Look who’s ONE ~ updates & pictures ~

Happy 1st Birthday Quads!

Many times I ask myself… Is this really happening? We managed to survive the hardest year of our life and I am pretty sure my husband agrees with me. Looking back… whew! We made it! A short pregnancy that kept all of us on our toes, endless doctor’s visits, bed-rest, hospital admissions, aaaaand boom! Here they were, the Four babies we kept talking about, saw them on ultrasounds, felt them kicking and turning, dreamed about holding them and how much fun it will be…also how hard it will be… the Four that turned our world up side down, left to right and gave our life a new meaning. The Four that surprised all of us, arriving sooner than we thought… the Four that fought a great fight from the beginning. The Four that were so tiny and helpless but so strong and courageous. The Four that God had in His mighty plan, and no matter what the statistics said, He gave them life, health and helped them strive every single day. The Four that made us a family and made us realize what true LOVE is.

It is hard for me to write all this, tears fill my eyes and I get overwhelmed looking back at this last year. We started off unprepared and inexperienced (first time parents). From an ordinary couple that had no children but really wanted a baby, we were launched into this crazy adventure almost overnight! Suddenly we became responsible for FOUR little persons by becoming parents of quadruplets.

First day of life 9/07/2013

And here we are, a year later, with our hands full but our hearts fuller. Loving every second and cherishing every moment! Time is flying by as I said many times and even though we celebrate every milestone and every accomplishment of each baby, it is SAD!!!! They are getting bigger and bigger and we can’t turn back time so I try to hold on to every moment as hard as I can!

In this past year the babies took numerous trips to the doctor’s office, not only for regular check ups but also different screenings just to make sure everyone is on the right path. We’ve had  some scares, but thankfully every single time we got great news and all four passed all tests.
We’ve used TONS of diapers and Formula of course but good news – slowly we are saying goodbye to formula! 🙂 Actually we have a little “big” girl that decided to eat only solids and drink whole milk and so she’s been done with formula for a few days now… miss Alexis ❤
All the babies are doing great eating whatever we eat. No more pureed baby food, which is awesome! I am very happy about this, it was one of my goals for them to be able to feed themselves and eat regular food when they are one. They’ve tried a bunch a things including peanut butter and honey (they love this combination).  Also, they are doing pretty well drinking out of sippy cups, such a hard transition! Big boy Andrew is rocking at this task, he picks it up easily and drinks lots of water or milk with each meal. The other 3 still need a little help but they all improved so much. Hannah doesn’t really like whole milk so I am hoping she will give in soon. Here is how the Quads’ schedule looks like at 12 months old:

7AM: bottle (Alexis gets cereal with milk in sippy cup)
We usually go outside for a walk if the weather is fine.
9AM: breakfast & sippy cups with milk/water
9:30AM: nap
12PM: lunch & sippy cups with milk/water
playtime, books, walk outside
1:45PM: snack & sippy cups with milk/water
2ish PM: nap
4:30PM: dinner, sippy cups with milk/water
play time
7PM: bottle (Alexis gets a snack & a sippy cup with whole milk)
7:30PM bedtime

Their weights at the 12 months checkup:
Isaac: 21 pounds 4 oz
Andrew: 21 pounds 4 oz
Hannah: 19 pounds 1 oz
Alexis: 19 pounds 10 oz

The days are really busy and sometimes I can’t believe how tired I am after we put them to bed. More tired than when I used to work! The babies are keeping us very busy but this stage is so much fun, we loooove it. We’ve been able to get out more and have a taste of what is like to be out in public with so many babies. Well, it’s been pretty ok. I think we (the parents) need to get used to people asking questions and being curious about our life. Sometimes it can get pretty overwhelming and weird, but some people are really nice and even offer to help us any way they can. We live in a nice neighborhood, with lots of wonderful people. I had the chance to meet a few moms and their babies, a few parents and grandparents that love to chat and I actually enjoy telling them about the babies. They offer their help every single time we see them and I think that is very sweet.

None of the babies walk yet, Andrew takes a couple of steps and stands up on his own all the time. Isaac loves to follow him everywhere and they always play together. When they go to bed, they sometimes spend 30 minutes playing with each other. Their cribs are still one next to the other so when they stand up they can touch each other. Isaac loves to throw all his friends (his little loveys)  in Andrew’s crib and they both laugh so hard! The girls are so funny together, Hannah grabs Alexis’ pig tails and they both laugh (or cry haha!); it’s so cute to see them together. Alexis loves to stand up but she needs help so she gets mad at us if we don’t pay attention and surely gets her point across in no time. Hannah is a little trouble maker, she likes to bite. I don’t think she does it on purpose though, she’s been chewing everything she gets her hands on, including her siblings.

For their 1st Birthday we had friends and family over to celebrate an amazing year. The party theme was their 4 colors – blue, pink, purple and green. Thanks again aunt Adina for giving me this idea! We wanted to do so much but you know what? The simplest ways end up being the best. I made some tissue pom poms with each of their colors, we used their first outfits, their tiny little diapers from the NICU and pictures of the quads to decorate and illustrate this first year. It looked beautiful and everything had a story behind it, so we loved it. We had cupcakes and of course each baby got to smash/eat one! They did a great job 🙂 Oly and I ended up with icing all over us, we like to be kids sometimes too! 🙂
One of their birthday presents was a professional photo session so I will share some pictures from the party and the photo shoot.

My loves!

We did it! Survived the 1st year! Happy Birthday quadlings ❤

Isaac Nathan Lupei

Hannah Liana Lupei

Alexis Madeline Lupei

Andrew Davis Lupei

Here are some of the pictures from the 1 year old photo shoot of the Quads 🙂

Our girlies!

The boys 🙂

We are happy and so blessed to call these precious angels our babies. We fought for them and prayed hard along with many of you and they are truly amazing. We can’t thank God enough for His grace and mercy… There are days when we struggle and stumble but we try our best to be good parents, good examples and so on.

I wonder how this year will be, transitioning from babies to toddlers! I would love to be able to update my blog more often ~ that’s one of my goals for this year! Thank you for keeping up with us!

Lori