Making Preparations for 4 Babies

So, the first thing we have to do is tell our families. Everyone was of course overly excited but shocked. The first 3 months were a whirlwind. Kevin's Granny passed away in April after we found out in March we were expecting the quads, so most of the family on Kevin's side we were able to tell when we travelled to Maryland for the funeral. I do remember that being the longest, hardest trip, physically. I was doing ok physically, but that trip we had to stop every 2 hours and rest. The dr had cleared me to travel but I had to stop every 2 hours. Needless to say that was a long trip in the car from Alabama to Maryland.

Our emotions were going from shock, to being scared of losing the babies, to worrying about how we were going to provide for 4 babies, supporting 4 babies financially, and knowing that our life as we know it was being turned upside down. We were extremely excited for the anticipation of life with quads!
I had my first regular checkup ultrasound on May 4, 2006 when I was 12 weeks pregnant. I was now seeing Dr Robinett at Brookwood. He told us the babies were growing good and we heard the heartbeats. What a relief! Two of the babies were moving around really good. One looked like it was waving and one of the others was squirming around. We were so excited to see them moving around so much. The dr told me our 1st goal was to make it to 28 weeks which would be around the end of August. He said that is where we wanted to get and that anything over that would be gravy. Of course they didn't expect me to carry 4 babies full term, so we were prepared for an early delivery. He started a progesterone shot once a week to help with preterm labor and at 24 weeks we would plan to start steroid shots to boost the babies lung development in case of an premature delivery. We were preparing to tour the NICU and meet the doctors because of course higher order multiples are expected to come early and have a NICU stay. We left very excited and prepared for what was in store. I had survived the 1st trimester!

Everyone was in full planning mode, making arrangements for these 4 little ones to come into the world. We of course knew I wouldn't be able to work after the babies came along and my mom was planning to quit work to help me also. We were trying to get everything arranged and stocked up for 4 babies. Would we have 4 cribs, 4 carseats, 4 bouncy seats, 4 of everything!!!!! We looked at yard sales, hand me downs, we had collections coming in all over the place for clothing and anything that anyone wanted to donate. Of course my family was like you need an EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER!! We were thinking about any company that we could get some freebies for, anything and everything we could get to help. We picked out a nursery theme, Lazy Day Pooh. It was nice and neutral for boys or girls or both. We painted the room in Froggy Green, which was a really bright green like grass that matched the colors in the bed set. We decided we would just have two cribs and have the babies pair up in one crib each. My cousin gave us a crib, so we had everything ready to start setting up. It wasn't all finished but it was becoming reality quickly as more and more baby stuff started piling up in the house. The room wasn't completely finished yet, but we were making progress. I was now 16 weeks, so 12 more weeks to go until we were safe! We had no idea that in just a few days our whole world would be turned upside down.