32 weeks and 5 days later...THEY'RE HERE!!!!

Delivery Day!

It's a go time!

THEY'RE HERE!!!!  So, here's how it all went down.  I was miserable (don't let the smile fool you!).  Let me repeat...I WAS MISERABLE.  To be clear, not only was I miserable, everyone around me was too.  I'll be honest, I was a bear.  (But, to my defense, I had FOUR babies in my belly and I was HUGE.  The day before delivery, I stepped on the scale and weighed 198 pounds.  ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT POUNDS.  That totaled a 75 pound weight gain and let me tell you, it wasn't all in the belly, I really plumped up.)  For the past two weeks, I had been having contractions but since they weren't associated with any pain and I wasn't dilating, on we went.  Since the babies were thriving and the preeclampsia was under control, our doctor didn't set a delivery date and wanted me to keep going until we had a reason to deliver (a REAL reason, apparently misery didn't count!).  Really though, I think if I pushed, I could have convinced him to let me deliver; but, knowing that every day I kept them in was three days they weren't in the NICU was enough motivation to keep going.

On the afternoon of November 20th, in walks Dr. Silver and tells me he had a proposition.  He was leaving town for two weeks and said that if I could wait until he returned, I could pick a day, any day, and he would deliver.  Finally.  Light at the end of the tunnel.  12/12/12 was going to be the day.  It was 3 weeks away and by then I would be 35 weeks and 5 days along.  So that was our new goal.  I could do this!  However, later that evening, I wasn't so sure.  I lost it.  I called my mom bawling, telling her I couldn't do this.  I was breaking down physically AND mentally.  She listened, and as usual found some comforting words to settle me down.  Told me that we would take one day at a time and that she would go to the store in the morning and bring me some new clothes, (throughout the pregnancy, I out-grew Charlie's, both brother-in-laws, and my dad's clothing; I was so cheap, I wouldn't spend money on prego clothes because the plan was to NEVER be pregnant again!) a Jamba Juice and some lunch from wherever I wanted.  In the meantime, and although he won't admit it, I'm positive poor Charlie was just as miserable as I was.  One second I was bawling and snapping at him, the next I was motivated to keep these babies growing.

November 21, 2012.  Morning comes and Charlie decides to go home to do some laundry and take Lucy on a run.  I get up, hobble to the shower, and by noon I'm back in bed, feeling refreshed.  Something was different though.  The contractions had gone from a few times an hour to a few times every 5 minutes.  Still no pain though, or anything else they told me to watch for.  When the contractions first started a few weeks back, they took me over to labor and delivery.  AGONY TIMES FOUR!!!!  I had to lay there for what seemed like forever with five monitors strapped to my tummy (one for each baby and one for contractions).  In the end, it was all for nothing (I was dilated to a three but wasn't progressing) but given the circumstances, just had to be sure.  So, when these contractions increased, the last thing I wanted to do was tell my nurse because then they'd make me go back over to L/D.  Well just then my new good friend Michelle sopped by (her quads are now 10!).  She walked in and her jaw dropped.  "You look like you're going to burst!"  I told her about the change and just as we were discussing the next step, in walks Dr. Clark (the OB on call for the day and let me just say, LOVED HER!).  I cave in and describe to her what was going on.  She proceeds to check how far I've dilated (ouch!!!) and the first thing out of her mouth when she was done was, "where's dad???"  She continued to explain that I was still somewhere around three to four centimeters but the difference now was that she felt a head!  So, over to labor and delivery I went (my mom had just arrived and Charlie was high-tailing it back to the hospital).  On the monitors went, and sure enough the contractions had dramatically increased (THANKFULLY still no pain though).  Two hours later I had moved up another centimeter and it was confirmed.  Today was the day we were going to meet our four precious angels!!!!

By then it was around 3pm and they advised it would take some time to get the 'teams' ready.  Here's how it works.  In the delivery room, there is a small window that goes into the NICU (lol when delivery time came, Charlie looked through the window and there were 40+ eyeballs, all looking in, waiting).  When a premature baby is born, they have a team of doctors ready to take all of the necessary steps to give that baby the best possible welcome into the world.  In our case, they needed four of these teams.  We later learned that since my admission to the hospital, 'the arrival of the quads' was an event they were all waiting for and couldn't believe we had made it to almost 33 weeks.  Anyway, by about 6pm I was prepped and in the delivery room.  The anesthesiologist gave me the spinal block and in comes Charlie.  My mom and sister had told me that the block would make it so I couldn't feel anything from the waist down.  The best way I can describe how I felt was like when your arm or leg falls asleep.  That tingling feeling went all the way to my toes and I didn't dare try to move them because if I tried and failed, I'm pretty sure I'd have an anxiety attack. Everything was happening so quickly and all I was focused on was that I still felt tingly and I wasn't supposed to feel anything.  "Wait!" I said.  "Don't cut me open yet, I'm not numb!"  Charlie looked at me, then looked at my doctor.  "Okay," she said.  "Do you feel that?"  "No."  "Okay, you're numb."  Whew I thought, (HAHAHA I later learned that when this convo happened, I was already sliced open!) let's have these babies!  I had been forewarned that I shouldn't be alarmed when a baby was born and I didn't hear them cry.  Preemies often need to be resuscitated because their lungs aren't fully developed.  Not our babies; everyone arrived screaming!!!! 

Out comes baby number one.  It's a boy!  Andrew Kelley (Andrew is my grandpa's name and Kelley is my mom's maiden name...gotta keep the tradition going!) was 3 lb 13 oz.

Then comes baby number two.  It's a boy!  Mason Bryan (Mason was the boy name Charlie picked and Bryan is after his dad) was 3 lb 10 oz.  

One minute later, it's a girl!  Addison Charlie (Addison is a name I had picked and I surprised Charlie at the last minute and told him I was giving her his name) was 3 lb 9 oz.

Then comes baby number four, it's a girl!  Mikayla Maria (Mikayla was Charlie's girl name and Maria after his mom) was 3 lb 5 oz. 

And so, the delivery went perfectly .  While sewing me up, Dr. Clark made the comment that my body must have been made for these quads because it was the smoothest multiple birth she had ever delivered!  As we expected, everyone was born healthy with no issues.  The girls were on oxygen for a few days but quickly followed their brothers and were breathing room air within week one. The NICU has several different 'rooms' their babies are in, room one being for the tiniest little people, on up. They quickly moved from that to the room they would eventually be sent home in. 

We are so blessed and feel so fortunate that they were all born so healthy.  Thank you for everyone's thoughts, comments and mostly for your prayers.  God is so good and we know that without Him this little miracles would not have been possible!