Welcome to our Blog

Hello and welcome to friends, family and anyone in between. Amy-Jo and I have decided to keep a running blog of all the news and happenings with our latest adventure. We will be updating on a weekly basis (give or take don't hold us to it!) the latest on our newest additions. Being far from home we wanted to keep everyone up to date with the latest and greatest and thought this would be the best way. So come back and check on us from time to time and we will provide you with all the news from the parents to be. Amy-Jo will probably do most of the updating from this point on, she is a little under the weather so I took on the initial duties. I know there are a few computer challenged readers who may struggle to find the site after the initial visit (cough, Dad!) so just to help some of you, click on favorites, then add to favorites and this site will be there for you whenever you need it.

Okay, back on topic. I am sure most of you have heard by this point that AJ and I are expecting Quadruplets, pause for those who haven't heard to stop laughing/crying. I am going to do my best to catch you up on the happenings the last couple of weeks, and AJ will probably chime in later to fix what I get wrong. After trying for a baby for over 2 years we found out officially August 1st we were pregnant. The inside scoop is I knew about 5 days earlier, basically after 2 years of trying I became familiar with certain mood swings that coincided with mother nature. So basically a week of me staying out of trouble was a sure sign that something was off. The doctor's confirmation of my being right was just a formality. The initial blood test came back a little high which sent off some initial anxiety. Biology lesson time, HCG is the hormone they test for pregnancy, at our initial test she should have been 50 - 100, and it came back at 865! The doctors warned us at that time there was a good chance of AT LEAST two. Let me just say there are times that you like the term AT LEAST, like your paycheck will be AT LEAST $2000 or you have won AT LEAST $500, this is not one of those times. That said we are now excited about what lies ahead.

Two weeks later we were back for a sonogram and the tech, with a concerned yet excited look, said the words I will never forget "Well there were three, but now there is four!" The next several minutes AJ will have to fill you in on as I went into a complete panic attack and blacked out. What I learned later is there were three fetus, one of which split into a set of identical twins. I have since nicknamed them the OCD Twins, as anyone who has spent time with my wife knows of here slight Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) which plagues me every day, "hand me 2, not 1 only 2, of those M & M's, crackers, etc" so apparently our babies have inherited this trait a little early. We have been told that there is still a chance one of the embryos may terminate and not reach full term. Even though 4 is a lot-o-babies we still do not want anything to happen to any of them so your thoughts and prayers are welcome and needed!

We had a couple of doctor appointments this past Friday where we were able to see the babies heart beats on the sonogram, very cool by the way. All four are healthy and growing at a normal rate, pictures below. Speaking of growing at a normal rate, AJ is definitely NOT! 8 weeks in and this girl is already out of her normal clothes, the doctors said she is about the size of a normal pregnancy at 13/14 weeks. She really hasn't gained any weight yet only a couple pounds, I am pretty sure I have gained more since finding out than she has but lets not dwell on who has gained how much weight its all for the health of the babies. Anyway, we meet with a perinatologist, specialist for high risk pregnancies, in about a week and get some details on what is to come. We know this is going to be a challenge and more work then we could ever imagine, but we are excited for the road ahead.

Below are some pictures from our sonogram on Friday, and no these are not photos from Hurricane Gustav.

This is Baby A and B (the OCD twins)

Baby C

Baby D