you guys!! Also, the food and the deserts….Mmmm mmm mmmm! Thank you, to every single one of you that helped out and made all this so special for us!

Baby Shower Fun!

Some people are missing in this picture, so there were more! I still cannot believe what an amazing night we had!

The family’s love is forever!

By the end of the baby shower I was so tired. We decided we’ll open the presents at home, so I can lay down and put my feet up. The most excited person was my hubby, because he got to open every single on of them:) And there were sooo many presents! Everyone was so generous, we are truly blessed with wonderful family and friends! God showed us last night that we really don’t have to worry about anything, He has everything under control and these babies will have everything they need and more!

Narcis’s van was packed with presents!

Thank you again to every single one of you that participated and were part of the World Greatest Baby Shower 🙂

Quadruplets pregnancy

Probably a lot of you are wondering how does it feel to be pregnant with quadruplets. Well, I don’t have anything else to compare it to, but I will try to describe it a little bit.

I have to start by saying how much I dreamed of being pregnant one day. To me, being able to bring a little person into this world, it is just amazing! Many times we take things for granted, we believe it is supposed to happen one way or another. I think that having to deal with infertility made me and Oly appreciate the miracle of pregnancy even more. All I wanted was to be able to experience this amazing journey, and sometimes I still cannot believe it is actually happening to us!
Because we were in this struggle of getting pregnant, of course I didn’t even wait to have a missed period and I took a test. There are some very accurate pregnancy tests in the store these days.  When I saw that second light pink line I felt like screaming from the top of my lungs, but it was 5AM and so I tried to be quiet. I woke up Oly and we were both super excited but a little nervous too. We have been in that position once before and things did not turn out good. Right away I started going to the doctor’s office 2-3 times a week, to get blood drawn, so they could keep an eye on my hormone levels, making sure that everything goes well. My levels were great but I would still worry a little bit every time I had to wait for the nurse to tell me that we’re on the right track. So from the very early beginning, this pregnancy has been watched closely by the doctors and specialists. I had my first ultrasound about 10 days after we found out that I was pregnant. I think that’s pretty fast, compared to a singleton pregnancy. Lots of ultrasounds and doctor’s visits followed, pretty much every week. I have to say it again, I was in the best hands possible and I will be forever thankful for that! Besides that, I was feeling pretty good, not many symptoms! At some point I thought something was wrong with me, I knew that when you are pregnant you’re supposed to be sick and this and that. Well… right at 6 weeks I started feeling nauseous. But still not very bad. I took Zofran for nausea and it helped so much! My belly started to show very early, I mean we could see it getting bigger by week. Now it is getting bigger by day!! The doctor told me that at 24 weeks I will have the belly of full term singleton pregnancy! It is also known that quads come early, around 28-30 weeks… but we’re praying everyday that God gives me and the babies strength and health so we go over 30 weeks as much as possible. After a while I started going to a perinatal specialist. At the Perinatal Office they have some very high tech ultrasound equipment so we were able to find out our babies genders pretty early – 13 weeks. at 15 weeks they took another look and were able to see better so final answer was 2 boys and 2 girls.  With the quadruplets pregnancy comes mandatory bed rest usually around 20 weeks. I started earlier, at almost 17 weeks but not as strict as it will be at 20. I am able to get up and make myself a sandwich or get some water, later on I won’t even be doing that! I will lay down all the time except the time I have to use the restroom or shower. There is just so much pressure and the weight of my belly is pressing on my cervix; if it shortens, I go into labor sooner than I am supposed to. It is already hard to walk and move around, sleeping at night can be very challenging and I cannot bend anymore. It’s funny because I am so clumsy now, I drop everything! So Oly’s new job is to come and pick up stuff after me 🙂 But he would do anything for me. He is just the best soon to be daddy of QUADS!! You know what, women can adjust easier to different situations I think, so the thought of becoming  a Mommy of quads is not such a big deal as it it for a man the thought of becoming the Daddy of quads, that’s just my opinion.  And he is just the right guy, I am so sure he will be the best Daddy for my babies and I thank God every single day for him. He was so strong from the beginning! I was scared and I would always ask “how are we going to do this and that” and I would worry… but he was my rock. Still is. Always will be. I love you Bebitzu!

We don’t have a perfect situation. Not even close! Sometimes I wonder what was God thinking? But I know He doesn’t make mistakes, ever! And even if we don’t have a solution or an answer for all of our questions, I know He does. I know that these babies will be such a blessing and they already are! Probably the hardest part of this pregnancy is being able to hang in there, completely trust in God  and take one day at the time, through faith. I don’t know why He choose us to bring four miracles into this world, but we do feel special and overwhelmed by God’s love. He promised us that with Him we will concur anything and we’ll be victorious in the end! My plan is to embrace every single moment of this miracle pregnancy, be thankful and appreciate everything that happens in our life, seek the heart of God so that I can become a better sister, daughter-in-law, friend, but most of all a better wife and mother to my precious babies! God bless you all!
Lori.

Missing my boys !

Bennett, Alex and Fletcher

How adorable are they? These guys are my first babies! Probably the hardest thing that my pregnancy came with was the fact that I had to quit my job. To me it was not just a job, this family is such a huge part of our lives, I don’t even know how to describe it! So of course I miss them sooo much!! Almost 6 years ago, when I started working for the Fogles, their oldest son – Fletcher – was about to turn 3 years old. In a few months he will celebrate his 9th Bday!  The blondy of the family, sweet Alex, was just a baby back then (6 mo.) and now he is 6. And baby Bennett… he will always be the baby of the family 🙂 Such a cutie-pie. So yes, I miss my F.A.B. boys and I think of them everyday. They will always have a special place in my heart and i can’t wait for my babies to meet them!

I love you guys!!

Lori.

Infertility

Infertility is such a sensitive subject. And you don’t realize that unless you walk that path. There are so many couples that struggle with infertility. I never imagined that we will have to deal with it and I never knew how hard it is going to be. As a woman, I believed that it is only normal for me to get pregnant without any “extra help”, I thought it is my right. But it doesn’t work that way. God is the only one that decides for each and every one of us when, how and if we are going to have a baby. He is also the one that guides you in the right direction when time comes.  I will make the long story short and leave out many details because it would take forever to write everything down. So here it goes!

After being married for 2 years, we felt like we were ready to make our family whole. 3 more years passed by and nothing happened. Of course I was getting worried that something might be wrong with me or my husband. I remember people asking us if we are planning on having babies. Duh! We SO wanted to have babies, but nobody knew and we didn’t even know what was going on at that time.  Last year at some point Oly went to get checked out and see if he was the problem. He passed all the tests and so I knew…it was me. Still I waited a while, I guess I was scared to hear that something might be wrong with my body.  In November 2012 I had my first visit to an infertility clinic and I found out that I do have a couple of issues that keep me from getting pregnant. It was very emotional, I remember I was crying so hard when I left the office that the cashier from the parking lot looked at me and said ” You obviously are having a very hard day, so go ahead, you don’t have to pay for the parking today!” . I was told I have a condition called Endometriosis (you can Google it to find out exactly what it is) that is very common in women with infertility. But the main problem was my eggs… not enough and poor quality for a woman my age. A healthy woman has about 25% chances of getting pregnant each month, I had 1-3% . Of course I was upset and I would question why why why but soon I realized that my life is not in my hands and God doesn’t make mistakes. So after I told Oly what was going on, we both decided to go ahead and do whatever we can to fight infertility. Even though we were going through something so hard , God has given us the best doctor we could ever have asked for, which was also our friend and our number 1 supporter. So the problem came with the solution attached to it 🙂 At that time nobody knew what we were dealing with, we decided to keep it to ourselves until we had some good news to share.

Now, to make it clear to everybody out there, we did NOT use IVF! These babies are NOT the result of In Vitro Fertilisation! In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which an egg is fertilised by sperm outside the body: in vitro. IVF is a major treatment for infertility when other methods of assisted reproductive technology have failed. Here is the treatment that I did: I was given medication (Clomid 100mg) to stimulate the ovaries to release eggs. An ovulation kit and ultrasounds were used to determine when ovulation would likely occur. Then, my husband’s sperm was transported via catheter at the very time when ovulation was expected, into my uterus (IUI = intrauterin insemination).  The success rate is around 15-20% per cycle so it is truly amazing that quads were conceived this way.  We went through this process 3 times, the 3rd time worked like a charm and I got pregnant with four babies! It is very unusual to have this result so we feel  4 times blessed and so happy and excited! It was a shock in the beginning because we didn’t even know quadruplets were possible with this kind of treatment so it didn’t cross our mind that it could happen. But it is so obvious to us that this is God’s plan for our life and we’re moving on day by day 100% through faith! These miracles are everything we focus on right now.

I am going to be 18 weeks tomorrow and 2 nights ago I felt the first baby kicks! It was just amazing! I got so emotional 🙂 My mother in law and 2 of my sisters in law were there to witness which made it even more special. I think baby A (Hannah) wanted to play! All the babies are doing great, they are very healthy and about 7 oz.each, that’s about a half a pound each! I didn’t mention yet, but we are having 2 boys and 2 girls, how perfect is that? 🙂 So, at 18 weeks I have 2 pounds worth of baby in my womb! I had to stop working a week ago, sooner than we thought, but it is all for the best of the babies. I am thankful for all the prayers that were lifted for us, because it is all in God’s hands! And it is the safest place to be!

Lori.

Oly & Lori

This is us. We recently celebrated 5 years of marriage. We met here in Georgia, but we are both originally from Romania. Oly and his family moved to US 11 years ago, leaving behind his older brother, Claudiu, who was over 21 of age at that time and so legally couldn’t join them. But hopefully very soon this beautiful family of 9 siblings will reunite! Over the last few years, my in-laws have been blessed with 3 beautiful grandchildren, but by the end of this year that number will more than double! We are expecting quads, and two of my sisters-in-law are also expecting one baby each. Imagine our next family reunion 🙂 I always prayed to be part of a big family, well here I am! Couldn’t ask for better parents-in-law, they embraced me just as their own daughter. My husband was the first one of the 9 siblings to get married and it’s so fun to see how each and every one of them takes their own path and follow their own dream. Right after our wedding, 2 months later, Claudiu and Miha got married back in Romania. They have 2 wonderful kids and a baby due in December. Later that year, Damaris got married and soon after that the newly wedded couple moved to Arizona. Then there is Manu, married to Adina, they also have a handsome little boy, Mattias and a baby on the way. They live in California. Narcis traveled all the way back home to find his other half, Andreea, and after the wedding brought her here. They got married last September and that was our most recent trip to our home country. Now, there is another Andreea in the family. She was the first girl to be born after the first 3 boys. She is a wonderful young lady that puts her whole heart into everything that she does. Ada is one of a kind. Very smart and fun, always ready to take on life’s challenges. Then comes Lois, sweet Lois. She’s the most friendly person I have ever met, absolutely loooooves babies and she is so excited about the quads! We’re proud of all the sacrifices she makes for school and how hard she works for it. And last, but absolutely not least, Naty:) The baby of the family that will be 20 years old in a couple of months. An amazing young man after God’s own heart. He is a great leader and singer in our church. Whoever ends up marring this guy…will be a lucky gal 🙂
I came here as an au pair (similar to a live-in nanny), only planning to stay for a year or so. I was blessed with wonderful people around me and God showed me that this is the place where He wants me to plant my roots, next to my wonderful man, that I am so thankful for! My small family is back home but distance sometimes brings hearts closer. My older brother, Dani, and his wife have a beautiful daughter and a baby boy on the way. My baby sister, Ema, is planning her wedding for September, and my grandma…well we talk on the phone almost every day, so she feels like I am just 10 miles away from home:) She’s turning 80 at the end of this year! I lost my Mom to cancer 11 years ago, and my Dad unexpectedly passed away 3 years ago, while I was here in US. Although I had some rough times in my life, looking back makes me realize that everything happens for a reason and I am absolutely sure that God had a plan from the beginning. We’ve been so blessed with a healthy, happy marriage and after a pretty long wait and so much desire of having kids, He is giving us a true miracle! Quadruplets!! This is the beginning of a new journey. We don’t know exactly what stands before us but we are so ready for anything!
Lori.