WK20:Day 6 - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

I couldn't let today pass without sharing a few words for the man in my life.

Mart you are my rock and my shining star. We have been through so much in the short time we have been together, and I want to thank you for every moment we have shared! You are the best husband and an incredible father! I cant wait to experience the next chapter in our journey with you. I love you with all my heart and soul!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

A little reminder of us in the days before children and early nights ;) We'll have our day again soon enough. 

XXXXXXXXXXXX

WK20: Day 5 - This is Hard But I'm Happy!

I hope everyone is feeling full of yummy food and contentment after their Christmas festivities :) Mart, Luke and I had a lovely time at Granny and Grandpa even with the few hickups I had which saw me needing to go into Exeter hospital on Boxing Day. I had more bleeding on Saturday and again on Monday which although I tried to put down as nothing I couldn't stop worrying about. I wasn’t having any major abdominal pain or cramps but a few niggling pains which were enough to make me want to get checked over. They performed a full check of the babies, an internal and measured my cervix, thankfully everything seemed ok.   

Here’s a very happy Luke sitting on a farmers tractor. (Similar to one Granny and Grandpa gave him for Christmas!) I’ve never seen anyone so pleased with themselves :)  

Physically this last week has been quite up and down for me. The ups have been feeling all the boys moving, sometimes even turning completely around. They are really going for it now. Sometimes it’s just a little flutter but a lot of the time its a proper kick or movement that I can see on my belly. I’m starting to work out who’s doing the moving as well which is lovely. I won’t bore you with the downs, but for anyone reading my blog during their own multiple pregnancy, it’s more for your reference. I’ve been having a number of lower abdominal pains, leg and pelvic pains, constipation, heart burn and reflux. I have also been struggling with a lack of appetite and sleepless nights which I think are more down to stress and worry than any physical effects of the pregnancy. I have been prescribed Ranitidine for the heart burn which is working wonders. The rest it just the beginning of what I have been expecting which is likely to continue until my little stars are born. It’s not really surprising with the lack of space in there and the extra weight I’m carrying.

So we had our appointment with the specialists on Wednesday and overall everything is looking good. The boys have grown the right amount and are about size of a big banana now, their heads about the size of a clementine. Our fetal medicine specialist performed the full standard 20 week anomaly scan which checks for a number of things now visible at this gestation period. They are;

• The shape and structure of the baby's head. At this stage severe brain problems which happen very rarely, are visible.
• Whether there is a sign of a cleft lip. Cleft palates inside a baby's mouth are hard to see and are not often picked up.
• The baby's spine, both along its length and in cross section, to make sure that all the bones align and that the skin on its back covers the spine
• The baby's abdominal wall, to make sure it covers all the internal organs at the front.
• The baby's heart. The top two chambers (atria) and the bottom two chambers (ventricles) should be equal in size and that the valves open and close with each heartbeat.
• The baby's stomach. Baby`s swallow some of the amniotic fluid that they lie in which is seen in the stomach as a black bubble.
• The baby's kidneys. Whether there are two of them and that urine flows freely into its bladder. If the baby's bladder is empty, it should fill up during the scan and be easy to see. The baby has been doing a wee every half an hour or so for some months now!
• The baby's arms, legs, hands and feet. The fingers and toes are also checked but not counted.
• As well as this detailed look at how your baby is growing, the placenta, the umbilical cord and the amount of amniotic fluid around the baby are also checked.
• (reference for above from http://www.babycentre.co.uk)

99% of the checks came out perfectly which is amazing! The only thing which is causing some concern is an increased amount of amniotic fluid around twin 2. We don’t know at this stage what it could be but they have decided that I will need closer monitoring. I will be going in for another check next Wednesday rather than my fortnightly appointments. I need to stay positive until we have a better idea of what’s going on.  Here are some pics of the boys, again being quite camera shy!

Baby 1 with his back to us. You can see his head and spine. 

 Baby 2 - this is the first twin with his back to us as well. 

Baby 3 - this is the second twin. You can see the profile of his head with his brother above him (back facing us)

Baby 4 - this is the side profile of baby 4. You can see his face and arm at the top of the pic.

Tomorrow is a very special day for me. Not only is it New Years Eve, but it’s also our wedding anniversary. I wish I was in a better condition to be able to spoil my gorgeous husband rotten, and paint the town red, but I’m not so instead it’s going to be a cozy night in with some delicious dinner and a mini bottle of champagne that I’ve treated myself to :)  HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!! I hope 2012 brings you much joy, happiness and fulfillment of all your goals and dreams.

My bump has grown so much in the last couple of weeks! I’m seeing the physiotherapist next Friday and I’m hoping she’ll be able to give me a bump support as the weight is already starting to take it’s toll on my back and pelvis. What is quite funny is I keep getting asked by people when I’m due. To see the shock on their faces when I say that I’m not actually due until the 15th May, then having to explain I’m expecting quadruplets. There’s no doubt I’m going to be HUGE!  Here’s my bump at 20 weeks. 

20 weeks pregnant 

WK19: Day 6 - Merry Christmas

After a long week I'm more than ready to set off for Grandpa and Granny Beks today! I'm looking forward to a cozy Christmas in the country with walks, fires, yummy food and lots of laughter.

We'll be back next Tuesday ready for our specialist appointment and scan on Wednesday. I had a bit of a scare last night with some light bleeding (it was only a very small amount, and stopped very soon after it started), so I'm waiting on this next scan quite anxiously to make sure that everything is OK. It's not been the best week overall so I'm glad that it's nearly over and look forward to focusing my energies on a better one next week. 

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope that you all have a fabulous day of fun and celebrations however you spend it. 

Lots of love Em, Mart and Luke xxx

WK19: Day 3 - I’ve Got the Christmas Bug

So I’m a little later than promised with this post, mainly due the fact that I completely wore myself into the ground on Monday through all that can be described as trying to cram too much Christmas into one day! My body has once again reminded me that I can`t do what I would consider as a non-strenuous normal days activities anymore. Mart and I had an amazing day in Bath doing some Christmas shopping and really enjoyed a day out together. By 2pm I was pretty exhausted so we split up and I came home for a nap while he went off to get Luke from Nursery. I literally got off the train and dragged myself home, but could have only had about 30mins sleep before the boys were back ready to go off to ‘Fabulous Christmas’ an evening of Christmas magic at Bristol Zoo. It was sadly not quite as fabulous as we had hoped. I don’t want to moan, but when you’re promised to feed Santa's reindeer (two very tired looking reindeer who had been feed all day I presume so weren't the slightest bit hungry) ice sculptures (one gorilla) & street performers (two scary snowflakes and what can only be described as a cross between a giant camel and reindeer) the magic I was expecting wasn’t exactly anything to write home about. Our night excursion completely finished me off, and I literally spent the whole day yesterday in bed emotionally and physically drained. I won’t be doing that again in a hurry!
 

Here are some pics of our evening

 Luke and Dad saying hello to the Christmas camel

 Mum and Luke 

Santas Reindeer

Monday’s exhaustion however is definitely not going to put a damper on my Christmas spirit, it’s safe to say i’ve got the bug this year! The tree has been up and decorated since Dec 1st, and I have adorned the walls with tinsel (or sparkley as Luke calls it). I think it’s all down to Luke and his new found excitement of for it all! My heart melted when he came home from nursery and asked me if we could write a letter to Santa asking for a green tractor because he’s been a good boy. Fast forward 3 years and you can only imagine what Christmas will be like in our household.

Not the best pic, but here’s a proud Luke by his newly decorated tree. 

Physically i’ve been struggling since my last post and have developed a very bad case of trapped wind and reflux which has kept me awake most of the night for the last couple of nights. To try and and get some sleep I have had to sleep on the sofa in an upright position to stop the reflux from waking me up. I read up about Dyspepsia in pregnancy and it mentions not eating for 3 hours before going to bed. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage that. Although with that said my appetite has completely disappeared. I am hoping that I’m just going through a bad patch and things will return to normal as I’m definitely not getting the right amount of food and nutrients to fully nourish the babies. If it doesn’t get any better then I’m going to invest in a blender or juicer to make myself super healthy smoothies.

Finally here’s bump at 19 weeks. 

19 weeks pregnant 

WK18: Day 7 - Eenie, Meenie, Miney & Mo

We’ve spent quite a bit of time this week thinking about  names for the boys and I can confirm that it’s definitely as hard as you think it would be trying to choose 4 first names and 4 middles names. It has opened up a whole series of discussions around the task at hand and the whole ‘name’ selection process as whole.

I am currently reading a great book called Twins & Multiple Births by Dr Carol Cooper. Carol has written this book in association with Tamba and it has been an invaluable and interesting source of information and reference for me. They make some very interesting points on naming of multiples.  

‘A child’s name is an integral part of his individuality and personality and choosing names for multiples, while double or treble the fun, needs care. Names like Kirsten and Christine which sound very similar will be difficult. Try also to avoid rhyming names (Jenny and Penny), and two or more names with the same initial (Thomas and Theresa may find it hard at the same school).’ ‘Matching names like Jade and Amber, Holley and Ivy) sound witty at the time, but your children may not share the joke. Names which are very different in length (like Christopher and Luke) can seem a good idea, but sometimes pose problems with the children learning to write.’ ‘You may like to name your twins or triplets in reverse alphabetical order, so that the first born is called Natasha and the second born Andrew. Then at least Andrew will come first in something, which could count for a lot in later childhood.’

So trying to take some of these points into consideration while at the same time listening and speaking to other people you find that everyone seems to have their own set of rules or criteria around how they have chosen or would choose their children's names. Most of them are quite reasonable and make sense, but can you really consider all these things when you have 8 names to choose? Here are some of the topics we have considered or just laughed about during the hunt. Oh and in case you were wondering about the title of my post this was the suggestion made by my loving father for the boys :) Thanks Dad!

Meaning
Does the meaning of a name really matter? I think to some extent it does, but it’s definitely not a deal breaker. Just so long as it’s not completely fatal for your child's reputation, or will see them being bullied. Being South African and I was teased quite a bit at school for my name, as in Afrikaans an ‘Emmer’ is a bucket. Nothing which has damaged my ego I must add.

Popularity
Does it matter that the name was in the top 10 most popular names of the last two years? This is a hard one as under normal circumstances I would have said yes. I would like to think that we would choose original and unique names for our children but I don't think this one’s going to as easy as I'd hoped and brings me onto the the next topic...

Unusual vs Traditional?
As well as not wanting my boys to be one of many ‘Jacks’ or ‘Oliver's’ in their peer group I would have also liked them to have slightly interesting or unusual names. This has stumped me again though, as I keep on thinking maybe the fact that there’s four of them they’re ‘unusual’ enough, so we should go with more traditional names?

We certainly wouldn't go down the road of some of the most unfortunate names parents have ‘lovingly’ bestowed upon their children. Here are some good ones...

Anyone hungry?

• Mayo Head
• Mustard M. Mustard
• Bread White
• Fish & Chips (twins)

The sinner baby

• Sloth Washton
• Wrath Gordon
• Envy Burger
• Greed McGrew

Association?
Does it really matter that you know someone with a name that you actually quite like but they’re not the most ‘desirable’ of characters. Or you couldn't possibly use a name as it was one of your pets! For me this is probably more of a `no go` than others, stupidly I think. If I know more than two people with the same name who aren’t very nice, then I have it in my head that ‘Scott’ for example isn’t a nice name.  

Well it’s probably safe to say that we wont be taking any of the above too seriously when it comes to naming our boys.  If you have any suggestions please leave us a comment as we’d love to hear them.

Otherwise mentally and physically I've been feeling OK the rest of the week. The only things which have bothered  me is my tiredness and my itchy and sore belly from all the rapid stretching my skin is doing. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is. I know that you shouldn’t scratch as it stimulates the histamine in the skin which just makes it worse, but you just try and not scratch...I challenge you ;) I’m continuing with my daily bio oil routine in the hope that I am saved from the stretch marks, but if the midwife I saw at the hospital on Wednesday is correct nothing you do will make any difference to whether you get them or not. You either will or you wont. Even if this is true I'm not going to take the chance as it ‘worked' for me with my first pregnancy!
 
I finished work on Friday for a two week break! what a relief to know that I don’t have to do anything for the next two weeks. YAY!!! Tomorrow Mart and I are dropping Luke at Nursery and then we’re heading off for a day together in Bath to do some Christmas shopping at the market. I can’t wait. In the evening we’re taking Luke to the Zoo to feed Santa's reindeer, so expect some Christmasy pics in my post tomorrow  :) 

Thanks to All My Readers

I just want to thank everyone who has come onto my blog since its been live. I am overwhelmed by the incredible support and feedback. Please feel free to follow the blog ('join this site' button on the right above the blog archive) and leave comments as I would love to hear from you. All the love and support really makes the journey a lot easier.

Em xxx

WK18: Day 3 - Five Down, Five to Go!

Wow, now that’s a scary thought! I've only got another 5 scans before my little boys are born... eeek! If we’re lucky then it could be one or two more. The goal that we’re aiming for is 32 weeks gestation, so fingers crossed we can make it!

So we had a scan today and I'm incredibly happy to report that everything was fine. There is no sign of Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (amazing!) and all the boys are looking strong and fit. They have grown the right amount in the last couple of weeks, and are currently sitting exactly on the 50th percentile for a singleton (for those who don’t know, this just means they are exactly average in size in comparison to the medical guideline growth charts). They still look like they have some room to move around in there which wont last much longer. It’s really difficult for our sonographer to scan me and it normally takes about 40mins to check all four. I felt quite sorry for him today as it seems like a struggle to make sure he is measuring the right baby part. I have some scans which didn’t come out that well as by the end both the sonographer and the babies had had enough :) I will post them as soon as I have scanned them in. Just to give you an idea of where we are in the pregnancy; they are all about 14cm long and can now hear the sound of my heart beat and a few other external sounds. It’s time to start clearing the throat for some singing. I hope they all like the same music :) We also had 100% confirmation that we are expecting 4 boys. I know there were a few people who still thought there might be a chance of a girl. Not any more!

I was up at the hospital yesterday to have my cervix measured, and that all looked good too! no sign that anything drastic will be needed to be done at this stage, PHEW!. We also chatted about my lack of energy and heaviness, and as I thought it’s just the way it’s going to be with so much more weight and strain on my body. Apparently my body is at the stage a of 7 month singleton pregnancy. I just need to take it as easy as possible and listen to my body, meaning try and be less stubborn and relax!

WK18: Day 1 - It’s Been to Long

Where has the last week gone! It’s been a whole 8 days since I was able to sit down and write a diary entry... I’ve become so fond of this precious quiet time when I can shut the door and put down my thoughts and feelings on paper. It’s something that I’ve not done before and I can now see why people enjoy it so much, I’ve definitely missed it!

Work consumed all of my time last week and completely knackered me out. I was in London on Wed for an all day client debrief meeting and in hindsight I probably should have taken the suggestion from most people in my office to dial in rather than travel. I’m still in the mindset that I can do as much as I could a month ago, but the reality is sadly far from that. A 5:30 start and 8pm arrival home saw me completely finished off for the rest of the week. The worst bit of it was having to pretty much sit in the exact same position for 8 hours of the day, I just can’t do that any more. I find getting comfortable in most positions pretty much impossible. I have about a 10 min threshold and then I need to move about. I can’t work out why I am feeling so much more uncomfortable than I was at a similar size when I was pregnant with Luke. Maybe having more placentas means more weight on the pelvis or something. That’s definitely a question for my specialist when I see her tomorrow. I was looking at some of my pregnant pictures at 9 months with Luke earlier, which I’ll share at some point. It’s quite amazing how different I feel in comparison. At 8 ½ months I was as fit as a anything, doing all the household chores and even mowing the lawn, hehe! I couldn't image doing that now at 4 ½ months, I just don't have the physical strength or energy, even though I was in exactly the same condition to start off with.
 

I had a midwife appointment last Friday which went well. I think both my midwife and I are feeling a lot more comfortable with each other so I’m not expecting to much and she seems to have gained the confidence to listen in to the heart beats and discuss things with me in more detail. We heard all their little hearts loud and clear which was great. I also weighed myself and I’m now weighing 70kg which is good. I started at 57kg and should aim to put on about 24kg in total so we’re heading in the right direction. The little guys have also been moving quite a lot. They started about two weeks ago but last week I could really feel them squirming around, and at some points had a hard bit stick quite prominently into the side of my belly. This is another crazy feeling in comparison to Luke, as with him just a few movements in the centre of my belly have now turned into movements from all sides. I can only imagine how this is going to increase in the weeks to come. 

I think all my tiredness came out in a ball of hormonal tears on Fri and Sat! It really wasn’t pretty! I wish these damn hormones would give you some kind of warning, but oh no... one minute you’re fine and the next your having it out with a loved one about something so trivial or you see something which triggers a memory or a feeling that your life is over and you’re never going to have any enjoyment out of it ever again! Thank goodness for supportive friends and loving husbands. I ended up sleeping pretty much the whole of Sunday which was probably a side tactic to make sure that I didn’t break down into one of my hormonal messes again. Joking aside though, the strength of my hormones at the moment is quite incredible and it’s hard to know when they are going to hit.

On the positive side my morning sickness is well and truly on the way out. I still get minor pangs of it but they never last to long or are to strong.

So as I didn’t post yesterday, you'll now have a WK:18 - Day 1 Monday pic instead of a WK:17 - Day 7 Sunday pic. Not really much change, although it doesn't feel like that. 

18 weeks pregnant

WK16: Day 7 - Fun Times

I've had such a good weekend! Hooray for friends, yummy food and giggles :) Dinner on Friday for one of my closest friends birthday was amazing. It was pretty rubbish not being able to enjoy all the merryment with everyone else, but just being in the company of such lovely people and seeing friends I haven't seen for ages was great! I didn't last very long, was in a taxi home by 12:30, hehe! I then spent the rest of the weekend with another of my dearest friends and godmummy to Luke. I came away from the weekend with a the warm feeling you get when you get then chance to properly relax and chat with people you love. Otherwise the rest of this week has been a good one, not much other baby news to report. I'm still getting my head around the fact that we're having 4 boys! The more I think about it the more I realise that practically it makes lots of sense that they are all the same sex, sharing rooms, toys, clothes etc!

Here's my weekly bump pic. 

16 weeks pregnant

WK16: Day 3 - Oh BOY!!!

Oh BOY!!!!! I can’t believe it, we found out today that we are the proud parents of not 1, not 2 but 4 BOYS!  I am amazed and over joyed! Again it was too early for the fetal medicine specialist to confirm this himself but we saw what we saw. I can’t believe there wasn’t even one little girl amongst them :)

The scan went really well  with all babies (or boys as I can now refer to them as) doing great. They are all growing in line with the standard growth measurements, and our professor even commented that quite rarely for multiplies they are all pretty much identical sizes which is amazing. There is no sign of TTTS either, so we are chuffed to bits. I walked around with a really stupid grin on my face all day today! It’s amazing that we now know their sexes, and it makes it so much more real for me. How wrong was my prediction about 3 girls!!! I honestly thought the twins would be girls. The name hunt begins... I didn’t get any scan pics today, but I’ll get some in two weeks at the next scan.

WK16: Day 2 - I'm in Good Hands

What a pleasure it was to meet my specialist obstetrician for the first time today. She instantly put me at ease and I felt incredibly confident in her ability and in safe hands. We had a frank discussion about the risks for the babies and me again and I made it very clear that up to now I had felt pressured and uncomfortable with the continued ‘advice’ to terminate or reduce the pregnancy. She explained that it was only that they see a number of cases ending with a negative outcome. I can completely understand this but I explained that I was more than aware of all the potential risks involved and the decision to proceed with the pregnancy wasn`t any easy one.  As I had explained to our fetal medicine specialist if this was an ‘assisted’ pregnancy to begin with I could probably consider selective reduction, but I am not able to think about something like this when we’ve not intervened in any way to fall pregnant with these four little miracles. I need to trust my heart and my instincts and let this play out organically no matter what the outcome. She explained to me that if the twins did start showing signs of TTTS they could look at laser of the placenta to split it in half, but obviously with the four of them anything we might try and do to save the twins could affect the other two. It hurts to think that I could risk the lives of all four of them but I truly believe  that what is meant to be will be. I had my cervix measured as well which looked good and they will now measure it every two weeks to monitor any changes. If it does shorten they will need to consider a cervical stitch which stitches it closed and hopefully delay the onset of labour. As with everything else this carries a high risk of miscarriage, so let`s hope that it doesn’t come to that! Otherwise all’s fine and I just need to carry on eating, sleeping and taking my Iron and Asprin.

WK 15: Day 7 - Time is Flying By!

The rest of this week was very uneventful. I don’t think that I’m eating enough as I haven’t put on any weight in the last 10 days. I need to start thinking about this carefully because it`s so important for the babies that we all put on weight. I had another midwife appointment on Friday which went fine. All the usual tests were good and we discussed the specialist needing to measure my cervix on Tuesday, why this was important and what the possible solutions were if they found that my cervix was shorting.

Basically, with the pressure and weight of the four of them on my cervix there is a high chance that my cervix could become weak and shorten which will in turn trigger premature labour. They will need to measure my cervix regularly to make sure this is not happening, and if there are early signs there are measures which can be taken to try and stop it from continuing. We also discussed any local antenatal classes for multipules as the only class which I have seen that looks relevant is a day course offered by Tamba but it's quite expensive and we really can't afford it right now. She kindly said she would ring a few people to find out for me. She rang back later that afternoon with the number for the women at Tamba who runs practical parenting evening classes. These are only £5 and would cover a number of the topics which I want to know about like breast feeding options. You might think I’m crazy wanting to even try it, but even if it’s just for a very short time I think my breast milk would help them so much! The course leader is setting up new dates for Bristol with me in mind, so I need to call her in a couple of days to find out when these will be.

I can’t believe another week has come and gone so quickly and all I have to show for it is a bigger belly and a very sleepy head. I have a feeling time is literally going to fly by and before we know it we are going to be looking at four little angels.

Here’s my bump now 15 weeks big

15 weeks pregnant 

WK15: Day 2 - The Support is Great

Not a very exciting start to the week. I’m definitely feeling better, although I had to leave work early yesterday to come home and rest for a couple of hours. Work has being so amazing, they have given me the ability to be a bit flexible about where I work from depending on how I’m feeling and what I need to do. I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate it!!! It takes off a lot of worry and pressure allowing me to focus on myself and the babies. With a couple of hours sleep I was fine and managed to finish my hours during the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Something else which started a couple of days ago which I don’t particularly like are the small heart palpitations I`m getting. They are quite disturbing to be honest as I’ve not had anything like that before where I find myself suddenly gasping for breath and feeling my heart thumping in my chest at quite a rate. I had a look on the Internet and apparently it1s quite common in pregnancy, as your heart needs to pump more blood around. Some women on the forums were complaining about it and getting up to 20 per hour which I certainly wouldn’t want!

WK 14: Day 7 - Making Room for Stuff

My energy levels have definitely picked up this weekend and the nausea is staying nice a mild for most of the day which is such a relief. This is the first weekend in a couple of months that I haven’t slept and much as I possibly could.

Mart and I spent some time cleaning out all the cupboards and getting rid of anything we don't need so we can make space for new baby items. A lot of the cupboards are filled with Luke`s baby clothes which made us laugh as there are tons and that`s only his things!I have no idea where we are going to store everything in our little house when they come along...

Here’s my week 14 belly pic. I'm still growing :)

14 weeks pregnant 

WK 14: Day 5 - I'm Feeling a Bit Lost

Today wasn’t the best day... I went for my midwife appointment this morning which just felt quite pointless. As lovely as my midwife is it’s hard to get much from the visit as many of the things you would discuss for a singleton or even twin pregnancy don't really apply to me. We tried to listen to the heart beats but we could only hear the twins. I’m really glad I had my scan on Wednesday otherwise I would have been quite worried. My blood pressure and protein levels in my urine were all fine which is good to hear as the risk of pre-eclampsia is far greater for me. I came away feeling quite sad about the appointment  as I just don’t feel  like I am getting all the care that I could or should for someone carrying quads. It’s no ones fault, I just don’t think that there are enough people with experience in higher order multiples within my local network. Reading the guidelines which have been set by NICE regarding care for pregnant women of multiples, they detail a number of dedicated medical professionals with experience of multiplies who should be giving me advice and support but unfortunately I haven’t come across these as yet. I wonder whether Tamba may be able to help with some information, as my search on Google hasn’t brought anything up?

WK14: Day 3 - Scan Day

We went for a scan today. What a relief that all our babies are fine! It was so good to see them all again. Our fetal medicine specialist asked me for a third time after he’d finished scanning if I was sure I wanted to continue with the pregnancy! I almost screamed. They are really making me feel quite pressured now, and I think it’s a little wrong to continue asking me after 6 weeks and after seeing that all the babies are doing so well. Anyway they did a full anomaly scan today on all the babies, even though this is normally only done at 20 weeks. This is when they check all the limbs, organs and skeletons and measure everything as well. Everything was there and the right sizes for their gestation! YAY! There’s also no sign of TTTS at this stage, so fingers crossed this keeps being the result. We also found out some very exciting news. Our baby number 1 is a.... BOY!

They wouldn’t tell us themselves as it to early to 100% confirm but they said they would look in between the legs so we could have a look. There was no mistake that he is a little boy, but we couldn't really tell for the others as he was rushing by the end so wasn’t talking us through everything as he was going along.We are so over the moon that we are having another little boy. I was worried that Luke would be bombarded with a house full of sisters. I have an instinctual feeling that the other 3 are girls...Mart thinks more boys. I definitely think that the identical twins are girls, but we will just have to wait and see until the next time I have a scan in two weeks.

But until then here are the pics of my four little stars.

Baby 1 - Our boy

Babies 2 &3 - The Twins

Baby 4 - The king or queen of the castle on top 

It was so hard trying to concentrate in work for the rest of the afternoon! I kept looking at the scan pics and being totally amazed that I have four babies inside me. I wonder whether I will ever get over the shock.

When I picked Luke up from Nursery all the staff were waiting to see my scan pics. They are all so friendly and encouraging. Lyndsay the nursery head also let me know that she has contacted all the childcare training colleges for me to ask if they would have any students looking for placements. Apparently I could get someone to help with the babies a few hours a weeks for up to six months. That would be amazing!

WK14: Day 2 - Where Has My Appetite Gone

I’ve been struggling to find food that I want to eat the last couple of days. It feels like I’ve eaten all the healthy snack food I can find and nothing is really appealing to me at the moment. I’ve found that since my nausea has been getting better so my appetite has lessened and I’m just not feeling as hungry as I was but am fully aware that I need to be eating lots!

I looked up on the Internet today to find out why I`m getting sore ribs, as mine are feeling bruised and sore all the time and when I cough it feels incredibly painful. What I found was quite interesting. It said that sore ribs in pregnancy is from your ribs detaching themselves from the muscle to allow them to move and accommodate the organs which need to shift around to make space. I think in normal circumstances this would happen quite gradually and so you wouldn't necessarily feel it as much as I am.

I’ve been reading some amazing blogs online lately and the one I find the most inspiring is ‘Steeces Pieces’ a blog from a mum of quads who are now four years old. I’ve started from the beginning so I'm years behind her current posts, but it was so interesting to read her blogs from pregnancy till birth. She details her journey incredibly well and I can relate to everything she is feeling. Reading on further than I am is so interesting for me and also quite hard to take in. You can see that she really struggled towards the end, with things like pain and breathing difficulties. She seems to have handled it all incredibly well with such courage and strength! It’s really inspiring to read! I couldn’t help breaking down into tears when her family and friends detailed the birth and coming days with the babies. They were born at 31 weeks which is amazing, but she wasn’t able to see them for a couple of days after the birth as they had to be taken away immediately to be looked after. The pics of them were beautiful but also heart breaking to see how small and fragile they were and hooked up to a number of machines with tubes everywhere. I have read up a lot about NICU and watched a few videos (which had me in tears every time I might add) but I still don’t think anything is going to fully prepare me for the sight of my babies like this.

I also called Anna this evening, she`s a  lady I was given details of by Tamba. She also naturally conceived quads 7 years ago and it was amazing to talk to her and ask her all the questions I have not been able to get the answers to from anyone else. She was so lovely and made me feel a lot better about things. I asked her about food and she said she didn’t pack herself up with calories just to put on weight although she was advised to eat about 4000 calories a day. She had her quads at 29 weeks and worked right up until 27 weeks, which is incredible. Her babies were in NICU for 10 weeks and she said that the first two years were the hardest two years of her life. WOW this is going to be such a hard journey for Mart and I, I don't think i can really comprehend just how hard quite yet.

WK14: Day 1 - Finally Feeling Better

Can this be the start of what’s to come? (I hope so). I can’t remember the last time I made it through the day with such mild morning sickness, and I've also not been as exhausted as usual. It makes such a change! Mentally I've been feeling quite strong today too. I still don’t know how we are going to manage financially which is such a worry. I really need to start looking at companies I can write to this evening. I’ve put it off for a while as I don’t want to send a load of letters out and then something happens but now is as good a time as any. Mart keeps telling me that we’ll be ok...I really hope we will. At the moment I feel like we are taking a huge leap into the darkness.

Can’t wait to see my little stars on Wed! Two weeks feels like ages.

WK13: Day 7 - Comfort Rocks

The last few days have been quite uneventful. I’ve just slept a lot and eaten loads. I been having quite a few abdominal pains which I’m hoping are only stretching pains rather than anything serious. They’ve been going on for the last couple of days and I can’t find a way to ease them other than dose myself up on paracetamol. It’s been an emotional time and my nausea shows no real sign of going anywhere for a while either. We went to the park today and i couldn’t stop myself from looking at the other mums and children trying to imagine myself with 3 more. It’s going to be really hard! A close friend popped in for a visit and we chatted about writing an Autobiography about my life. I seem to have had quite an interesting journey over the last 30 years with this being the real cherry on the top. It would be amazing to be able to tell my story for others to read. I have recently come across a book called ‘The Good Sisters’ which is the story of the first surviving c-section quads. Amazingly they were born at Southmead hospital in Bristol. Their website has a couple of pages of the book available to read and it’s absolutely fascinating. I really must get a copy!

I think the most exciting news of the weekend is our new mattress!! WOW...its a beast, not lying it`s about 12 inches thick! Going to need LOTS of support!!! It’s been a long time coming. It’s a lot firmer than the old one so will take some time to get used to, but at least this means Mart and I can sleep happily in the same bed together :)

Here’s my 13 week bump in all it’s glory....

13 weeks pregnant

WK:13: Day 3 - I'm Feeling So Tired

I really struggled with my nausea and tiredness today and work was almost unbearable. I always seem to reach a slump at about 2pm which ends up in me either having to put my head down on my desk or having to go into a meeting room to lie on the sofa for 10mins. Today was particularly bad and I had to go for a walk around the block to get some fresh air. I also had some horrible abdominal and back pains which I couldn't help worry about. When I keep being told what a high risk pregnancy this is, it’s going to be hard not to worry about the slightest niggle. I have been feeling great mentally after my healing session yesterday, but it only takes something small like this to make you question your body and make you feel bad again. I also told work today about the specialist advising that I’d probably need to stop work around 20 weeks. They seemed to really understand which I hope continues as it takes so much of the worry off me.

Something that I forget to mention yesterday about the specialist was that he measured me and said I was measuring about 17-20 weeks, so I’m about two months bigger than I should be with a singleton. I’ve already put on nearly a stone as well. (6.3kg)

WK13: Day 2 - Specialist Day

I had another good day today. Mart ended up sleeping on the floor last night as I seem to sleep better when he’s not in the bed. I felt really bad to start off with but I appreciated it so much and had a much better nights sleep!

The specialist obstetrician appointment went well. The doctor was not the specialist that I am booked in with as she is on holiday, but he was friendly enough and tried to answer as many questions as he could. He didn’t really tell me much more than I already know with regards to the likelihood of any of the risks I keep being told about actually happening or about nutritional needs and requirements. With regards to the food, he also said just eat a good amount of healthy food as the babies will take from me what they need. From what I`ve read, this is nothing like the advice that you are given in the USA. I am finding it quite hard to believe that I shouldn't been given some kind of calorie count or extra nutritional info on calorie intake and portions.

I’ll just have to trust my instincts again on this one. He wasn’t able to confirm a due date as he kept telling me anything could happen in the pregnancy which could change my needs and circumstances. It is most likely though to be March sometime as I thought, and it would be by c-section. He also confirmed that I would probably start finding work very difficult from about 20 weeks onwards (27th Dec) so it will just be a case of continuing with my fortnightly appointments which will be the deciding factor on the final date. It’s great to finally have some indication on this date. He also did a quick scan to check the heart beats. I was so scared when he went off to get the machine, but luckily everything was fine and we saw four little hearts beating away. I feel so attached to them all now! They were moving around a lot which was so sweet. He confirmed I would need to see a specialist every two weeks, so that means I’m now seeing three separate medical teams every two weeks, and that’s without physio or antenatal classes.

The team so far consists of my community midwife, a specialist sonographer and a specialist obstetrician. I went back to work feeling very calm and happy that I now have  a better indication of how the doctors want to run this pregnancy, which is just literally one step at a time. For me being the complete planaholic and organisational queen, it’s really hard for me to try and run it this way but unfortunately I am going to have to just go with the flow and let things happen organically when they’re meant to.

I went for a Kinesiology and Reiki session this evening which was lovely! It was emotional talking through my fears and emotions but also very grounding at the same time and really hoping that I will benefit from it as some very positive feelings and emotions came out of my time there.

WK13: Day 1 - Food Glorious Food

I had quite a good day today. I was awake loads last night, but it’s becoming a nightly occurrence now so it’s not so hard on me the next day. I can’t work out whether it’s the mattress that’s crap or whether i’m just getting bigger and more uncomfortable having to wake every couple of hours needing the loo and still sometimes needing to go downstairs for a middle of the night snack to help ease the nausea. I only had to venture to the toilet twice last night luckily. It makes me laugh as this is how I was when I was about 7 months pregnant with Luke!

Luke wasn’t in the mood for nursery today. To be honest he hasn’t liked going much at all lately. I’m a bit worried about him as he normally loves nursery and so suddenly crying every time I take him now is horrible for me! We have explained to him that Mummy is pregnant and it seems that he may be feeling it more than I realise. I have been around so little lately as well that he must feel a bit neglected by me. It’s going to be a challenge for all of us when the babies arrive so am going to do everything I can to make sure I still spend quality time with him. Unfortunately he is also going to have to go through the whole natural process of having all of our attention to now having to share it with someone else. In our case four someone elses. It’s going to be really hard for him, and for us! I feel very bad about it.

Besides the nausea I’m definitely in high spirits today! I’ve been eating loads, here’s just what I ate between 9-5 :)

2 Crumpets

cereal

8 crackers

grapes

smoothie

1 pastie

1 orange

tuna salad with egg and potato

bag of crisps

yoghurt

My energy lasted to about 3pm and then I just felt exhausted. If it continues like this I wonder how long I'm realistically going to last at work. I had coffee with a colleuge who’s due in a month and I couldn’t help feeling a little envious when she spoke about her baby. I’m trying to imagine how I would be feeling if I was carrying one and not four. She is so supportive, as is everyone else close to me whom I’ve told. I feel really blessed for that. I try my best at work to concentrate, but it’s so hard when I feel so tired. I also can’t stop thinking about the specialist appointment I have tomorrow. I wonder if they are going to be able to answer all the questions I have. I've not had very much luck so far. 

I was so glad to get home at the end of the day. It was amazing to see Mart and Lukes smiley welcoming faces. Mart really makes me feel happy. I couldn’t have asked for someone more loving and caring at a time like this. The house was all warm and my bed was ready for me to climb into. I spent some lovely quality time with Luke before I went to bed. He is so inspirational, I love the thought of another 4 of him playing and laughing together!