Happy 1 year homecoming anniversary to our super girl, Alexis!

Alexis Madeline Lupei ~ 12 months old

I wish I would have taken time, a year ago, to put my thoughts down and write about one of the most amazing days of our lives, when the last baby in the NICU, finally came home. There was an overwhelming amount of mixed feelings from happiness to uncertainty and so on. It was exciting to have all four babies home. A new chapter about to unfold…

I will never miss the days when half of the babies were home and half in the hospital. I wanted to somehow clone myself so I can be with all 4 at the same time. Once the boys came home, we were not able to visit the girls every single day. And they were getting slower and slower in learning how to take a bottle (and finish a whole feeding by bottle) among other important things that kept them from coming home. The NICU nurses and doctors have told us that the babies knew our voices, recognized our smell and it did make a difference if we spent time with them in the NICU or not. In the beginning I didn’t think it mattered that much or that the babies really knew I was with them the whole day. But later, I realized that they did know I was there, they did know when Daddy was there. And so this dedicated father went to visit the girlies by himself after work while I was home with the boys. On the weekends we always took the boys with us back in the NICU and spend a whole day there with Hannah and Alexis.

Family picture before we left the NICU. The babies were 70 days old

You would probably ask me “what in the world did you do 10 hours (or more) a day in the hospital?!”. I was SO busy that sometimes many times I didn’t even have time to grab something to eat! Taking a lunch break meant leaving the NICU nursery, because I wasn’t allowed to eat there. But my meals were also important because I was pumping around the clock, every 2 hours at that time, to get my body to produce more and more milk so I can keep up with all 4 growing babies. And even though it was hard and time consuming and I was dreading it, I was happy to do it because it was one of the few things I was able to do for my tiny babies those days. Along with that, I did Skin to Skin therapy (also known as Kangaroo Care) with each baby daily. This practice helps babies maintain body warmth, regulate their heartbeat, and gain weight (and also gave us the opportunity to hold and cuddle with them). I had days when I couldn’t cover all 4 because I needed at least 1 hour with each and in between that and pumping and trying to eat, there was just not enough time. I always felt very guilty for the days when I couldn’t do everything I planned and I felt very bad when I wasn’t spending the exact amount of time with each baby. But again, super daddy was there to help out, every day after work. He would stop by our friends house to shower and change (they lived 10 min away from the hospital) and come spend time with our little peanuts. At the end of each day, both of us would do Kangaroo Care with a baby, sometimes in the same nursery, and that felt awesome (we had 4 babies in 3 different nurseries in the beginning). That was family time for us. The time didn’t matter anymore; the fact that we were very uncomfortable sitting on those wooden chairs for an hour without moving an arm, did not matter; all the noises that the machines in the nursery were making on and on and on didn’t matter; not even the wires and the tubes that were in our way and all the things that were making it so hard to hold our babies, didn’t matter anymore. We were spending precious time with the most precious little people in the world. After that, we said good night to everyone, grabbed the laundry bags and headed out to get some dinner in the hospital cafeteria if it was still open. Oh those nights… when you are hungry but don’t want to go out and sometimes don’t even have the money to go out for dinner, but there is nothing at home to eat. I don’t think I made time to cook dinner in that period of time. Stopping by the grocery store? Ummm that would have taken away from the time I needed for my babies. Don’t ask how we survived, we just did. We were getting so tired of those long drives to the hospital (we lived about 40 min away from Northside at that time). We just wanted everyone home, under the same roof.

I feel like my mind is all over the place. While I try to stick to Alexis’ homecoming story, I jump to many other things, hopefully you can keep up with me 🙂 Glad I still remember these things, but then… how could I forget?

NICU nurses rock! Kaitlyn and Lori saying goodbye to the Quads ~ November 16th, 2013

Lori & Kaitlyn today with the Quads! November 16th 2014

Alexis took her car seat test the day Hannah came home, right before we left the hospital . At least one of the parents was supposed to be there for that so we were glad that she passed and we got that out of the way. We were really hoping that in a few days she will come home too. And she did. 5 days later Alexis finally got discharged! After spending 70 days in the NICU, our super girl was coming home! We took our time leaving that hospital. You would think we wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Not really. We made friends and memories for life. There are some very special people that work there and had a huge impact on our lives and they will forever be special to our family. We took some pictures with some of our favorite nurses that were at work that day. It was kind of crazy 🙂 But thankfully we had auntie Ada with us to help out while auntie Lois was out and about, shopping for some last minute stuff that we needed at home for the quads.

Ready, set, go! A full load 🙂

My heart was pounding as I was getting pushed in the wheelchair, with my little fighter in my arms and 2 strollers with the other 3 babies were following us. My hubby and Ada were trying to get everything on camera, push the strollers, don’t lose the balloon, make sure we have all the bags and all the stuff with us. We were leaving the NICU for good. Wait, what ?! Really? Finally we were saying goodbye and talking about maybe visiting our Northside friends one day… we were going home. All six of us were going home !!! Oly and I no longer left the hospital empty handed but with our hands full and our hearts even fuller! I cannot help myself but cry just remembering those moments…

Going home! November 16th, 2013

Our family, a year later, in the same spot 🙂 November 16th, 2014

We strolled our way out on the Northside Hospital’s corridors and there was the Quad Taxi waiting for us. Oh how I dreamed of that day…  I used to see families leaving the hospital with their babies, daily. Balloons and flowers, excited parents and tears of joy. I wanted that every single day of our NICU stay. Finally it happened! Our minivan was packed. And off we went!

Home sweet home ❤

First night at home, Hannah reached out to her sister as they were sleeping. Love this picture!

I would like to talk about our Alexis since it’s her homecoming anniversary. Maybe you wonder why I call her our super girl. It is because I feel like she fought the hardest throughout the NICU journey and even after she got discharged. This whole year has been a complete transformation for her and we praise God for answering our daily prayers. Each and every one of the quads has their own pace and their own way of learning things and reaching milestones. Like I said before, we need to give them extra time to accomplish things (because they were born premature) but also we work with them to get there. Andrew has been the leader and sometimes we call him the big brother just because he has a faster way of learning and figuring out things. It is funny because he is our baby, he is baby D of our set of quads.

Our little elf!

Well, Alexis is the one that needs more time than the others and she is also an observer. Before she tries anything new, Alexis needs to make sure she knows exactly what to do (Andrew just goes for it, such a risk taker). And I think she is also a perfectionist (ahem, like her mama) because she easily gets upset if something goes wrong. On the other side, she has been a leader herself! First one to sleep through the night! (sleep training was so worth it!!) We were waking her up when the others wanted to eat (that was one of our rules – one for all and all for one). First one to say bye-bye and also wave. First one to get over baby formula and eat big kids food!  I have to say that a lot of her progress happened because of a very special person, Ms. Aimee. I mentioned in my post about Hannah’s homecoming anniversary, how this amazing lady works weekly with our girls. She puts her whole heart into it and loves our babies so much! We are very thankful for her.

Alexis is one of a kind ❤ She is so friendly and ready to play even with people she sees for the first time. She is Daddy’s girl (I think a very strong bond was built back in the NICU when Daddy spent his nights with her) and loves him so much that sometimes calls him “Mama!” 🙂 . We are truly blessed to have her as our daughter. Her sweetness is contagious!

Four peas in a pod

1st Christmas

Dear Alexis,

Even when you were a tiny baby in your Mommy’s belly, we knew you have a big personality because you were taking your space by kicking everyone all over the place! You are such a strong girl and we are excited to see God’s plan for your life. The first time I got to hold you in my arms, I felt like God is pouring his grace all over us… You transformed from this tiny helpless preemie baby into a strong, beautiful and gracious little lady. Coditza, you are and always will be our miracle baby, along with your sister and brothers, and we will never stop thanking the Lord for you guys. Mommy and Daddy love you so very much and we are SO proud of you!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Love her so much!

Those eyes!

6 months old

Busy bee 🙂

Our little piano player!

Cutie! Look at that hair!

Out for a walk in the Runabout stroller

March of Dimes with Daddy

Her smile…. ❤

Coditza 🙂 (pony tail)

1st time at the pool

our little crawler! so proud of her!

Best friends 🙂

Sisters ❤

Alexis Madeline Lupei ~ 14 months ~

We wanted to do something special today, to celebrate this day. So we took a trip to Northside Hospital to visit our friends. It felt surreal to be there, to see everyone. Tears of joy and hugs and cuddles with the babies – pretty much sums it up. We stopped by the NICU first and then we made a quick visit to the High Risk Pregnancy floor, where I spent two and a half weeks. Loved seeing everyone and it was well worth going back.

A few of our NICU nurses, I wish we could have seen all of them today!

A few of the nurses that cared for me on the HRP floor and Brandee (first on the L) that made sure I always had plenty to eat so I can keep the quads growing big and strong in my belly 🙂 

We had such a busy, fun but full of emotions day, I feel drained! Taking a peek through a window at one of the NICU’s nurseries made my heart sink… I couldn’t help but tear up because I will never forget those days spent there with our miracles. God is so good!

Love,
Lori.

Hannah’s Homecoming anniversary!

Sweet baby Hannah ~ 12 months old

I never got a chance to write on my blog about the day Hannah came home from the hospital. Today marks the 1 year anniversary and I think it is the best time to reflect a little at that special day. After a few weeks of not being able to spend much time with the girls since we had the boys at home, we were so happy to welcome sweet baby Hannah home. Bitter~sweet once again, since we had to leave Alexis by herself in the NICU for a few more days… It was probably one of the hardest days of our NICU journey, to leave the hospital knowing that only one baby is left behind. The nurse promised me to cuddle with my Alexis and give her extra hugs for us that night. Hannah spent 65 days in the NICU.

Ready to go home!

Mommy and the trio!

Hannah’s first car drive

Hannah looked better than ever 🙂 We could tell she was READY. Ready for her home, ready to be next to her brothers, ready to be spoiled and pampered, like a real princess, by everyone around her. On our drive home, my mind was going crazy. I started counting how many bottles I had to prepare, how will the feedings go since we have 3, how things will change having baby number 3 at home. Yes I was nervous, of course I was. More happy and excited than nervous this time around. When we got home, we sat the car seats in the livingroom one next to the other. It looked really cute. But we kept repeating ” can you imagine when we have all 4 in a row? ” 🙂

3 home, one more to go!

That week was pretty challenging because having 3 at home and 1 in the NICU was tough business. Since we wanted to get Alexis home ASAP, Daddy went to see her every day after work and that really made a huge difference. So needless to say the exhaustion started to settle in.

Daddy, Hannah, Andrew & Isaac

This little lady of ours sure has a big personality. Hannah has always been a feisty girl (even in the womb – she was the 1st one to kick!). I remember giving her a bath in the hospital, you would have thought something serious was going on, that’s how loud she was! She just didn’t like anyone to mess with her. And now… the boys get in trouble if they grab her toys or paci. She fights them! But she is also a sweety-pie and gives the best hugs! She likes to follow Isaac and Andrew everywhere they go. Loves her pacifiers, her lovies and chatting with her sister at nap time. They are so cute together and we love seeing them being best friends. One of the best things about having multiples is watching their unique bond grow and become more and more special as the time goes by. She can be very,very serious, especially when we have people over or if someone approaches her, but she gets very bubbly and happy once she feels comfortable. Hannah loves Ms. Aimee, the world greatest Physical Therapist, that comes every week and plays with the girls… God works through this amazing lady and we all appreciate and love her so much!

First doctor’s checkup

Angel ❤

Sweet baby Hannah

Chubby baby 🙂

1st Christmas

Hannah Liana

6 months old

Precious baby girl

March of Dimes Walk!

Hannah in her 1st bathtub from the NICU 🙂

Loves books !

Love that smile!

Hannah and her best friend and sister, Alexis ❤

Love you so much!!!

Dear Hannah,
You brought so much love and joy in our family that words are not enough to express that. From the day you were born there was something special about you! Your smile and your giggles are precious and you make our world so much better everyday. We are so proud of your progress, you are the cutest crawling peanut ever! We love seeing you try new things and even though new things can be scary, you don’t give up! Such a fighter and a brave little girl! We thank the Lord everyday for you and your siblings and we are SO blessed to be your parents!

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

The Quads at 14 months 🙂

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

 

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

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.