A Beautiful Weekend!

We had a great weekend!  The weather was awesome.  On Friday, we had an OB visit which went really well.  We talked with a different doctor this time.  She was really nice and made us feel really comfortable.  She went over my health history and blood test results.  I also had to get a few tests done while I was there.  My blood tests were all normal.  There was just one test that showed up as a false positive.  She said most of the time it's nothing, but I could have an autoimmune disorder, so she is doing further testing just to be sure.

We got to see the babies again, and this time they actually looked like babies!  Two of them were really  moving around and flailing their arms.  We also got to hear their heartbeats for the first time.  We've been able to see them for a while, but this time was much cooler.  

My belly is already growing away.  At my appointment I was 10 weeks, but the doc said I was measuring about 17 weeks!  It seems like I am bigger every day.  Here are my 8 and 10 week belly pics.   I don't have a great before picture.  I was too nervous to take one at the time.  

  8 weeks (I'll get the arms out of the way next time!)    

10 weeks                             

Friday night we headed to the Dogwood Festival for some fair food.  It was DElicious!  I had a corn dog (even though they say not to have hot dogs...one can't hurt!), fries, a soft pretzel and some limeade.   Eric had Shrimp and Grits from Marley's in Phoenixville and it was really good.  Then we went to our favorite bakery, The Wooden Spoon, and picked up a couple sweets.  

Enjoying my corn dog!

On Saturday, there was an open house at the hospital so Eric's mom went along with us.  It was really nice to get a tour of the hospital and meet some people.  We also talked with a lady from the NICU and she had good recommendations for a carseat that is preemie friendly.  I think if we get all the same car seat it will be easier for us to handle.  The carseat she showed us was so easy to use.  Ease of use is going to be a sticking point on most things we buy!

After visiting the hospital, we stopped by Grandma's (Eric's Great Grandmother) for some lunch in the cafe.  It was great to see her, and boy does she keep herself busy!  I hope I'm that healthy when I am her age.

Saturday night we had dinner with my Uncles in Philadelphia.  We went to Ela for dinner.  It was delicious.  Eric said it was one of the best dinners he's ever had.

Sunday was mostly a relaxing day outside (with lots of sunscreen).  I did my 24 hour urine sample which was super fun.  Especially bringing my urine container with me if I went anywhere for more than an hour!

I have an appointment to see the specialists and have a level 2 ultrasound next week.  So hopefully all will go well with that.  I had more blood taken today, so prayers for that to turn out as well as everything else. Let's keep these babies growing!

Infertility and Mother's Day at Church

I always had a hard time going to Mother's Day services at church because it seemed like it was assumed that you had/would have a family.  The services would make me sad and make me wonder if I was good enough.  Maybe there was a reason I wasn't being blessed with a family?  In fact, it became really hard for me to go to church at all.

We tried a new church last week and loved it, so we decided to go back again on Mother's day.  Yes, my circumstances have changed recently, but I will always feel the pain of infertility.  It felt like a breath of fresh air at church this year.  The service was on the struggles of motherhood.  I have never been to a service that even spoke of infertility and it was one of the stand out points of the service.  I couldn't believe it.  The pastor was talking about the struggles of Sarah, wife of Abraham.  The first struggle she had was with infertility.  She was barren and was unable to bear a child until she was 90 years old.

The pastor also shared some infertility stats (1 in 8 families will struggle with infertility), talked about the extreme costs of infertility treatment, and asked that everyone would be more understanding of those who are struggling to conceive.

Eric said he used to read about Sarah to make himself feel a little better when we were struggling.  Sarah also had a blended family and the pastor shared about the struggles those in a blended family have.  Eric and I both felt great after the service and felt like we took a lot from it.  I am so happy we decided to give it a try.  I am looking forward to going again on Sunday.


We had a really great weekend.  On Saturday, I helped my mom at Phoenixville's Relay for Life and even won a basket and a lottery hat!  Then we went to a friends house for a picnic and had a great time.  On Sunday we spent time with our moms.  They are the BEST and have been with us every step of the way.

I only won $11 on the tickets, but there was also $50 cash on the hat :)

I'm feeling okay, just trying to get close to my 4500 calorie intake!  If our scale is right, I gained about 6-7 pounds in 10 days, which would be really good news!

A visit with Little Nate

I had a great visit with Little Nate and Diane and Chris over the weekend.  Andy was home from Peru for the weekend, so we were all able to go together.  Nate is doing great.  He looks so much bigger even though he is still so tiny.  It is great to see how well he is doing, knowing that we will have some preemies in the near future.

Here is a picture of Andy with the cutie:

Andy really makes Nate look small!

We went to see our OB for the first time last Friday.  We were excited to see the babies again and meet her.  She seemed great.  We were able to see the babies heartbeats and they were able to measure them all.  They all measured just where they were supposed to and their heartbeats are right on track.  

The doctor stressed to me how important it was for me to eat, eat, eat.  She also put me on some more vitamins just to make sure the babies (and me) are getting everything we/they need.  I am taking a prenatal vitamin,  1 mg of folic acid for each child, Vitamin D, and Iron.  I went for my first set of blood work already (the normal stuff for pregnant women) and she is sending me for a few more tests so they have a baseline in case something happens later in my pregnancy.

The best one is peeing in a jar for 24 hours!  I can't wait.  I know I am getting the best care possible at my new doctor.  They will be seeing me every two weeks in the beginning and then most likely every week.  I will see doctors over in the hospital, as well as, my OB.  

Internet!

Well, our internet wasn't working for a couple days so I wasn't able to update, but we should be good to go now.  Nothing new has been going on around the Hill household.  We are still just getting used to the idea that soon there will be four babies hanging out here!  I've been feeling okay, just having some food aversions (mostly to protein which is what I desperately need!) and feeling exhausted.

This 4500 calorie a day thing is not happening for me right now.  I feel a little guilty that I am probably not getting as many calories as I should be, but if I push myself any father, I start to gag and throwing up would not help my cause!

I go to the OB on Friday.  We had another ultrasound with the fertility doc and all four babies hearts were still going strong.  They were even able to count the heartbeats this time.  He said since everything still looked great he was sending me on my way.  Everyone at his office was really great, hugging and congratulating me.  Even the doctor seemed a little more animated than he usually is.  You would have to meet him to know what I mean.

The OB we are going to has experience with multiples and is highly recommended by my doctor and I truly trust his judgement.  Hopefully we will learn some more about what this pregnancy is going to be like on Friday.  I got a great book that has been helpful, but it will be nice to hear what my OB has to say.

We also found a great blog about a couple that has quadruplets (identical twins and two others, just like us!) and they are healthy 4 years olds now.  She blogged during her pregnancy and it has been really helpful to see what she went through.

Check her out:

Steece's Pieces

There is a place were you can go back to when she found out she was pregnant with Quads and read from there.

Rollercoaster Ride!

I haven't posted in a while because we weren't sure we wanted to share our latest news.  After talking it over, we have been very public with everything we've been going through, so we thought we would share this as well.  If something happens, then maybe our journey will help others.

This past Friday, we went to see our babies heartbeats.  We went into the ultrasound room and the tech had a little trouble finding the baby in the first sac (Baby A).  She was able to find the baby and we got to see the heartbeat.  It just looked like a little flutter.  It is still very early, so they couldn't tell us how fast the heart was beating or anything like that.

Then she moved on to the middle sac (Baby B) and found him/her right away and we saw the B's heart beat as well.  When she got to the third sac, she was really looking around and then she switched from my stomach to an internal ultrasound and then back again to my belly.  I was getting a little worried at first that she couldn't find anything, but the more I watched I could tell that ...there were 2 BABIES (C and D) in the sac!!!  I think she just wanted to make sure she was actually seeing them both before she told us for sure.  She said, "Well, I think you got your money's worth...there are identical twins here."  I looked over at Eric and we were just speechless.  What do you say to that?  We only put three eggs in, and after our first IVF when none of the eggs "took", this was the last thing we were expecting.  Obviously, we knew it could happen, but the odds were extremely low.   So, we are going to have identical twins plus two others.

The tech printed out some pictures for us and we waited to talk to the doctor.  I didn't know what to think or what to say.  We feel so blessed to be pregnant, and even though this is extremely overwhelming at times, we still feel genuinely excited that we are going to be parents to a much larger family than we thought possible.

We waited for a while to talk to the doctor and when he finally called us in, he was shocked that this happened.  He has been doing this since 1986 and said he can't even remember a time that an IVF patient at the practice had identical twins as part of their pregnancy!  He said statistically it probably did happen once, but he really can't remember.  They used to put more eggs in a long time ago, and they ended up with a few sets of quads, but since then, they have limited the eggs they fertilize and transfer.

He answered all of our questions and he seems very optimistic.  He said there isn't much more of a  danger to me than a regular pregnancy.  I have a risk of blood clots when I am on bed rest, but they will give me exercises to do to try to prevent that.  The highest risk is that our babies will be premature.  There is no way we are going to make it to our December due date if all 4 of our babies continue to grow and mature.  He said they will most likely come in October (hopefully later in October).

We asked about the odds of us losing one and he said there is a 10% chance for each of them miscarrying at this stage of the pregnancy.  We go back on May 4, and if their hearts are all still beating, there is less than a 5% chance of miscarrying from that point on.

Eric has been really great.  I will write more about the book we got about carrying multiples in another post, but Eric is already on top of making me a meal plan!  Basically, I get to eat whatever I want and gain SO MUCH weight.  I will do anything proven to get results if it will help our little babies.

So that's our story right now.  I know we can do this because we have such amazing support around us.  Our family and friends have been there for us every step of the way.   We know in our hearts that God wouldn't give us anything we can't handle.  We may have struggles along the way, but we can do it!

Here is a cute video I found on Youtube and a website that had some adorable pictures of Quads.

Click Here: Scroll down to the little boy quadruplets

Cute Quads

PS...I read somewhere that the odds of this happening to me were 1 in 1.5 million!!!!

Stunned!

You are not seeing things....these are our 3 little babies!  Right now you can't see much, but there they are.

When the Ultrasound tech found the first one I was so relieved because I was so worried there wouldn't be anything there.  (I am a born worrier)  Then she found the next one and we were so happy because we were really hoping that there would be two because I don't think I could go through all of this again.  When she said, "And here's a third" we both were kind of just staring at the screen.

 I am due in the beginning of December, but likely won't make it to that date!  We are super excited, but also terrified.  We feel very blessed.  Eric is already planning on a quarterback, wide receiver and running back...or a pitcher, catcher and outfielder :)  We are praying for healthy babies.

Feeling Blessed

My HCG level doubled since Wednesday, which is great.  My progesterone and estrogen levels are high, so the nurse told me just to be careful and not to exercise (they don't want me to jostle my ovaries at all).  She said if I start to gain weight or feel too uncomfortable to let her know.  I go for an Ultrasound on Friday to hopefully see how many!

I am still so nervous, but also SO EXCITED!  I think I was in disbelief the past couple days, and just wanted to hear that my HCG was going up.

We feel very blessed this Easter!  I think my Nana and cousin have been pulling for me in heaven.   I even got the news that I was pregnant on my Nana's birthday :)

More good news-  Little Nate may be coming home as early as Sunday!  It really has been nice to have some good news for a change.