Our first milestone

Today we reached a big milestone – 24 weeks! Happy Viability Babies! We’ve come so far, but we still have a while to go. Hopefully at least 6 more weeks! I cannot believe we’ll be parents of quads in a few weeks!! In the last week I was able to connect with a lot of quad mommas. I actually feel like we are not alone and knowing that there are so many other families out there that went through the same thing and did great, that is very encouraging for us. There are a few families with quads here in GA, I even spoke on the phone to a Mom that has 2 year old quadruplets, born at Northside Hospital, same place where we’re going to meet our babies for the 1st time. So now I feel relieved because whenever I have a question or a concern, I know where to find answers. It is amazing to see how all these women and their families. I can relate to them so much!

I have to say… I am a little scared. Sometimes a lot. I pray that God gives me strength for what is yet to come. I feel how my body is transforming just to be able to bring these babies into this world. It’s a lot going on in a short period of time and that affects me. I am doing my best to have a good attitude about it but at times I feel low and worried. These precious babies deserve the best and I just wish we would have a better scenario planned out. Honestly, this never happened to us before. Every plan we make, it falls through. But God always comes up with a better one. It’s just that sometimes we have to wait longer than other times and this waiting is driving me crazy. This is by far the biggest faith test we ever had and it is not easy!

I would like to ask you again to keep us in your prayers. To be able to reach 30 weeks and pass that as much as possible. To have healthy babies and a healthy mommy and last but not least a healthy daddy! He is working hard and I know he would like to do more. I know he has a lot on his mind but he doesn’t want me to worry more than I do. And I also know that he would do anything for our babies and for me. I appreciate that so much but sometimes I don’t show it. He is the only one that I would have ever chosen to be by my side on this journey.

Lori.
24 weeks

 

Four peas in a pod

I never really knew what the love of a mother is and I am sure I still don’t know yet, at least not 100%. But I never experienced a greater joy… the love and gratefulness that fills my heart is just beyond words. Hearing that my 4 babies that I carry in my belly are healthy and as the days go by they get stronger and stronger, makes me the happiest person on this planet! This love that I feel for them, cannot compare to anything else. I remember how worried I was in the beginning of this journey. Because it is such a high risk pregnancy, I had so many reasons to be scared and unsecured. When I look back, I wish I would have been more courageous from the start. But that’s when Oly was so strong and he had no doubts that everything will be ok. He pushed me forward every time I was down and wiped my tears away, constantly encouraging me and reminding me of God’s promises for our life.

So today we had another doctor’s appointment. After the ultrasound technician scanned the babies, she said ” These are the amazing quadruplets! They all look so good and you should be very proud!” 🙂 We were so happy to hear that! Here’s what our precious 4 peas in the pod weight :

Baby A : 1 pound, 6 oz
Baby B : 1 pound 7 oz
Baby C : 1 pound 10 oz
Baby D : 1 pound 10 oz
Seems like A and B are smaller but C and D have a lot more room, they are right on top of their brother and sister!  Anyway these are not exact measurements, but everyone is on the right track.

Next week on Wednesday I have another doctor’s appointment, with my OB, dr.Jeffers. And also at night we will be going to a huge kids consignment sale that I am so excited about! The sale starts on Thursday, August 1st, but because I registered a while ago as a first time Mom, we get to go the night before and hopefully get some baby stuff that we still need for the quads. We met one of the organizers of this sale on a cruise we took for our 5th wedding anniversary. She is such a wonderful lady! It seems like this is the biggest kids consignment sale in GA. It is twice a year and they have different locations.

Check it out at http://www.all4kids.com .
They have great deals for sellers and buyers. Sometimes they hire extra help for the season too, if you need a seasonal job.

We know that these amazing quadruplets, their growth and health are the answer of many prayers and we appreciate every single one of you that prays for us. Don’t stop! 🙂 As time goes by it does get more difficult. My belly is big and of course it’s not as easy as it used to be to move around, but it’s not impossible. We went into a gift shop at the Hospital today and some ladies that were in there told me they thought I am due any day now! I will take some pictures to add them to the rest of the Belly Pics. I still have a while to go, my belly needs to stretch out more and make room for the quads and so I need you to keep me in your prayers. Next Tuesday I will be 24 weeks along! That is a big milestone for us!  24 weeks is when the baby is considered to be viable, which means that if it is born at this time it has a reasonable chance for survival. When you are expecting quads, getting to 24 weeks is a huge deal because there’s so much going on inside your body! The more babies you have in your womb at once, the bigger are the chances to deliver very early or to have pregnancy complications. Thankfully, we’re moving on the right direction!

Lori
23 weeks, 2 days

 

 

Quads updates

It was so fun to get out of the house last Thursday for my doctor’s appt.! I felt like I was going on a date with my husband! Well, I was 🙂 Being outside after a whole week, felt good, especially because it wasn’t too hot or humid. I can’t believe it has been a week already and I didn’t write this post right away. I really wanted to share some pictures of the quads and every day something came up and I just didn’t get the time to scan them.

Our precious quadlings are doing great. It was good to see them again and to get reassurance from the doctor that everything is moving forward as it should.  It’s definitely getting crowded inside my belly; as they grow bigger and bigger, it’s going to be so hard to see them clearly. My cervix is fine, they always check it because that’s one thing that could get me admitted in the hospital immediately. If it shortens – we have a problem. But so far so good, thank God! Fluids are great, babies are great so we continue to pray that God watches over this pregnancy every step of the way, it is His miracle!

Baby A ~ 1 pound
Baby B ~ 1 pound 2 oz
Baby C ~ 1 pound 2 oz
Baby D ~ 1 pound 2 oz
We don’t know exactly how long they measure, but probably the size of a banana, about 10 inches long.

Before I add pictures of the babies, I would like to say THANK YOU to all the people that have donate us baby clothes, toys and other baby gear! Expecting quadruplets can be overwhelming especially when you think about all their needs, but once again we saw how God uses everyone around us to bless us in abundance!

Here are some pictures of the Quads!

Baby B’s and Baby C’s profiles

 

Baby D’s cute little feet! 🙂

 

Baby A’s face, she lifted her arms up

 

The weekend is around the corner, enjoy it!

Lori.

 

 

Twenty one!

   You think time is flying by, well not for me! When I look back, I am surprised to see how far we’ve come and that we are at 21 weeks in this pregnancy already. But not being able to do anything or go anywhere makes me feel like time is not passing by fast enough! That feeling on Sunday nights, getting ready for bed because you have a whole new busy week ahead of you… I miss that! I thought that when I won’t be able to work anymore, one of the best things will be to know that I don’t have to get up so early every morning. But when there’s nothing to keep you busy, days are so long! And if you have insomnia, like me, nights are even longer! So guys, appreciate your jobs, school, whatever you do everyday that keeps you busy. It’s pretty boring otherwise.

Other than my lack of activity, which I guess is good for me right now, because I am not able to do anything anyway, it’s all good. I know for a fact that the quads are growing everyday, because my belly is huge 🙂 I feel them kicking more and more, stronger and stronger. I am not sure who is right by my belly button, but whenever he/she kicks… ouch! I guess that area is more sensitive. I wake up in the morning because someone is not happy about me laying on one side or the other, so they kick me! And even after I turn, they won’t leave me alone until I grab some breakfast! It’s funny, I am having fun with my babies even now, before they are born. And I can already tell it is not about me anymore. Tomorrow we’re going back to the Perinatal office, so it’s exciting, especially because soon-to-be Daddy is coming with us! I can’t wait to see his face when he sees the babies so big and how they move around in their own bubbles. It’s been a while since last time he got to join us. And I am happy that I actually have something on my  schedule for tomorrow, haha! I have to plan my morning in order to be able to leave the house on time. It’s a lot of work now to just get ready to go somewhere, believe me. After I shower, I have to rest. Sometimes I feel like taking a nap, that’s how much energy I put into it. And I am talking about a 10min shower, not half an hour. Then I blow dry my hair, that’s another exhausting task. I never do that anymore, unless I go to the doctor’s office. So, you think my life has changed? No way! 🙂

Last week I had some special little visitors, my boys! They were so cute! They made a banner for me, glued pictures of them on it and they all wrote me a little something. I loved Bennett’s scribble-scrabble! They have so much energy! It was so good for me to see them. They made the highlight of the week. Fletcher was wondering if we found suitable names for our boys, he knew we already picked the names for the girls. Well…
I got a great book from my sis-in-law, Adina. It’s such a cute book and it’s supposed to make it easier, right? Does everyone have such a hard time figuring out what to name their babies, like us? We got so many suggestions, but nothing sounds good. I go through the book and every time I find something I like, Oly doesn’t like it. If he finds something that he likes, I don’t like it! So we keep going back and forth like that. In the end, I know we’ll make a good decision, we just have to figure it out. There are so many cute names out there but we don’t feel like they match our babies, it’s crazy!

That’s it for now, form my extremely busy life to yours:) Quadruplets updates coming soon, can’t wait for tomorrow!

Good night everyone! I’ll be on night guard again, since I am not sleepy at all.

Lori

21 weeks, 1 day

 

Happy 4th of July Y’all! :)

What better time than 4th of July to pack the car and go camping? Forget about bed rest!

4th of July 2012

Just kidding! These are  from last year’s 4th of July. Ada decided to give it a try, came with us and she liked it. It was very hot, remember last year? Everyone thought we were crazy to go camping. We are a little crazy! Now it’s so hard for us to stay home. Every time we had the chance to go somewhere and have fun, we would not think twice. Camping is one of our favorite things to do. And now that the babies are on their way, all we talk is about how as soon as they are old enough, we’ll go camping!! This year, we’ll take it easy. The weather helps too, this rain doesn’t get you in the mood of going anywhere. But still… if I would not have to be on bed rest, we would probably be somewhere right now.

Today we had to go through a bunch of hand-me-down baby clothes that we got from some friends at church, to sort them and get them ready to be washed. It was funny in a way because we did that so many times but it was not about us, not about our kids. This time around we would look at cute outfits and cute hats thinking how our babies are going to look wearing those 🙂 Oly would ask my opinion on every single on of them, except the ones that said something like “I love daddy” or “Daddy’s helper”, he just piled them up right away without hesitation! We are getting closer and closer to becoming parents and it is so exciting! The babies are always on our minds and we talk about them, we talk to them, we imagine how they are going to be like, how they are going to look like, it is so much fun! Four precious babies at the time… wow! I am still amazed! Almost everyday we get to surprise somebody with our news about expecting Quads. It’s funny how people react! Some are so excited – I used to take the youngest of the Fogles – Bennett- to My Gym in Buckhead and his coach, a sweet lady, was so amazed when she found out I am expecting quads! She just wanted to hug me all the time. From that moment she considered me and the babies a true miracle from God and she kept telling me that there is a big plan for us and that God has something special for our family. I agree!! Other people get scared when we tell them about these four babies. I guess some of them think having one baby is hard and it changes your life and all that, they cannot imagine having four at once! Well, we cannot imagine our lives without them now, and they are not even here yet. It is probably the best feeling I ever felt, and I know my husband feels the same. Four innocent angels that need us so much! We are excited and so happy that this is happening to us!

Back to bed rest. Today, Dr.Jeffers ( my OBGYN ) told me how happy she is about how things a moving forward. My fluids look awesome and the babies are perfect, growing and developing normal, my cervix looks great (it has a huge role in getting me into labor) – honestly nothing to worry about. So I need to keep being good about everything, no camping trips what-so-ever 🙂 She even said that I will probably get to 32 weeks or more!!! That is the biggest deal to hear that from her, because in the beginning she told me that I should keep my fingers crossed to get to 28 weeks. It seems like quadruplets usually come in between 28 and 30 weeks. I was SO happy to hear that, especially coming from her. But we are still going to do everything we can to pass even 32 weeks, even 34 and get this pregnancy as far as we can. All that with God’s help of course. And because recently we’ve learned a new song from a person that prays for us a lot and encourages us every single step of the way, I will share a little bit with you:

“What God has for me, it is for me
I know without a doubt
That he will bring me out
What God has for me, it is for me”

Our plan didn’t work out, but we know that God has a plan that always works out, better than we can imagine! This is His plan for our family. And we love it 🙂

Have fun this 4th of July and be safe!

Lori.

20 weeks, 2 days