Our Family is Together Now!

Dahlias's first bath at home! Do you just love those chins :)

All of the babies at the eye doctor---> Note: Madelyn is crying


The King Quads

Some of our favorite nurses Sue and Laura

Here comes Dahlia!

One of the babies' doctors, Dr Perez

Eva waiting for Dahlia

Getting ready to go get Dahlia!

Preston's baby blues!

Parker

Madelyn

Preston

Parker

Preston at his first Pedi appt.

Parker watching his rattle

Mommy and Dahlia in the hospital

Eva and Madelyn

So I am so so sorry that I have not been able to post the latest news, but Dahlia came home on Tuesday! It was bittersweet to leave the NICU because we made so many friends there, but we are so happy to be together for the first time!

So... life is busy, busy, busy! There really is not much down time around here and showers are luxury! Having a toddler in the mix definetly makes things a little more interesting because we are trying to make sure that she does not feel left out. Whenever I gave birth to Eva, we would just sleep when she slept but with the quads we cannot do that because we are playing with Eva. You know I do have to say that one really great thing about them being in the NICU was that our nurses put them on a fabulous schedule, which we couldnt live without! I CANNOT believe the amount of diapers we are zooming through! We are using about 50 to 60 diapers per day for all of our kids! We so appreciate all of those that have donated to our diaper fund, we couldnt have done it without you!

We seem to have some kind of doctors appointment every single day. The babies have an ophthamologist, cardiologist, pulmonogost, pediatric surgeon, and pediatrician they all see. Plus, a program called Early Childhood Intervention has 5 therapists working with the babies to make sure they are progressing well in the developmental department. Volunteers from our church have started coming in to help me with the 11 PM feed so that Trever can catch some zzzzzzs and then he gets up for the 3 AM feed to feed the kiddos by himself. My friend Aundrea also came in the other day to help and it was the first time I was able to get caught up on all of my laundry in a really long time! We really are so very greatful for all of the dinners and help people have offered us. We couldnt do it without you! We actually are so busy most of the time that dinner becomes our only meal of the day.

The babies just had their eye appointments and they all look normal which is such a sigh of relief! Dahlia had an echo right before discharge and her heart still looks really good! The babies are really so sweet! They are just eating up all of the love and attention they are getting! In fact we are spoiling them so much that their "high maintence" status coordinates with who came home first:

Most High Maintence- Madelyn (came home 1st)

Second- Parker (2nd home)

Third- Preston (3rd home)

Fourth- Dahlia (just got home)

So needless to say 4 to 5 months of NICU scheduling and sleep training can be ruined in just a few days at home lol!

We really are having loads of fun though! Until next time.....

Thy will be done....

Well..... This morning Trever got laid off from his job. The spirit was so strong this morning and when his boss called him, we just knew. The company hasnt been doing great pretty much from the very beginning, so it was inevitable. Besides, not very many people are willing to spend 600+ dollars on an MRI in this economy. But, never did we think that right when our quadruplets were born, it would happen. There were 2 offices, and the lousy invester that owned the company told Trever's boss Tuesday night that in 72 hours he would be shutting the doors. So half of the staff would be let go with zero notice. He has been there for 5 years, we were hoping he would have at least another 3.........How do you support 5 children on 0$? How do you support 5 children, 4 of which have extreme medical conditions, with no insurance? I dont know....

All I know is that I have faith that this is the Lord's will for us. We are so blessed to have the 5 most wonderful children and a marriage full of love that could withstand anything. At least we have enough faith to say LET THY WILL BE DONE, and really really mean it......

Can You Even Believe It?!?

Eva meeting Preston for the very first time!

Homeward bound!

Preston on the way home.

Parker, Madelyn, and Preston all snuggled in.

Parker,Madelyn and Preston just getting home from picking up Preston.

Eva kissing Madelyn

Mommy tandem feeding for the first time.

Our sweet little Dahlia on her first easter

Eva on her swing.

Kissy kissy Madelyn and Parker

Mommy, Eva, Madelyn and Parker ( Madelyn is not nursing lol)

Madelyn at the pedi

Parker at his first Pedi appointment

Eva giving Parker his first bath at home

Can you even believe that our little Preston came home yesterday? I mean, it feels like just yesterday that he was on the brink of death and you all rallied around to pray for him! I remember that time so clearly. I remember wondering if I would be able to ever hold him while he was living and wondering if I would be able to raise him! It was a very emotional day for me. I am so glad our little man is home but it was very difficult to leave Dahlia alone in the NICU. I miss her so much! I just cannot wait for the day when we are all together!

So last night was our first night with three babies at home and all I can say was that it was a lot of work but we are loving every minute of it! Between Trever,my sister I we got probably a total of 3 hours sleep max!!! CRAZY!!! There is always at least one baby awake at a time and babies this size just love to grunt and groan like crazy which makes it extremely difficult for us to sleep! I do have to say that we just love being their primary caregivers! It is about dang time :)! The are all such snuggle bugs! They just love to be held! Eva was excited about having another baby and she has not even shown one bit of jealousy! She has acted like a dream amidst all of this chaos!

Parker and Madelyn had appointments with both their Pedi and Pulmonologist this week. They both are being treated for reflux and we found out Parker is tongue tied (thanks to his daddy, Trever had it too). So it is making it a little more difficult for him to eat. Parker has been taken off of all but two of his meds and little miss Madelyn is now off of her oxygen. Dahlia's little heart is miraculously healed because of all of your prayers! Instead of a month to six weeks for her to come home, we are now looking at about another two! I just cannot believe all of the many miracles that we are being blessed with!

Well I better go for now! It is 3 PM and I am thinking I might could actually sneak away to get a shower!

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

Mommy and her babies at home.

Madelyn and Parker reunited for the first time since birth.

Eva meets brother

Parker in the car on the way home

Family pic before we go pick up brother

Well we will start off with the good news...PARKER CAME HOME TODAY! We are so happy to have him home finally! Eva was so happy to meet him! She smiled so big and really did just fine having another one at home! She acted like it was a gift to her, just what I was hoping for! He is doing well so far today and has been awake looking around for most of the day! He has never been held so much! He came home on like 10 different meds so it is quite an adjustment for us. It is so worth it though! Preston should be home in just a few short days too!

The bad....Dahlia is not doing well so if you all would say a quick prayer we would be very grateful! First of all I think I have already mentioned that she has severe reflux.Her bed is elevated and her feeds are the consistency of honey. The reflux is causing her cry to be nonexistent. It just sounds very wheezy when she cries. Also, she has not been able to go down on her oxygen so they did an echocardiogram to check out her heart. That results were not good. It showed that the right side of her heart is enlarged and has been working way to hard. So they have started her on some medicine. You wouldnt believe it but they are giving her Viagra to increase the blood flow in her arteries. They are also increasing the amount of oxygen she is getting just to try and give her heart a break. We are hoping that it will heal. The doctors say it will be another 4 to 6 weeks until she can come home :(.....

Parker had his surgery and is doing well!

Madelyn in her swing

Mommy,Eva and Madelyn

Dahlia


Parker

Preston

Dahlia

Parker

Parker after surgery

All of the babies are doing very well and we are getting so very anxious to have all of them home together! Here are updates on each of them...

Parker

Thursday Parker had a two sided inguanal hernia repair. He had to have this surgery because part of his intestines (and appendix - very rare) were down in his scrotum. The surgery went well. It was kind of one of the last steps that had to happen before he could come home. The doctor said the hernias were huge! He said he had never seen an appendix that low before. Parker is recovering nicely, we were pretty nervous because he had to be intubated for the surgery and so we were afraid he would want to stay on the ventilator and not go back on the canula. He did well though and in less than an hour after surgery he was back on canula with relatively low settings. He is still kind of swollen but is getting better every single day!

He is taking all 8 feeds by bottle or breast every day so that is really good news. This little baby has a bottomless pit for a stomach and would eat all day if you let him! I definetly think he will be the baby to keep us on our toes. He definetly is a momma's boy which makes me feel really good! We are hoping to wean him onto home oxygen and have him home by next weekend!

Preston

Preston is just cruising away! He is on 6 of 8 feeds by bottle or breast. He is excellent at pacing himself while eating. He too will be have a surgery to correct an inguanal hernia probably next week. He will probably come home a couple of days after Parker. He still has a really pretty honey color of hair! I just cannot believe that with my genes involved we made a baby with such light hair! He is a really patient baby. The nurses say that when he is awake, he hardly ever cries and just occupies his time by looking around. We are expecting him to come home on oxygen as well.

Dahlia-

Dahlia is my little princess! She does everything on her own time! She is over 8 pounds now! She is in the 50th percentile for weight but less than the 10th for her height! So her face looks so round and chubby and so so so cute! She is only taking 2 to 3 feeds by bottle per day and we havent got to try nursing yet :(. Yesterday she had a swallowing test in Radiology where they had her drink milk mixed with contrast to see how she was swallowing it. The results of the test confirmed what the doctors and nurses suspected was going on. Dahlia is aspirating some of her milk which means some of it goes down her trachea. So now she is taking her milk along with a thickener that makes it the consistency of honey. She is doing much better now. She is expected to come home last, probably a couple of days after Preston. She will be coming home on oxygen too which will make for one very noisy house and little sleep with all of the O2 Monitors going off all of the time!

Madelyn-

What a little champ she is! She is just such a dream baby! Trever and I are getting about 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night and she is so scheduled that we can just set our alarms for her next feed. She hardly ever needs her home oxygen, I guess she is just really thriving being at home! The doctor said she looks great and she has gained 5 ounces since being home last week! You can really tell that she loves being held! It sure has been great as she wasnt hardly ever held in the NICU.

Eva-

What a great great big sister Eva is! Madelyn is "her" baby and she adores Madelyn! She has never showed any sign of jealousy or anything! She has had a couple of tantrums about little stuff but nothing we cant handle! It amazes me to watch her with Madelyn and how much she lights up when her "baba" is around!

Trever and I-

Alot of our loyal readers have asked how we are holding up. You all are so sweet! We have been the busiest we have ever been! With a toddler and a newborn at home and still going back and forth to the hospital we are always on the go! We are really focusing on taking time out for us even though we cant really go anywhere together because someone (that is CPR certified) has to stay with Madelyn. We dont yet feel 100% comfortable leaving her with my live-in sister for any extended period of time even though my sister has been amazing! Even if it is a 20 minute walk around the neighborhood, that is enough to keep our relationship solid and full of love. We are loving having one of our babies home! It really helps ease the ache we feel by not being the primary caregivers of our children. I mean seriously, if you have never had a child in the NICU it is one of the toughest things to have people tell you how to take care of your child, when you can hold them, that you must wear gloves before you can touch them etc. I mean, dont get me wrong our nurses are nothing short of amazing, I am just ready to be a full time mommy to my babies!

The amount of bonding we have gotten to experience with Madelyn is really wild! It makes me so happy but at the same time it makes me so sad that I havent got to do that with the other 3 of the quads.

It sure has been a long road but it has made the task of caring for them in the future so much more exciting!

Thank you thank you thank you for all of you wonderful friends and family members that have served us! Thank you to my mom who dropped everything to come here to help our family a couple of weeks ago, Thank you to Trever's mom who spent a week here helping with Eva and Madelyn in the mist of severe back pain, Thank you to Nana and Pop for being so anxious and will to help out, Thank you to Sister Wilding for all of the freezer meals, Thank you to the Otts, Angells, Masons, Bush, Jones, Richmonds and Lamarches for the wonderful dinners and all of those that have signed up to bring dinners for next week! Thank you Anita Bell for arranging for us to receive meals! Thank you to Kristi for giving us so many great things her triplets are done using, thank you to the McMurdie family for the tubs of clothes, thank you to all of my friends who have invited me to outings even though they know I probably cannot go, Thank you for all of the bags of stuff you have given me Casey (as well as the kindness and invaluable advice), Thank you to the Young Mens who came and landscaped 0ur yard for service,Thank you to the Sachse ward for all of the diapers! Thank you to all of our Primary nurses who take such good care of our babies! It means the world to us that you would sign up to be with our children every time you work! We love you so much and look at you like your a part of our family! And thank you so much Neysa for thinking of Eva amidst the miracle of the quads and letting her come play with her best friend Ally! She really needed that and we mustnt forget about how selfless she is for choosing to come to this family even when her siblings are going to demand alot of attention!

And last but not least, thank you to all of our readers and for all of your comments! They really keep us going and make us feel so good!

Madelyn is Home!!! One down 3 to go!

MADELYN SLEEPING AT HOME

GRAMMY AND MADELYN

MADELYN AT DR. APPT

MADELYN AFTER HER DR. APPT




MADELYN'S FIRST BATH AT HOME





BIG SISTER EVA HOLDING MADELYN

MADELYN

EVA'S FIRST MEETING WITH MADELYN

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

MADELYN ABOUT TO LEAVE THE NICU FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!

FAMILY PICTURE AT CHUCK-E-CHEESE
FOR EVA'S LAST NIGHT AS AN ONLY CHILD

PLAYING AT CHUCK-E-CHEESE

We are so excited to announce that Madelyn came home first thing Wednesday morning!! We are so happy to have her home! She is seriously an angel baby. She never ever cries and is on such a fabulous schedule. She wakes up 10 minutes before she is supposed to eat and then goes right back to sleep!

Tuesday night we roomed in with her at the hospital. We pretty much did everything by ourselves and could call a nurse if we had any questions. Everything went really well except for the "hard as a rock" pullout couch we slept on. We were so excited for the morning though. Up until now, Eva has not been able to meet her siblings because she was too young. Heck, she didnt even know she had siblings!

So Wednesday morning, before Madelyn got discharged, Grammy and Riah brought Eva to the hospital to meet Madelyn. It was so amazing to introduce them for the very first time! Eva did so well and just adores her little sister so much! She always wants to kiss her and hold her. She is extremely protective. This morning I had to take Madelyn to a follow-up doctors appt. and Eva screamed and cried for her baby when we left.

Madelyn's pediatrician said she looks perfect and she has already gained a whopping 5 ounces since discharge! She has been hi-sating and though she got sent home on oxygen, she really doesnt even need it. The doctor told us to reduce the amount she was getting. She is really thriving here at home!

Parker is now on full feeds and got his Gavage tubes pulled out today. He is going to get his inguinal hernia surgery (very common) done on Thursday and he will most likely be coming home next weekend! He is one heck of an eater! That boy loves loves loves to nurse and cries at the nurses to bring him more food after his feedings are complete!

Dahlia is now on Canula!!! Yay! She also hit 7 pounds today. She is doing very good and is now getting 1-2 bottle/breast feeds daily. If she finishes her next bottle the doc will increase her feeds to 2-3/day.

Preston is also doing very well. He too is on canula and his settings are actually lower than the others. He is now getting 4 bottle/breast feeds per day and is finishing all of them. He is a very good feeder and paces himself very well. He is now weighing 6lb 8oz. He too will need the hernia surgery prior to discharge. He is most likely about 2 weeks from coming home!