Another Day Another Blessing!

I finally got a laptop here at the hospital (thank you Dee!) it's nice to have a little connection to the outside world. Things are looking pretty good, baby-wise at least. Our main concern right now is my iron level, my body is having a hard time producing enough for all of the babies and me. Yesterday morning my iron level was at a 7.1, the doctors were very very concerned and immediately increased my iron supplements and put me on an IV. Although I felt fine, they explained how big of a deal it was and that it needed to go up asap or we would have to look at blood transfusions. This morning they took my blood again and it came back at 7.4! Seems like so little of a difference, but the doctors were pleased. I had another round of iv's today and they will check it again tomorrow.

My stay has been good so far, the nurses are wonderful and soo attentive and I get to see my doctor everyday. It's a little hard to sleep at night due to being in a different environment and constantly having to get up to take more meds, but it's getting better each night. The hardest part BY FAR... not seeing my dogs. I have their pictures hanging here in my room, but it's not the same as being with them everyday. Call me a pathetic nerd if you must, but they are a huge part of my world and it brings me to tears to think about them and not knowing when I'll get to see them again. I love you Rocky and Coco! One of the easiest parts of my "new home" the FOOD! OMG, yum! Seriously, I'm not joking. I think I have made every visitor check out the menu at this place... it's crazy! You always hear the dreaded phrase "hospital food", but I couldn't cook this well at home even if I wanted too! I haven't gained too much weight during my pregnancy, but am thinking I have already gained 32lbs since Tuesday... I'll get weighed in a few days, we will see!

Before I go, I must take a chance to brag on my wonderful husband. Most of you know Bret's crazy schedule and his endless responsibilities including school, work, our store, me... the list goes on. He is a real trooper and a blessing to me from God. Thank you "Beaude" for everything, i love you love you love you love you love you : )

There's much more I could write about, but it's about time for the nurses to come play "find the babies" on the fetal monitoring machine thingy. Nothing like hearing kicks, heartbeats, and hiccups all at the same time! I cannot say enough thank you for your prayers, we will keep you updated!

Heather

Luau in Labor and Delivery

Howdy Fellers,

After a rough night of being in our "new home" the doctors continued to run a lot of test that have all come back normal. The nurses have been awesome so far and the food is great too! We went down for a sonogram yesterday morning and the babies look great! Heathers cervix is back to a 3.5, which is great (Tuesday it was between 2.1 and 2.4) but there was a little funneling, nothing to be too concerned about. They will just contiune to keep a close eye on her cervix. Although it is a day to day situation our goal is the get to 28 weeks. The doctors are still very positive that we could possibly make it farther. Hold'em Brody!

Me and my Beautiful wife, who is going to be a

wonderful mother of 4!

The girls gave Uncle Mason and I the hard job of blowing up the 6 foot tall palm tree to decorate the room.

Aunt Banan and Aunt Bethany came to visit and added some decorations to our "new home" for the next few months, Hopefully. They are the Best!!

We appreciate everyone who has come to visit and the supportive phone calls we have already received. Visitors are welcome but the hospital does not allow children under 12.

Sonogram pictures coming soon!

-Bret

Admitted! 26 weeks

Tuesday at 2:15 Heather was scheduled for her routine checkup, when we arrived at the doctor's office he and his staff preformed their normal procedures and noticed that Heather was dilated to 1 centimeter. Heather had been having what she thought was contractions on Monday night, but they were not regular so she did not panic. During our doctor visit they gave Heather a Fetal Fibornectin (FFN) test; the test is used to determine if she will go into labor within two weeks, it came back positive but they are not sure how accurate the test is with quads. She arrived at her hospital room (new home) around 3:30 and immediately starting receiving Procardia to stop the contractions and steroid injections to strengthen the babies’ lungs, in case delivery was necessary. The nurses got every thing under control around 6:00. So we are taking it day by day and remain optimistic that every thing will go as planned. Heather was wearing four heart monitors and a contraction monitor last night and because of the discomfort she was not able to get much sleep. With that said, Heather and the babies are doing great and I will keep you fellers informed as things unfold in the coming weeks.

Bret

Pictures coming soon!

25 Weeks, 4 BIG Babies, & 1 Prayer Request...

First of all Bret and I would like to ask for prayers for the King family. Jenna delivered her quads at 25 weeks and her precious babies are having a rough time, especially baby Preston. You can view their blog listed on the right to read more details. Again, please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers, I can't imagine what they're going through.

We are taking it week by week (really day by day) now and thankful for each day we are still pregnant. As most of you know, our goal is 34 weeks which means the babies will be here within 9!!! It's very exciting and although it seems like it's right around the corner and things are going well now, there's a lot that can happen between now and then... so please continue praying. I wish you could all hear the nurses and doctors and some of the things they have said to us like "I don't know if it's your church, your Bible, or your faith... whatever it is, it's working keep it up!" "You guys are doing great you must have a lot of people praying for you...". The power of prayer is amazing and it's so awesome that the doctors can see it too!

We saw our specialist today and fortunately, things are still going well. My cervix looks great as do the babies and their hearts, brains, limbs, fluids etc. Bret and I were shocked when they told us their weights and how they are still slightly bigger than the average singleton baby:

Brody 1lb 15oz (he should hit 2lbs tomorrow they said)
Baxlyn 1lb 12oz (she's the little sandwiched one between Kylee and Brody)
Kylee 2lbs
Korbin 2lbs

It didn't take long for me to figure out that's stinkin' 8lbs of babies.... and were still hoping to make it another 2 months... ahhhh sometimes I don't think my body can stretch anymore :/
Which reminds me of something cute that happened today. Bret and I went to Chic Fil A - my special treat for the week on my outing - and when we walked in the man at the register said "Ohh... you having 2 babies or 1?" I thought that's what he had said but I thought I'd make sure before I knocked him off his feet.... "2 babies or just 1?" he said again. I looked at Bret and smiled, looked back at him and replied "4" "WHHHAAATT.... FOUR!... OMG! QUATRO MI D FID FAJEOI Y CELML HFK SJFOOE YO QUATRO.....!" Ok, obviously I don't know what he said since I'm a little rusty on my spanish, but he said "four" several times as he told all of his co-workers... haha! I will miss freaking people out when I'm not pregnant anymore :)

Many people have commented and asked about the babies' names and how we came up with them. I've known for a long time that I love the name Kylee so that was our "If it's a girl" name. We also quickly decided on Brody for our "If it's a boy" name. Soon after finding out there were four, Bret's brain went to work thinking of 2 more perfect names. He brought the name Baxlyn to me, which at first I thought "what... umm no... that's not even a name". For some reason I just couldn't get it out of my head and decided I really did like it! The last boy we originally were going to name Crayton. Bret for some reason had a change of mind and insisted on Korbin. As far as the middle names, Bret had another good idea. Why not give them our parents' middle names?! So there you have it Brody Coleman (after his dad) Baxlyn Hope (his mom) Kylee Mae (my mom) and Korbin Lee (my dad... happens to be my middle name too!).

Anna, Bethany, and Tisha came over Friday night for a "girls night in". We got the letters painted that will go over the girls' cribs. They turned out just perfect, light pink with a soft glitter gloss on top!

What's a girls night in with a big preggo girl without some belly art... fun fun!

By the way - the babies butterflies and footballs are somewhat drawn where they are located in my tummy!

Thanks girls!

24 Weeks!

We made it! Good news - yesterday's sono went really well and we have hit a major milestone YAY! Bad news - the nurse busted out the dreaded orange bottle of liquid... the glucose test. I have to drink it in 4 weeks to check again for gestational diabetes :( UGH! Again, just one of the not so enjoyable things that come along with bringing babies into this world!


My cervix is still holding on strong and the babies are all doing great too! There was one point where we saw 3 sets of feet tangled up together, but of course they all moved before we could get a picture. I was amazed at how the babies can still manage to stretch out almost completely at times. When they do, I swear their little legs look like they are 9 inches long and I have a feeling they are all going to tower over me by the time they turn 4.

I'm starting to feel even more movement from the babies, even little Brody all shoved down south. Bret wants to call him the "Linebacker" of the group because he's "constantly stopping his brothers and sisters form advancing down field"! Their movements have all gone from little nudges here and there to a combination of elbows, feet, hands, and knees pushing against my skin all at once. Thanks to not having much to do during the day, I have found myself awake some nights until 3am just feeling and watching them move, it's amazing!

Here are their profile pics from yesterday:

Brody Coleman

Baxlyn Hope

Kylee Mae

Korbin Lee

Bret and I went to the Build A Bear workshop the other night (yes I was in my wheelchair the whole time) and made the girls their very own teddy bear. It felt a little silly at first being the only adults in the store making teddy bears, but I'm so glad we did it and hope our girls will appreciate it too one day! After spending like 30 minutes picking out the right bear and going through a ton of outfits, we decided on cute little blue jean skirts with matching tops and hair bows. While going to the register to check out, Bret noticed a little row of kid computers with little seats 2 feet off the ground where you could stop and officially "adopt" your bear. Again feeling a little silly, we hesitated, but decided "What the heck, let's do it". So here we are 6 foot 2 inches tall guy and 5 foot 1 inch round girl sitting in these little bitty seats in front of little color keyed computers adopting our babies' bears! We named each bear after Kylee and Baxlyn and they received their very own birth certificates that say "Stuffed with love by Mommy & Daddy". Yes, we will go back and do the same for the boys soon! For now, here are the pictures of Baxlyn (left) and Kylee (right).

We're bustin' at the seams...

Not just my tummy but our house too!

Let me start by saying I feel pretty good! Everyone seems so surprised at how good I feel lately, how happy I am, and how well I'm still getting around. From what I hear at this point most pregnant ladies (or maybe just ladies with multiple buns in the oven) are not feeling so great and are grumpy and miserable. Don't get me wrong I deal with things like migraines, throbbing ligaments stretching beyond belief, having to pee eighty seven times at night and if these babies were closer to being ready to come out we would get the show on the road. I also realize and remember I wanted this, I prayed for this and thanks to God am blessed to go through these not so enjoyable changes in order to hold not just one but four precious babies in my arms.

Lately I have been feeling lots and lots of kicks, punches, rolls, you name it... it's very exciting! It seems the girls are WAY more active than the boys, they never stop moving. Today we had our 23 week appointment and the doctor reassured us the boys are fine and are kicking just as much I just can't feel them because of their positioning. The babies' fluids, muscle tone, brains, tummies, and bladders all looked great! Brody, our gate keeper, weighed in at 1lb 8oz. Baxlyn is the smallest weighing 1lb 3oz. Korbin and Kylee both weighed in at 1lb 5oz.

The past few weeks Bret and I (mostly Bret) have worked really hard on getting the house ready for the babies arrival. We have managed to rearrange the living room to accommodate the babies and all their accessories. We installed foam mats on the living room floor not only to protect the carpet but the babies as well. The furniture arrived last week and man it was a tight squeeze to fit two cribs and a dresser/changing table in each room, but they are super cute and I cant wait until the nurseries are complete!

Here's a sneak peek of their rooms!

We cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support

and will update you again after Tuesday's appointment!