We're still here....barely!!!!
1 year ago
Monday, September 29, 2008
AJ Belly Pics Week 11
Its fun to watch Amy-Jo's belly grow so here are some new pictures at 11 weeks.
Baby Pics Week 11
We are 11 weeks and 1 day and things are progressing as expected. We had another doctor appointment today and the babies are all doing great. We received some new pictures which I went ahead and posted below. Basically every two weeks we will get to see the babies and they will measure and check the heart beats of each baby. So far the babies measure:
Baby A - 4.82 CM
Baby B - 4.80 CM
Baby C - 5.20 CM
Baby D - 5.22 CM
All heart rates are great!
The doctor also gave us a video of the sonogram which I will post in the next couple of days, a few technical issues have delayed it being added. Its pretty cool to see the babies moving and dancing around.
Baby A - 4.82 CM
Baby B - 4.80 CM
Baby C - 5.20 CM
Baby D - 5.22 CM
All heart rates are great!
The doctor also gave us a video of the sonogram which I will post in the next couple of days, a few technical issues have delayed it being added. Its pretty cool to see the babies moving and dancing around.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Glimpse into the Future
Well AJ pretty much eats and sleeps at this point, so until further notice it looks like everyone will have to lean on me for the updates. She started to write everyone last night, but got one sentence in and quit.....you'd think she was pregnant with 4 babies or something. She is starting to feel better though, but last Friday and Saturday were the worst two days in a long time. All the weight she was able to put on was pretty much gone after two days of not keeping anything down. We had to cancel a dinner with our friends for like the third time (sorry Tara, Steven and Paige) but it looks like it could have been a turning point. Since Sunday she has been able to put down some pretty good size meals and right now is all about steak and potato's.
Anyway we were fortunate to get a small peak into what awaits us this week when a local couple our doctors introduced us to had us over to meet their Quads (Thanks Robbie and Casey!). We threw a million questions at them and they had all kinds of advice for us, which it's nice to have someone who has been through the same thing guide you along the way. The real eye opener for me was noticing their counter full of formula (36 bottles I believe) and having Casey tell me it was only for 9 DAYS! 4 bottle of formula a day, and that is not even counting the jars of baby food. Mostly it was nice to see you can make it work and still have a normal life (well semi normal I suppose, I mean its 4 kids!). They did give us a great tip on how we can stock up on diapers (this was my plan from the beginning, basically fill up a spare bedroom before all the babies get home but I was told not to as you do not know what will work for each baby, etc) it turns out Wal-Mart takes anything back even without a receipt as long as it is a brand they carry. So now its time for my weekly trips to Wal-Mart to stock up on those diapers! I am going to leave a link to Robbie and Casey's web site as soon as AJ makes sure they don't mind. Its kind of like a look into whats to come, careful though she has had hers going for awhile and the first time AJ and I stumbled on to it we were there for about an hour reading.
Anyway we were fortunate to get a small peak into what awaits us this week when a local couple our doctors introduced us to had us over to meet their Quads (Thanks Robbie and Casey!). We threw a million questions at them and they had all kinds of advice for us, which it's nice to have someone who has been through the same thing guide you along the way. The real eye opener for me was noticing their counter full of formula (36 bottles I believe) and having Casey tell me it was only for 9 DAYS! 4 bottle of formula a day, and that is not even counting the jars of baby food. Mostly it was nice to see you can make it work and still have a normal life (well semi normal I suppose, I mean its 4 kids!). They did give us a great tip on how we can stock up on diapers (this was my plan from the beginning, basically fill up a spare bedroom before all the babies get home but I was told not to as you do not know what will work for each baby, etc) it turns out Wal-Mart takes anything back even without a receipt as long as it is a brand they carry. So now its time for my weekly trips to Wal-Mart to stock up on those diapers! I am going to leave a link to Robbie and Casey's web site as soon as AJ makes sure they don't mind. Its kind of like a look into whats to come, careful though she has had hers going for awhile and the first time AJ and I stumbled on to it we were there for about an hour reading.
Casey and Robbie's blog: http://gerwerbabies.blogspot.com/
We see the doctors Friday and Monday so we will give an update next week. We should hopefully have some new sonogram pictures and I will make AJ show off that belly again. We have been asked a few times about the sex's of the babies and we won't know for about 7 more weeks. But just for fun here are some % for you.
2 boys 2 girls - 25%
3 boys 1 girl - 25%
3 girls 1 boy - 25%
All Girls - 12.5%
All Boys - 12.5%
AJ thinks its 2 and 2, I am all but certain it will end up being 4 girls.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Doctor Visit
Hello everyone, thank you for the food suggestions! We went to the Perinatologist today (high risk doctor) and everything was wonderful. They did talk to us about reducing to two as four babies with two being identical is such a high risk, but there is no way we could do that. Mostly they wanted to talk with us about the risk and what roll they will play in our pregnancy. We spent about 2 hours with the doctor making sure we knew there is a long road ahead. We will not be seeing the doctor again for another two weeks and after that we willl be going every other week. The good news is he said I will be on bed rest by Christmas so less work for me!
We saw all four babies and their heartbeats again today, it is so amazing. They were all dancing a jig and became more active as the sonographer moved around. It's seeing them move like this that made the decision not to reduce and easy one. To us the babies are alive and already part of our family, how could we choose to get rid of two of them. Thankfully the doctor did not push the issue and just gave us a strategy for getting the babies here as healthy as possible. He did mention I can keep my calories at about 3500 so this should help keep the food nazi (Brandon) off my back.
I think my cold is just about gone, I just wish this morning sickness would follow suit. I am feeling extremely tired and just taking a shower is exhausting, I know it seems extreme, however it is the truth. All of this is more than worth it to have our four little miracles. We are so excited for what is to come and we could not be happier. Please keep us and the babies in your prayers, you can never have enough.
We saw all four babies and their heartbeats again today, it is so amazing. They were all dancing a jig and became more active as the sonographer moved around. It's seeing them move like this that made the decision not to reduce and easy one. To us the babies are alive and already part of our family, how could we choose to get rid of two of them. Thankfully the doctor did not push the issue and just gave us a strategy for getting the babies here as healthy as possible. He did mention I can keep my calories at about 3500 so this should help keep the food nazi (Brandon) off my back.
I think my cold is just about gone, I just wish this morning sickness would follow suit. I am feeling extremely tired and just taking a shower is exhausting, I know it seems extreme, however it is the truth. All of this is more than worth it to have our four little miracles. We are so excited for what is to come and we could not be happier. Please keep us and the babies in your prayers, you can never have enough.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The race to 4500 - And first belly pics
First off let me start by saying, no I will not be hogging the blog with my own non sense every week. AJ is starting to feel much better so I will be turning over the keys shortly. She is planning on giving everyone an update tomorrow after our doctor appointment.
Now back to my update. As many of you know, and TV has taught us throughout the years, pregnant women eat...A LOT. Not just because they want to, but as it turns out because the have to. The simple math says to add between 300 - 500 calories to your normal diet....per baby! So with one baby that does not mean much of a change, but with four babies you are looking at a pretty big increase. All the books and doctors tell us AJ should be eating between 4000 and 4500 calories per day! Now at first glance that seems like a walk in the park, but try doing it without eating sweets or for the Sather's drinking beer. For instance take a look at what AJ consumed yesterday:
3 Eggs
1 Piece of toast w/Peanut Butter
1 Grapefruit
3 Peanut Butter Crackers
1 Brownie Snack Cake
1 Granola Bar
1 Personal Pizza
1/2 cup of trail mix
1/2 baked potato
5 oz of Steak
1 pudding
1 serving of potato chips
1 milk shake
1 bowl of cereal
All that and she was still 1000 calories short of her goal!!! Obviously one problem is just the amount of food it takes to reach 4500 calories, the other problem is battling the "morning sickness" which lasts all day. So here is where we need a little help. Give us your suggestions for the most fattening, high calorie foods you can think of. The meal you only wish you could eat everyday. We found the personal pizzas (which seem to be going down the best so far) pack a mean punch with 700 calories per pizza, but we are looking for some other suggestions. A few restrictions: Can not contain a lot of sugar (high risk for gestational diabetes) or revolve around chicken (trigger food at the moment) pork (never been able to eat) or fish (avoided eating while preggers). Anything from fast food to frozen dinners is welcome, we just need to get this girl eating. Doctors say she needs to gain 70 pounds by the time she delivers so we have 69 more to go. Which is only 3 lbs. per week.....if we all only had this problem. So now that I have made you all jealous here are the first belly pics. Our camera broke a few months ago and we finally got around to replacing it today. She started her 10th week today so you can see how fast her belly is growing, despite only gaining one pound.
Now back to my update. As many of you know, and TV has taught us throughout the years, pregnant women eat...A LOT. Not just because they want to, but as it turns out because the have to. The simple math says to add between 300 - 500 calories to your normal diet....per baby! So with one baby that does not mean much of a change, but with four babies you are looking at a pretty big increase. All the books and doctors tell us AJ should be eating between 4000 and 4500 calories per day! Now at first glance that seems like a walk in the park, but try doing it without eating sweets or for the Sather's drinking beer. For instance take a look at what AJ consumed yesterday:
3 Eggs
1 Piece of toast w/Peanut Butter
1 Grapefruit
3 Peanut Butter Crackers
1 Brownie Snack Cake
1 Granola Bar
1 Personal Pizza
1/2 cup of trail mix
1/2 baked potato
5 oz of Steak
1 pudding
1 serving of potato chips
1 milk shake
1 bowl of cereal
All that and she was still 1000 calories short of her goal!!! Obviously one problem is just the amount of food it takes to reach 4500 calories, the other problem is battling the "morning sickness" which lasts all day. So here is where we need a little help. Give us your suggestions for the most fattening, high calorie foods you can think of. The meal you only wish you could eat everyday. We found the personal pizzas (which seem to be going down the best so far) pack a mean punch with 700 calories per pizza, but we are looking for some other suggestions. A few restrictions: Can not contain a lot of sugar (high risk for gestational diabetes) or revolve around chicken (trigger food at the moment) pork (never been able to eat) or fish (avoided eating while preggers). Anything from fast food to frozen dinners is welcome, we just need to get this girl eating. Doctors say she needs to gain 70 pounds by the time she delivers so we have 69 more to go. Which is only 3 lbs. per week.....if we all only had this problem. So now that I have made you all jealous here are the first belly pics. Our camera broke a few months ago and we finally got around to replacing it today. She started her 10th week today so you can see how fast her belly is growing, despite only gaining one pound.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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.
Baby C
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
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