The Quads are here!

You might notice that up until this point, the blog has been about Baby Lilya. Well, Baby Lilya is no longer the baby, she is now the big sister! We welcomed her brothers, Oscar James, Benjamin Ryne and Harrison Kerry along with their sister, Jaylyn Rae on Saturday, May 14th at 9:41, 9:42, 9:42 and 9:43. I have spent my entire pregnancy blogging on a caring bridge site, and now decided that I should continue the journey here.
I am now home from the hospital for the first time in over 3 weeks (2 1/2 on bedrest). While it feels so good to be home, it was very hard to leave the hospital without the babies. Here are some things that I had to continually remind myself:

• I have a 2 1/2 year old at home that needs me as well


• All four babies are doing great, and are right on target of where they need to be


• They are getting the best care around from the nurses and staff at St. Vincent


• I can call or visit the hospital 22 out of 24 hours in a day


• They will be home before we know it, so I should rest while I have the chance

I am so lucky to have the reassurance and support from so many friends and family members too!

I am going to keep things pretty current right now for the sake of time, and I'll go back later to explain more of our story.

For now, like I said, all babies are doing great. Harrison is the only one on oxygen right now, and it is just the canuel (sp). He is still breathing room air with just a little support. They all have been taken out from under the lights which means for the moment their jaundice levels are down. Yesterday, they increased each baby's food intake, and while I never thought I'd be this happy over the news, everyone had a poopy diaper!

I can't wait to check in and see the progress that we are making today!

Journal and Courier's Cutest Baby Contest 2010

Lilya is in the Journal and Courier's Cutest Baby Contest 2010

Go to the site and vote for her!

Wow, has it really been a year????

Such a beautiful baby girl...we have been blessed!

Is there anything better than the laughter of a child?!?

She can be serious too!

Pool Time

Sunbathing with Baby Layne.

I'm not sure that she really liked being in the big pool, but she was content for a while anyway. The floating raft helped, but only for a little bit.

Summer's Finally Here!

Now that I'm home all day, I have lots of time to take pictures and edit like I love to do. She is changing so much every day, and I will have the pictures to prove it. Her newest thing is to dance every time any kind of music comes on. It is so cute, and indescribable, you just have to see it. She can pull up and stand up to anything, and has let go a couple times and stood on her own. She really doesn't try to walk around things yet though. It is hard enough to chase her while she's crawling, so I'm in no hurry for her to walk.
She loved the flowers on the front porch, and it made for a cute picture too.

Friday, June 19, she went for her first swim in the baby pool that mammaw Kelsey bought her. She loved it, and I figured she would because she enjoys her baths so much. Everyone watched as she splashed around. Kaleb even got down in the water with her. It was so cute when she was using his shirt to wipe the water off her face. Daddy looks like a thug in Kaleb's cubs hat, and LuLu could hardly wait until everyone turned their backs so that she could chew the toys that Lilya was playing with...she eventually got two out of the four and destroyed them.

I am also enjoying getting to feed her more now that I am home all day. She makes some of the silliest faces as you can see here. She's still loving all of the orange foods, but there isn't much else in stage 2. She still doesn't have any teeth, but she can eat about anything...just gums it! She loves grahm crackers and banana flavored puffs. Really she would eat about anything you give her. She's a lot like her mommy!

Summer is almost here!

She is so used to me taking her picture. This is pretty much the smile I get when I get out the camera. She is growing so fast. I know I say that every time, but recently she has gone through some big changes. It took her about 2 or 3 weeks of moving very robotic and only crawling a couple hand lengths at a time, but now she is getting it down pretty good. Two nights ago, she crawled from the t.v. room to the front room, and Tony said, "Oh no, here we go." He was right, I've been chasing her every since. She is the love of our lives though, and I'm sure I will spend most of my time the next 18 years chasing after her!

Finally meeting Grandma Mary Lou. We are so glad that Grandma got to come and visit. It was almost an instant bond between the two of them. It's amazing how babies know family.

Lilya's crib. She's been sleeping all night in here for about the last 4 months. She's so good. Sometimes I can even put her to be awake, and she goes right to sleep!

Her cousins love her so much! For the longest time, Judy's only words were "yiya" that meant Lilya in baby talk!

Mother's Day

There was a time in my life when I thought that this day was not a day meant for me. Sure, I was a step mom, but Tony and I had tried for years to have a baby on our own but were never successful. I was always thinking of reasons of why God didn't want me to be a parent...from being to wild in my younger days, the little fights that Tony and I would have, to the fact that I had an accident once that took away someone elses child. That was the big one that weighed on my mind. Then, it happened one day, with the help of medicine of course. God had decided that I was fit to be a parent. I will never forget telling Tony that we were having quadruplets (he was out of town when I had my first ultrasound) to break the blow that is was actually twins. The look on his face was priceless. We made it through the first 18 weeks and found out that we were having a boy and a girl. Tony said he could see the fear in my eyes when she said that baby A was a boy...I had wanted a girl so bad. We were thrilled that we were going to have one of each. On Sept. 3rd I watched as my sister gave birth to my beautiful niece. I couldn't believe that soon I would be experiencing the same. It was sooner than expected. That night, my water broke. I was only 20 weeks pregnant. there was no way to save the babies, I gave birth to both of them on Sept. 4, our little boy, Gavin, was stillborn, but I held little Greta, and could see her heart beating in her chest. There was nothing they could do for her, and she passed away just minutes after being born. Once again, my mind turned to the accident that I had so many years ago. I know that God is not a punishing God, and although those were my first thoughts, lots of praying helped me realize that it was all just a part of His plan for me. I have gone from last year being one of the worst Mother's Days of my life to this year, one of the best. As I watch my beautiful baby girl try to crawl around on the floor, I say, "Thank you God for letting me experience the most wonderful thing in the world, motherhood." I have been blessed! Happy Mother's Day!