20 Weeks – Sweet #5

We’re officially half way there! 20 weeks down and hopefully another 20 to go! It’s flown by so far which is great in a way but we still have A LOT to get done before this baby gets here. I’m still feeling good and getting more and more energy back as time goes on. I’m happy to say I no longer depend on my zofran for sickness, something I could never say with the quads. My PB&J addiction has subsided and I feel pretty back to normal as far as appetite goes – although I have a dang big one naturally ;) I’m feeling more and more kicks now too, which it SO EXCITING! They are still few and far between. With Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin I felt things constantly. When one would move it would tend to cause a chain reaction and they all would readjust…although it never bothered me, it was non-stop! Unfortunately I was only able to hold the quads for about 2 months after I started feeling them. I look forward to feeling this lil’ one inside of me for a long time and I’m hoping any day now, Bret will have the chance to feel the baby from the outside too!

I went for our big 20 week appointment yesterday… still funny to me that a “Big” appointment in a singleton pregnancy is an ultrasound that lasts about 20-30minutes! It was a nice break from my everyday life, laying calmly in dim light talking quietly with the sonographer and watching my little baby float about. I can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking in there (is he thinking at all!?) Is he bored? Is he lonely? All those (silly) little things that constantly keep me in wonder as I easily easily make my way through this “normal” pregnancy. You’ll notice I used “he” quite a bit…. our 13 week suspicion was confirmed 100%… it is definitely a BOY!

  Everything looked perfectly healthy for our little man. Fluids, chambers of the heart, brain, bladder, kidneys….etc. all checked out just fine. He is measuring a little on the big side at 13oz putting him in the 84th percentile! Here’s a little shot at the bottom of his sweet little feet (one being at an angle so looks smaller)… Everyone has asked about names. Have we picked out any names yet and are we going to stick with the B&K thing?! We have 1, maybe 2 that we’re contemplating but we’re not sharing just yet with the world. We’re not set on using a “B” or a “K” to match the quads but ya never know! I think we had all 4 names picked out for the quads by this point (at least 3) but this time, maybe because we just pick ONE, is a bit harder!

Here’s a 20 week belly shot… with Kylee in on the action! As I went to take the pic, she was walking down the hall, saw me and turned to touch my belly. Occasionally she feels for a split second and exclaims “Oh, he kick me!” although I know she hasn’t truly felt anything just yet. She’s the closest to “getting it” and is the most excited out of the 4.  I’ve grown quite a bit since 18 weeks for sure and “Holy Molar”, as Brody would say, in comparison to 13 weeks but am still managing to stay in my non-pregnancy jeans…well one very low-cut pair at least! I’ll have a comparison picture of quads verses singleton for ya next week!

Thanks for the unending support during this exciting time! We’ll update more soon!

13 Weeks – Sweet #5!

A little update on the pregnancy (if you’re a little behind and your jaw is on your desktop right now, click here). I am 13 weeks along as of Tuesday which means helllllo 2nd trimester!! Thanks to all of you for your sweet comments when we revealed our big news. We’ve left a lot of people stunned, which is ok, but overall very supportive!

So far this pregnancy has been a WORLD of difference than the quads. I was stuck in bed for weeks upon weeks with them and couldn’t go an hour, much less a day, without getting sick. Even with prescription meds on board, the toilet and I were one in the same and when out of the house you can bet I had my puke bucket right by my side. Although I had a few sick days in the beginning of this pregnancy, now that I have my BFF Zofran as a part of my daily diet, I am good to go!  I’m tired, of course, but that could easily be chalked up to running 4 3 year olds around solo all day everyday. I’m super thankful things have gone so well so far!

Everyone has asked how Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin are handling the news. Are they happy? Excited? Do they want a boy or girl? Honestly, the whole baby thing is over their heads. We’ve told them and it hasn’t phased them a bit. We even took Brody and Kylee along to our 13w appointment to SEE the baby on the screen. Brody was more concerned whether or not my doctor was going to take his tubes out of his ears (only has this fear with this particular doc, by the way lol) as well as making sure he and Kylee got to go up to the NICU to see the fish.  We’ll continue to talk to them about it and I’m sure as time goes on (and I grow) they’ll start to understand!

We went this week for our 13 week scan/appointment and got to see our  healthy growing wiggly baby. We found out the quads’ genders during this week of my pregnancy with them so I had my fingers crossed we might get a glimpse of this lil’ one as well. Before we even mentioned it, one of the first things the sonographer said when waving the wand across my tummy was “Well….are you guys wanting to know what you’re having?”  UMM YES! Our little peanut was sitting indian style giving her a clear shot  of what looked like….drum roll please… man business! Of course it’s early (and we won’t be buying blue just yet) but she feels 80% sure we’re looking at having a baby boy! Although happy, my “gut feeling” was that it was a girl… so much for that mother’s instinct, ehh? I guess I always pictured another little one in dresses and bows! Bret’s reaction: “you just saved me a TON of money!”

I’ve had several people ask for belly pics. With nearly zero abdominal muscles left over from the quads I can feel things…umm… less than supported in my tummy area to say the least. Honestly, I’ve felt pretty huge the last few weeks. That is until I actually pulled out the pictures from the last pregnancy. Yeah, not feeling so huge anymore. Here are the comparison pics from 13w with quadruplets (left) and 13w with a singleton. Although I started out about 10lbs heavier with the quads, there’s a big difference!

A shot of the baby looking right at you… head on right, little knuckles under chin and belly!

 

We’ll keep you posted on what we pray stays our boring, easy going pregnancy!

Soo… We’re Having A…

You read it right! Our sweet little number 5 (and only number 5) is scheduled to appear November 1st, 2012! If you’re a long time follower of ours you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’ve always hoped for another baby in our future and well, by the grace of God, here we are!

I will assume everyone’s first question will be “were you trying?”. Yes, we were. A little background for those of you who don’t know I conceived Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin while on Clomid, an ovulation stimulant. Shortly after their delivery my doctor wanted to test me for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and to no surprise, he was right. PCOS explains the trouble I had getting pregnant the first time and could also cause me to have trouble getting pregnant in the future. Due to my PCOS my doctor put me on a medicine called Metformin (NOT considered a fertility drug) in October in hopes that it alone would help my cycle regulate giving me a shot of getting pregnant on my own. He said it typically takes about 3 months for your body to adjust and I should be good to go in January. Bret and I went into this process with the attitude that we were going to TRY to have another baby. We didn’t quite expect it to happen this quickly!  I have complete faith in my doctor, but at the same time, I didn’t want to get my hopes up and almost expected to have trouble.

Lo and behold, February 25th I got my positive. My heart didn’t skip a beat,  I didn’t cry, I didn’t run out of the room to tell Bret, nothing. To be honest I laid eyes on that little faint line and my first thought was “A false positive. Ugh. What are the chances? I knew we shouldn’t have bought the cheapest test.” I calmly told Bret, he went to the store, bought several more tests and each one of them, positive. It couldn’t have been that easy, could it?

I made the phone call Monday morning to tell the ladies at my doctor’s office that I thought I might be pregnant. An early ultrasound showed nothing but the blood tests were done and indeed my HCG levels were where they needed to be and were rising as they should. Another follow up appointment, March 13th, I finally saw it, a little fluttering heartbeat! Finally, I let myself believe that there was a little someone inside of me!

So far I’ve felt pretty good. A little tired and a few sick days but overall a MUCH better start than I had with the quads. Dr. Leveno and his staff have been nothing short of amazing and have been super supportive in understanding that this single pregnancy is extremely foreign to me. With the quads I was seen just about weekly once I hit my second trimester so the thought of being seen just a fraction of that is a little scary. I can’t help but be a little anxious, as I’m sure many moms are early in pregnancy, but I’m trying to remember everything is in God’s hands. Some people never get to experience being pregnant and here, I get to twice. Bret and I feel super blessed and our prayer is that this pregnancy brings us a fat, healthy, full term baby!

Introducing our little number 5 (last week) at 9 weeks and 1 day!

As always, your prayers are appreciated! We’ll keep you posted!

-Bret & Heather

"Let's Have a Baby!"

"Let's have a baby!"... that's how it began. July 29th 2007, our first anniversary, we decided it was time to start our family! After a year of trying and not getting pregnant the doctor suggested we start on the lowest dose of Clomid (an ovulation stimulant) hoping that would be all it would take. Excited about the process, the doctor warned us our chance of having twins would increase by 5-8%... not thinking that would ever happen to us, we jumped right in! After my first cycle on Clomid, the doctors were amazed at my body's response to the drug. They told me the ideal progesterone level after Clomid would be between 10 and 15, mine had sky rocketed to the mid 80's. But unfortunately nothing happened that month; so we tried another round. At this point, blood work had become a routine. On Sept. 2nd, while napping, the phone rang. I saw it was my doctors office and answered casually thinking it was just another update on my progesterone levels. I'll never forget the voice on the other end of the line was not a nurse, but my doctor... she was so excited she said she had to call me herself... I was FINALLY pregnant!!! Having been woken up from a nap, I was a little out of it. I remember crying as I replied "What?! No, I'm taking a nap, I'm dreaming...". After a little convincing that I was awake, she explained to me that my levels were sky high again and I was definitely pregnant this time!

I immediately jumped in the car and headed to Bret's work to tell him the news. As I was driving, I called him to tell him I needed to meet him in the parking lot to get something out of his truck. He said "OK and casually asked me if I had heard anything from the doctor. Fighting back the tears of joy, I said "No" and hung up the phone. When I arrived at his work and he walked up to my car, I jumped out and yelled with tears in my eyes "I LIED, I LIED, the doctor did call and we're having a baby!!!". After standing in shock for a minute, he said while pointing at my stomach "That means there's a baby in there!".


Waiting to tell our parents in a special way, I had to tell my bridesmaids (they were the only ones who knew we were trying). After telling Tisha & KK on the phone, I drove straight to Bethany's. When Chris (her husband) came to the door I walked in, dropped my purse, and cried "We're having a baby!". The excitement on their faces was priceless! Knowing Anna (the last bridesmaid) was about to go to class, we rushed to the college to meet her to "show her something cute we found for her at Wal-Mart". When she pulled up we jumped out of the car and I said "Hey Aunt Banan!". She said "Hi" with a smile and a strange look on her face, then she remembered "Aunt Banan" would be what our baby would call her. As three high pitched screams echoed through the parking lot, there were a lot of stares and weird looks. We will never forget that day!


September 17th we went in for our first sonogram and I remember sitting in the waiting room with Bret praying to see one precious heartbeat. During the first few seconds of the sonogram, I noticed three little blobs on the screen and thought "Hmmm", but blew it off for the most part. I glanced over at Bret and behind him stood a nurse with her hand over her mouth, little did I know our lives were about to change forever. I thought " Aww... this is her first time to sit in on a sono" and smiled at her. Looking back at the screen the doctor said "Well... I see triplets..." he looked and sounded like he was going to hit the floor! I started breathing heavily and looked at Bret and said "It's going to be OK babe...". Then the doctor said "Wait... I think I see another one, but I don't know if there's a heartbeat...... yes there's a heartbeat." At that point Bret, having seen enough, said "OK, stop looking!". The room grew dead silent and the doctor and nurse left the room. After looking at each other like "Holy Cow" for a few minutes, I got up and got dressed. When we opened the door to the exam room we were in, the hallway was filled with the office staff looking at us in amazement. After a while of letting everything soak in, we left the office and headed straight for Edible Arrangements hoping to catch Anna at work.

Baby 1

Babies 2,3,&4

We walked in the backdoor. Holding the sonogram pictures in my hand and tears rolling down my face, I handed them to her. She didn't really know what she was looking at, but had a feeling something was up by the awkwardness of the situation. She asked "What's wrong?" thinking we had had a miscarriage. "Count them, Anna" I screamed, and I pointed out all four of my beautiful black blobs! We called Bethany and told her to come by the store. When she arrived we showed her the pictures and she was in shock too! As you can imagine, Tisha and KK, were ecstatic as well! At this point we knew we had to tell our parents ASAP. After church that night Bethany and I stayed up for hours framing the sonogram pictures for our parents. When we were done, I called my brother in law and told him "get the camera out, don't let anyone go to bed, Bret and I are coming over!" When we arrived at their house we went to the living room and handed the frame to my mom and sister. It took a minute, but they finally realized I was telling them I was pregnant and again I had to point out all four... apparently people are not used to seeing multiple black blobs ;) Within a few days we broke the news to my dad with a frame also, he was so excited! When we took the frame to Bret's parent's house, his dad's reaction was "I'm glad it's you and not me!" but we knew they were both very happy to hear that they were going to be Mamaw & Papaw! Eventually we spread the news to the rest of our family, church, & friends and the support has been overwhelming!

Bret and I want to thank everyone for their support and prayers. We would also like to thank all of our amazing doctors: Dr. Joyner, Dr. Shimer and the staff at Craig Ranch, Dr. Trimmer and his staff at Centennial Hospital, and Dr. Leveno and the wonderful ladies at Plano Medical Center. We are super excited that God has blessed us in this way. Please continue to keep us in your prayers and check back soon for more updates! The ride has just begun ;)