My husband and I made the 3 1/2 hour drive to Los Angeles yesterday to see our OB for the first time. Not the most sociable doctor but very experienced and knowledgeable. He did an ultrasound and measured all the babies. All four are still doing great and measuring ahead of gestational age. They each have their own placenta and don't seem to be any identicals. I brought a long list of questions we had for him, he patiently answered each one. He said I should expect to stop working around 18 weeks (this is earlier than I was expecting) due to the higher stress of my job. He also said I wouldn't have to be on bed rest unless there were complications. However, he would want me to be home "resting" around 20 weeks and no exercising. He said the average length of a quad pregnancy is between 28-31 weeks. But, as I've said before, we are not average! And we will beat the odds.
My IM is busy readying her home for quads to come home. She has 2 other little ones that keep her busy and is planning to come to the states in April and stay through the birth. So, she only has between now and April to get everything ready for them to come home.
We were hoping the doctor could have seen the babies sexes but he didn't say anything. He wants us to drive down every 2 weeks from here on out. Not looking forward to the drive but grateful to have the piece of mind to see how they're doing every 2 weeks. I am going to pin him down next time and make him see try to see if they are boys or girls. I know if I were out shopping for these babies right now, I'd want to know!
As far as weight gain, it hasn't gotten any better but I haven't lost any more, in fact, I'm back to my starting weight so I'm proud of that. I have a normal appetite now but I don't feel ravenous as I expected. I eat as normally as I would if I weren't pregnancy. I'm sure that will change soon though. Hope the grocery shoppers of the house know what's coming!
My youngest (4) keeps telling me how fat my belly is getting. She touches my belly and laughs. When we got back from our appointment yesterday, she asked me where the babies were, didn't the doctor take them out? She still has the innocence of understanding. I love it.
Now, my other 2 older children know exactly what's going and seem very excited. My mom jokingly gave me a little maids bell for Christmas and put it on my night stand. She said it's for bed rest and room service whenever I need it. My Abby (51/2) loves it when I ring it and is willing to get anything for me. It's cute to see how excited they are to be involved. I'm honestly surprised that they grasp the magnitude of the situation and how truly blessed these babies are to have overcome everything they have. It's obvious that they are thriving and I'm sure that all goes back to those positive people around me supporting me to get through each day.
I love my family, my IP's (my forever family) and I'm grateful for the role each person plays.
What a life we're living!!!
Oh- here's my answer LOL
ReplyDeleteAs another surro, I'm wondering, how did you feel about them putting 4 embryos in? Were they all good/excellent quality? Of my friends who are surros, most put in only 2 . . . but even then I've had 2 friends were one split and they ended up with triplets!
I'm just really interested in your Quad journey and how your family and your surro family came to the conclusion to keep all 4. Very interesting!