Our Birth story
Some Facts, Opinions, and Suggestions from a Mother of Quads
Hi everyone. I had the "job" of carrying a set of quadruplets and bringing them into this world. With the wonderful support of my husband and the other 4 children we had already had, I carried the babies to 29 and half weeks gestation. The first 20 weeks progressed pretty well, with regular checkups to make sure everything was going as planned. Then in July, my doctor wanted me to be more closely monitored and I put my job on hold and checked into Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children. This was to be my home for the next couple of months.
The hospital was only a year old at the time and was a very nice facility. I met many other wonderful patients there on the "high risk" maternity ward. They were there to be monitored for their particular situations. Whenever a new mom would arrive on the ward the others always had fun having me stand up and asking the newest member of our group to guess how far along I was. They would usually think I was close to full term because of how big my belly was. Then we would tell them I was only 21 or so weeks and that I was carrying quadruplets. None of them had ever known anyone carrying quadruplets personally.
Days at the hospital were ok because a lot of us were there for long periods and we got to know one another. The nurses or patients family members would bring videos for us to watch, and we would all go to one big room where we could have lunch together. It made the time go easier. It's hard "living" at a hospital and not seeing your family everyday and being there to help take care of their needs. Although it was about a 45 minute to an hours drive to the hospital from our home, I did get to see Dennis and the kids at least once a week, and sometimes a little more often.
Dennis did a wonderful job taking care of four children, under 5 years old, all by himself, while I was "lounging" in the hospital. Our two oldest were in kindergarten, so he had to keep up with their school activities, as well as watch two babies. Jamie was only 8 months old when I went into the hospital. When they would come to visit, I would get a chance to hug and kiss all the kids. I think they missed me too, but they were very good for Daddy. Dennis would bring the mail once a week so I could keep up with anything I needed to do, and he would bring me clean laundry and take home my dirty laundry. We would have just a little time to talk about everything going on at home and my status in the hospital and then it would be time for them to get home and get ready for a new week. We did of course talk a lot via telephone. I couldn't have survived all of this without the love and support of a wonderful family.
More comming soon........
