10 Months

When I started this blog, my fear was that I would never post anything... and guess what!?! It's been a month since I've even logged in. Oops.

Yesterday, the babies turned 10 months old. It is crazy how fast time is flying.

Here's a few of our accomplishments over the last month:

• Our total tooth count increased from 5 to 14 this past month. Beck is leading the race with 6. Finn and Max each have 4 with one more cutting through. Stella still has zero. :)
• Stella learned to sit up on her own. She is thisclose to crawling. I will be very surprised if this doesn't happen in the next month. But just because she isn't crawling yet doesn't mean she can't get exactly where she wants to go. She's a pro at scooting herself around. (And her favorite thing to do is scoot over to her brothers and swipe their pacifiers.)
• Finn started saying "dada". He also has learned to clap and "give five".
• Max got his first bottle. All feedings thus far have been through his GJ (stomach/intestinal) feeding tube. Pretty much all of his formula is still given in the GJ, but we're making baby steps in the right direction.
• The helmets have really been doing their job for the boys. Beck and Max are in "maintenance" mode now. Their head measurements have met their goal, and now we just wear the helmets until the boys start spending most of their time sitting up. Finn is very close to his goal.
• Finn, Beck, and Stella are all fabulous eaters. We are sticking only to veggies right now.  I want to wait a while before we introduce anything sweet... since these children have my genes, we already know they are bound to love sugar. So far, they have loved every veggie they've been given... with one exception. None of them were too excited about eating avocados. Since Max can't have baby food yet, I've been dipping his Nuk in the baby food to let him taste it. He makes the cutest "nasty" face ever.

Here are my big TEN month olds:

Finn (there was no getting this child to smile for the camera)

Max

Beck

Stella

NINE Months!

I cannot believe how quickly time flies! The babies turned nine months old last week. Nine months!!! Seems impossible. The first birthday party planning has now begun...

Happy nine months, sweet babies!

Finn

Max

Beck

Stella

Memorial Day Weekend

Since I last posted on here, we've had many wonderful visitors, and the babies have been blessed with being able to meet some of their extended family.

Over Memorial Day, my grandparents and aunt & uncle came to visit for several days. It was so fun to have them here, and they were a tremendous help with the babies. Since we were unable to travel this past Christmas, we hadn't seen them all for almost a year and a half.

Gigi holding Max for the first time

Poppy and Beck

Stella and Great Uncle Brad

Finn snuggling with Papaw

Folding one of many loads of baby laundry :)

Our poor neglected cats

One of my favorite moments of the weekend...

finding my grandpa singing "Oh, How I Love Jesus" to the babies

Poppy and Gigi with their great-grandbabies

Great Uncle Brad and Great Aunt Kim with the babies

Helmets for the Boys

Since parents are told to make babies sleep on their backs, they are at risk for having flat or misshapen heads  And since my babies were laying on their heads more than 3 months before they were supposed to, they were at an even greater risk... thus leading to them getting helmets this past week. (Stella, however, escaped needing one.) They'll be wearing them for the next 3-4 months, and when we're done, everyone should have nice, round heads!

arriving at the dr's office

B looks a little unsure of what's about to happen

Beck getting his helmet fitted

Max slept through the whole ordeal

Finn is getting his put on for the first time

I think they're cute with helmets (notice Max is STILL asleep)

Babies Update

For those of you reading this who also are Facebook friends, I haven't given an update on the babies in a long time. So I thought I'd fill you all in on how each of them are doing. And pics just because they're cute. :)

Finn

born: 1 lb 14 oz

now: 15 lbs 10 oz (8 months old)

Finn is our snuggler. He spent so much time in the NICU (163 days) due to his lung issues, and he got lots of love and snuggles there... and therefore, now firmly believes that he needs to be held all the time! He would snuggle all day every day if he could. Finn is our serious little man. He is very good at furrowing his little eybrows and giving lots of skeptical looks. He's stingy with his smiles, but when he does, it is so adorable. He has the cutest, most contagious little laugh.

Max

born: 1 lb 10 oz

now: 13 lbs 12 oz (8 months old)

Max's life is a miracle. Despite all Max has been through, he has the sweetest personality. It is rare to talk to Max and not get a huge smile from him. He always sticks his little tongue out when he smiles. He has the most precious little voice. He loves his pacifier and looking at books. He loves to snuggle but is also very content to just observe what his siblings are doing.

   

Beck

born: 2 lbs 1 oz

now: 16 lbs 1 oz (8 months old)

Beck is a sweet little boy. He loves to "talk" and is always trying to make different noises. Frequently, in the morning, I will hear him over the monitor just talking away to himself in the cutest little voice. Melts my heart every time. I think he's going to be our chatterbox one day. He's a happy little guy and has the sweetest smile that shows off his two teeth. Beck is the one in the group with the temper. When he gets going, we call his scream, his "whistle". No joke, sounds like he's blowing a police whistle. :)

Stella 

born: 1 lb 15.8 oz

now: 15 lbs 1 oz (8 months old)

Stella is such a sweet, happy baby. Every time you talk to her, you are guaranteed to get a big open-mouthed grin. She squeals and bounces when she gets excited. She's strong and always has been the strongest of the four - she was holding up her head before her due date even arrived! She doesn't like to sit on laps; she wants to stand on laps. :) She loves to talk and make noise. She is also our nosey baby. This girl doesn't miss a thing.

One Year Ago Today

Well, I've been asked numerous times over the last 8 months if I have a blog. I've always replied that I don't have time to maintain one. However, I'm probably never going to have more time.  Now is as good of time as any, right? So I'm gonna try to give this blogging thing a go.

Today is the one-year anniversary of when we found out we were having quadruplets. Since I am always asked how and when we found out there was four babies, today is a good day to share the story.

After finding out I was pregnant in April 2011, I had my first ultrasound at 6 1/2 weeks. We were amazed and shocked to see two placentas with one heartbeat in each. TWINS! We were super excited... and also pretty nervous, but mostly just excited! Fast forward to 10 1/2 weeks along... pregnancy has been great so far. I've felt great - still have energy and no morning sickness! As I got out of my car after work on May 20th, I felt an immediate rush of blood. As I ran up to the front door of our house, I remember thinking... "that's weird, my pants feel wet. I don't rememeber being sweaty in the car." Yeah, it wasn't sweat. My pants were "wet" all the way down to my knees. I freaked out. I called my doctor (who I was supposed to have an appointment with later that afternoon). I was told to go straight to the emergency room. I called Bill and told him what was going on. Thankfully, his work is on the way to the hospital. So I picked him up, and we hurried there. The ER doctor sent me back for an ultrasound to check the "status of the pregnancy". At the ultrasound, we immediately saw two heartbeats on the screen. So the technician went searching for where all the blood was coming from. After a few minutes, she stopped and asked "how many did they tell you were in here?" I told her two, and that there wasn't any more than that. We saw the first ultrasound. Two sacs, two heartbeats. She said "um, dear, you need to look at the screen. Here's three heartbeats - one, two, three." We were shocked. Triplets!!! After a few more minutes of searching around, she stopped again and just stared at me. I was a little worried since she wasn't saying anything... did we just lose a heartbeat? She slowly said, "I need you to look at the screen again. This is number four." I was already an emotional wreck from everything I'd already experienced that day... the thought of miscarrying twins to having triplets to having quadruplets. So needless to say, I just cried and cried. Happiness that my babies were okay and that there were four of them, but also mourning the loss of the normal pregnancy I had planned on having. Bill, however, simply stood next to me and kept repeating over and over "I just don't understand how this is possible." As it turns out, there was only two placentas in there... but one of them had identical triplets in it. Identical triplets are extremely rare (1 in every 500,000 births)... but even more rare than that was our "3+1" pregnancy. We were told that there are less than 70 recorded cases of this happening in the United States. Ever. Wow.

So there it was... what could have been one of the worst days of my life turned out to be one of the most exciting. I thought I was miscarrying our TWINS, but my body was simply having a complication from being pregnant with QUADRUPLETS. And so the craziness began.