The Lemonovich Log

HOT, HOT, HOT!!!!!

2010-07-06T10:45:00.002-04:00

Some crazy weather around here lately! Pittsburgh is in the midst of one crazy heat wave - 90's the past week and for at least a few more days! Not a drop of rain in sight! You can almost hear our poor grass and flowers crying :) All 5 kids have been enjoying playing outside in the baby pool and sprinkler - especially Elizabeth and Kate. The others aren't so fond of getting wet but Lizzie and Kate jump into the pool with reckless abandon. Luke also loves the water and is bugging me to re-enroll him in swimming classes so I want to take advantage of his eagerness and get him back in the water.

The babies celebrated their second birthday 2 weeks ago with a small party here at our house. They had an absolutely fabulous time and despite the crazy rain storm that forced us inside, they loved every minute of it. They gots lots of fabulous toys to play with and some money for their college accounts. Still can't believe our little babies that weighed 2 lbs. and less are 2 years old. They went to the doctor for their 2 year appointment last week and Dr. Yost our pediatrician was so happy with their progress. They are doing so well in so many ways, yet all 4 need to continue to gain both height and weight. The babies eat well but they need to continue eating higher calorie, higher fat foods to gain more weight. As you can see from their numbers, Claire is by far the biggest! Their numbers as of 6/23/10 are:

Claire Renee: 24 lbs, 4 oz and 33.25"
John Quentin: 22 lbs, 8 oz. and 32.75"
Elizabeth Avery: 22 lbs, 2 oz. 32.5"
Kate Mackenzie: 22 lbs, 30.25"

Did you notice that Kate weighs only 2 oz. less than Elizabeth???? Isn't that amazing???? She's definitely shorter than everyone else but she is doing very well at gaining weight! Our little firecracker is really taking off! More good news about Kate....she has stopped taking ALL of her medicines. Her GI doctor believes that Kate has probably outgrown the issues that were causing her to throw up so much as a baby so with her blessing, we've decided to stop ALL of the medicines and see what happens. So far....so good! No vomiting issues to report after 1 week off of the medicines. Keep Kate in your prayers as we go through this trial period!

We have lots of pictures to share from the babies' birthday party, 4th of July and summer fun but our computer has a bad virus that Daddy is trying to fix so we don't have any pictures to post for now. As soon as our 'puter is back up and running, we'll be sure to post some so that you can see our little munchkins.

Hope you all had a fun, safe and relaxing 4th of July. How blessed we our to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave!!!

God Bless America!!!!!!!!!

Back in the saddle again :)

2010-06-15T22:16:00.007-04:00

Hello everyone from the Lemonovich family! I've written a whole new blog entry to update you all on what's going on with the family but due to some problem with Blogger than I can't figure out, I need to post the pictures that go with this entry first. So check out the pictures first and then scroll down further for the update. So....without further adieu....here's some new pics:

The crew in a moving box just after we closed on the new house.... (L to R - Claire, John, Elizabeth, Kate and Luke in the back row):

Our new digs:

Chez Lemonovich:

Chillin' on vacation on the porch swing - John, Elizabeth, Kate, Claire and Luke:

John eating a popsicle :)

Luke and Daddy waiting to ride the merry go round at Idlewild:

The babies at Storybook Forest:

Claire doing her best Little Pig impression:

Cap'n Luke and his motely crew :)

Kate, Claire and John:

Luke and Elizabeth:

Claire, who loves to play dress up, in one of her crazy costumes:

Kate passed out after one of her yummy bottles. Just what DOES Mommy put in there to make them sleep??? Hee hee!

Wow....7 months since my lost blog entry! Honestly....I have a good excuse...better yet, I have 5 excuses! Life has been so incredibly busy in the last 7 months that I don't even know where to start! After enjoying Christmas in the home we had rented for almost 18 months, we moved to our new house just two days later and have loved every minute of our new, wide open space! The kids are having such a great time here and are really enjoying the new community. L-O-T-S of kids in the neighborhood and they are all roughly around the ages of Luke and the quads. The house is spacious and despite some issues with the flooring and a few other glitches, it is a great fit for big family. I'll post some pics of the place along with updated pics of the kids at the end of this post. SOOOO many people have been asking me...when are you updating the blog???? Where are new pictures of the kids? Sorry it's taken me so long!

The kids are nothing short of amazing. Luke finished 2 year preschool at the end of May. He loved every minute of his class and made some great new friends. Getting him out of the house and into a fun filled social setting was the best thing we could have done for him. He'll be starting 3 year old preschool in the Fall and is already asking me when school starts! He struggled with potty training (let me rephrase that - he REFUSED to potty train!) until just recently when we had a commando potty training weekend. After more than a few tantrums and even more M&M's, I'm proud to say that my big 3 1/2 year old boy is finally potty trained! Can I get a HALLELUJAH!?!?!? One down......four to go!!! My wallet took a deep sigh and smiled on that day because that's at least one less set of diapers we have to buy now! He really is a great big brother. He's turning into a great little helper and although he gets frustrated with the babies for getting into his things, he's doing his best. Luke took swim lessons in the Spring which he also loved - even dove off the diving board more than a few times! He continues his infatuation with anything related to trains and loves to help his Dad use tools. I actually think he's going to be a clone of John both physically and professionaly when he grows up! Luke and Daddy are going on a boys weekend this summer to Maryland to for a steam engine excursion so he's really looking forward to that!

Little Kate continues to be nothing short of a miracle. John and I were just remebering the other day that this time last year, Kate couldn't even sit up on her own. Today, she is walking, running, climbing, jumping and every other thing possible with her two little feet! Kate made it through the winter with flying colors. Only one real cold to speak of and no respiratory events. Dr. Murphy her pulmonogist was so encouraged by not only her lung condition but her height and weight gains, that he had us return all of her oxygen equipment to the rental company. She continues to take Prevacid and Erythromycin daily for her reflux and delayed gastric emptying but at least as this point, both conditions appear to be well under control. Kate also drinks Pediasure as opposed to milk to assist with her weight gain. As of a few weeks ago (the last time she was weighed), Kate weighs just under 22 pounds and was roughly 31" in length. She has nearly caught up to the other three in terms of her weight and is gaining good ground in terms of her height. So hard to believe. Kate is the happiest little girl. She always wakes up every morning with a smile on her face and loves to gives hugs. She is sneaky though! She is constantly crawling onto the chairs and onto the kitchen table! She continues to receive PT, OT and speech therapy weekly and although she shows delay in her speech, she is making great strides and her therapist is very happy with her progress. Again....she's just a miracle :)

John has been the biggest of the four now for awhile. He eats....and eats....and eats...and eats...and eats anything - and I mean ANYTHING - you put in front of him. Tonight he ate dill pickles and didn't even wince. He ate sauerkraut the other day. He'll eat tuna fish. I honestly can't tell you anything that he's refused! John is a man on the go though. Everything he eats, he burns off! And wherever he goes, his blanket goes with him. His nickname should be Linus :) He sucks his thumb and carries that blanket everywhere! John has made HUGE strides in terms of the weakness he has on his right side from the brain bleed that occured during delivery. He has shown so much progress in PT and OT and although he wasn't showing a lot of mobility in his right hand, elbow and shoulder initially, he is now using these areas with ease. The physiatrist who follows John for this condition had to ask me at his last appointment what side the brain bleed was on because she couldn't tell just by looking at him. Now that is progress! John also has some delays in his speech but is really starting to come around. Like his big brother, John is a train fanatic! He and Luke sit and watch train videos on YouTube almost every night. They have a large minature railroad track down in the basement and they spend lots of time with Daddy down there choo-chooing away!

Elizabeth is quite the diva! She believes she is the center of the universe and if you don't agree with her, she'll bite you! Yes...you read that correctly. My little Lizzie is a pirahna. All 3 of her quad siblings at this very moment have Lizze's teeth tattooed somewhere on their body because of this very bad habit! When she's cranky...she's really cranky! But when she's happy...Lizzie is a sheer delight! She has the biggest grin and the sweetest little giggle you've ever heard! She is talking up a storm and doing it with great clarity lately! She can say Mama, Dada, thank you, more and a host of other phrases. Unfortunately, the one we hear most often is "NO!" She usually shakes her finger at you while she's saying it too! Wonder where she got that from?!?!? Lizzie's favorite pastime by far is reading. She spends hours sitting on the playroom floor lying on her back reading books. If she can find a spare lap to sit on, she's make her way over to you, plop herself down and shove a book in your face until you'll read it! Her favorite for right now is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I have to admit, this is one of my favorites too so we're enjoying reading it over and over again together :)

Claire....ahhhhh...where do I start with Claire? I say this with great love and affection...but Claire was by far the toughest baby to care for the first 18 months. Claire had a scream as an infant that could strip wallpaper. She was never a great night sleeper/napper and was very resistant to try anything new in terms of food, changes to the schedule, etc. She was...to say the least....challenging. But that difficult little baby has become one sweet, loving, precious little girl. Claire Renee has really grown up the most over the past 7 months since my last post. Although she still has the blood curdling scream, she uses it judiciously now :) She is kind and much more gentle than ever before. She smiles the most beautiful ear to ear grins and babbles and giggles for minutes on end with no one understanding what she's saying but her. Every night when the babies finish their bottles before bed, she goes around and gathers them all up and brings them over to the sink for me. She can play peacefully in the playroom with her kitchen set for so long that I have to go in and check and her to be sure she's still there. She is talking in the 2 and sometimes 3 word phrases - hi mama, hi dada, night night, etc. She's the most mature looking of the four by far and has gotten much taller and leaner. Claire LOVES to dance. Anytime music comes on, she twirls around the living room and claps her hands and stomps her feet. It's hysterical. I'm so thrilled to watch Claire as she matures - and so proud too.

John and I are finally getting the hang of this "being a parent to 5 kids" thing (about time, huh?!) Never thought I would have said it, but it now seems wierd to me that people think it's wierd that we have quadruplets. So we had 4 kids at once - what's the big deal? (I assure you this wasn't my thought process back on 2/4/08 when we found out about them!) However, life now just seems normal and although there are some limitations on our life due to the fact that we have 5 kids age 3 and under, it's just our life and we've learned to adjust. People ask me ALL THE TIME - how do you do it? My routine answer is....some days I do it really well and somedays I really don't. I do my best and ask God to provide me whatever I'm lacking so that I can get through it. As I prepared to write this post, I read back through our previous posts...all the back through April 2008 and I can't belive what we've been through. It is only by the grace of God and his Master plan that we have reached this amazing point in our lives. He has put more people and resources in our path than we could have ever thought possible. Our beautiful children are healthy and happy and we are truly blessed. The babies turn 2 next week...so hard to believe. We're having a little family party this weekend for them so we'll be sure to post some pictures next week of the celebration.

Thanks again for catching up with us. I'll post again soon - promise! Until then....

Carrie and the crew :)

Happy Fall!!!

2009-11-05T21:42:00.023-05:00

I've got so many random pictures to post that I thought I would just throw them all in here at once. They are in no particular order so please excuse how scattered they are!

Luke's first day of school....as you can tell, not particularly thrilled about going despite asking me every morning for 2 months in a row "is today the day I start going to school???"

Our new house as of last Friday....things are really starting to pick up! Ours is the one on the right...

John and I took Luke for a "get away weekend" this past September to Deep Creek, MD. My brother in law's family owns a wonderful vacation home there and they were gracious enough to let us borrow it for the weekend. What an AWESOME time we had - just the three of us. It was so strange to be away from the babies and we certainly missed them, but we had a great time spoiling Luke all weekend and allowing him some "baby free" time to enjoy himself and do the things he wanted to do. One of our adventures for the weekend was a trip to Swallow Falls (pictured below). Truly one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited and we were there on an absolutely magnificent day with 75 degree temperatures and not a cloud in the sky. What an awesome day with our little buddy.

Luke and I enjoying a double dipper ice cream cone. We're sorry to report that 2 minutes after this picture was taken, Luke tipped the cone to the side to take a lick and both scoops fell to the ground in a giant pile of pine needles! Boy, were we bummed!

Some Fall pictures in our beautiful back yard...we're really going to miss the property here when we move!

Mommy and Kate...

The family...

Sweet John...

Luke loves jumping in the leaves...

Elizabeth....

Jumping in the leaves...

Luke and his buddy Kate...

Claire and Johnny...

Luke and John...

Johnny...

Thanks for taking a peek at our pictures! So hard to believe it's November already! With the holidays coming up, we'll have lots more to share!!!

God bless everyone...Happy Fall!

What's new in our world....

2009-10-26T22:24:00.011-04:00

Life in the Lemonovich household is one busy place these days! There's a whole lot of movin' and shakin' going on around here and my babies are not such babies anymore!

I'll start by letting you know that Casa de Lemonovich is up and moving along! The house is already framed and bricked, drywalled and the initial coat of contractor paint is up! I cannot believe how quickly the builders work! They have told us that they think the house will be done the last week of November so we're looking forward to moving into our new house soon. Not sure if we'll be even crazier that we currently are and try moving before the holidays or do the sane thing and wait until January. Knowing us, we'll probably take the crazy route. Anyways, here's a picture from the cul-de-sac in front of the house. This was taken a few weeks ago before the bricklaying started...

I wish we could work out some kind of deal with the builder to keep the dumpster once the house is done! There's a whole lot of poopy diapers around this joint and having a large receptacle outside the home to place these tidy packages would be SWEET!!!

Big brother Luke has started 2 day preschool and is LOVING it! He totally digs getting to go to playschool 2 days a week and I think it is so good for him to get out of the house and be his own fun, totally boy self for a few hours! He is getting so tall! His school recently had a fundraiser called "Road Rally" The kids did laps in their bike around the parking lot and he had a great time (despite the fact that Mommy pinched his neck in his bike helmet strap just before the big event got started! Yikes!!!!!! Sorry buddy :( Anyways, here's a few pictures of my future Lance Armstrong...

Luke and Poppy before the big event...

Luke and some of his class buddies...

My cute little dude on his tricycle...

The babies are getting so big - Claire is the biggest at over 22 pounds and even little Kate is a chunky monkey at 19 lbs! Claire and Elizabeth are walking everywhere and John is walking on his knees (can you imagine how bad that must hurt?!?!?) He has the scraped, bloody knees to prove it but it hasn't seemed to hinder him at all if you can believe it! Kate is a crawling machine and both she and John love to stand up and cruise around the room while holding onto the furniture. I don't think it will be long before both of them are chasing Elizabeth and Claire around the house! All four babies babble and chatter like crazy. Claire (affectionately - and accurately - called "The Bear" by anyone that truly knows her!) is definitely the most vocal so far. I swear she is repeating things that I'm saying - guess I'd better watch myself! This little spit fire definitely has a mind of her own and a temper to go with it! She is so darn cute though - it's hard to stay mad for her for long, even when she does get a little attitudal! Elizabeth is nothing but giggles. We call her Lizzie, Lizard or Lizard the Wizard. Lizzie LOVES to read books. She is constantly walking around the room with a book in her hand and will plop herself down on your lap so that you can read to her. Her current favorite read is Flicker Firefly. We may have a future librarian on our hands! She has been a little cranky though lately. She is already starting to get her molars in! Poor thing has been whining non-stop! John is just simply Johnny to us. He is so sweet, yet so determined. Nothing can keep John down when he get his mind set on something. John takes a licking and keeps on ticking (ususally from the hands of his big brother who loves to roughhouse with him!) I have never seen a kid eat so much in my life. I have yet to find anything that John will not eat - I mean this literally. He has NEVER spit out anything - even the Vaseline container he managed to get into a few weeks ago! Yeah - this was really nasty! And ahhhh...sweet Kate. We call this little bugger Katie-do for no other reason that she is just so stinkin' happy, sweet and content. Kate has made greater strides in the past 3 months that I would have thought possible. She has more energy than you imagine and she honestly smiles and laughs most of the day. Know what one of her favorite things to do is? Sit on your lap and flip backwards and hang upside down while you swing her!!! I know, sounds crazy but she LOVES this! If you stop, she'll just throw herself backwards again until you agree to do it again! These children are miracles and everytime I get frustrated or just so tired I'm not sure if I can make it through the day, I pray that God would remind me of where we've been, what we've been through and where we're at today. We're blessed.

I have a few pics of the quads to post but Blogger is acting up and won't let me add them to this posting. So, I'll try again tomorrow. Until then....nighty night!

"Mommy Going out of Business" Sale!

2009-08-27T14:22:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention in last night's post that we and a few friends are having a huge garage sale this Saturday (8/29/09) here at our house in the parking lot! I'm affectionately calling it my "Mommy Going out of Business Sale!" We're selling a TON of baby/toddler items as you can well imagine! There are beautiful clothes for both girls and boys ages 0-12 months as well as 4 like-new bumbo seats, baby bathtubs, baby bedding, Boppy pillows and covers, a super comfy gliding rocker w/ ottoman, bouncy seats, swings and much, much more including furniture, books, maternity and ladies clothing, etc. The sale runs from 9 am to 2pm RAIN OR SHINE so come and check us out!!! If it does rain, pull into our parking lot and you'll see signs directing where all of the items are being displayed. Be sure to check out my nephew Augie's Lemonade stand where he will be selling some yummy lemonade and his world famous peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies! Tell all of your friends and a special shout out to you pregnant ladies! For those of you who aren't familiar with where we live, please feel free to email me at carrielw33@hotmail.com and I will send you our address as I'm not comfortable posting it on the internet. Thanks and we look forward to seeing you at the sale!

A big day for our family!

2009-08-26T22:16:00.018-04:00

Since finding out about the babies and selling our great house in Moon Township, John and I have been seriously looking for a new house for over a year now. We've looked at what seems like hundreds of houses both online and in person. We just couldn't find a house that had:

1. the details we were looking for

2. in our price range and

3. that could comfortably hold all 7 of us (Lord, I feel like the Van Trapp family from the Sound of Music just saying that!)

So, in late June of 2009 we decided to build a house right here in the same township where we're currently renting and today, we broke ground! What an exciting day! Luke has been talking about this for weeks now. Luke, being a HUGE fan of construction vehicles, has been asking me daily "Is Bob the Builder going to start the foundation today???". So, of course, I took him up to the lot and let him watch the bulldozer dig. You'd of thought today was Christmas from the look on his face! We took some pictures and I'll try to download them and share over the next few days. The house is scheduled to be finished around the end of Nov./early December. What an exciting time for our family and how thankful we are to be building this beautiful house that will be our family's home for many years to come!

So...here we go...a couple of random recent pictures from our wild, wacky, wonderful world...

The heat got to me recently on one especially humid day so I threw all 5 kids in the pool and bathed them in the great outdoors with the help of Daddy, Poppy and our awesome Diaper Darling, Sue Wright! It certainly was an adventure but also a great way to clean all 5 kids at the same time! They had a great time!

My sweet Elizabeth....one silly giggly little lady!

Claire (in the box) and Elizabeth having some fun...

Kate....too cute for words!

Our dear friend and fellow Zion Lutheran Church member Jodi Fitzgerald is a local hairstylist. Jodi came to the house and gave all four babies their first haircuts! The babies were SOOOO good! (did I mention that I fed them a million treats and let them watch their favorite video - Baby Bach - over and over the whole time to distract them!?!) Thank you SOOOOO much to Jodi and her kids, Mitch and Jennifer, for taking time out of their busy summer schedules to swing by the house and give the babies their first snips! We love you guys!

Elizabeth post cut!...

(L to R in back) Mitch, Jennifer, Jodi and the posse...

Johnny and Kate with their new do's!

Elizabeth and Claire stylin' with their sassy new cuts!

Daddy doing triple duty! Oh yes he can!!!

Johnny first thing in the morning...honest to goodness...he wakes up this way EVERY DAY!!! There's no better way to start the day than one of my little man's sweet smiles!

My two best buddies....Daddy and the Lukester riding the tractor around the back yard mowing some grass! Luke is in love with this thing!

The crew just chillin' on the floor...

We were crazy enough...yes, I mean CRAZY enough...to take all 5 kids - with the help of my parents, Aunt Janet, Aunt Suz, Uncle Bill and the boys - to Kennywood (a local amusement park) last Thursday on what turned out to be a scorcher of a day. I've got some pictures of our outing I'll share in my next post with the details.

Thanks for Keeping Up With the Lemonovichs'!

SLACKER MOM!

2009-08-12T22:01:00.003-04:00

OK....so I'm feeling like an incredible slacker these days. I feel SOOOO bad when we're out somewhere with the babies and we see someone we know and they say "oh we just love reading the blog and hearing what the kids are doing and see all of your pictures". UUUUGGHHH. I haven't written on here in so long and it's so sad because the kids are growing up so fast and doing so many new and exciting things which I guess is half the reason I have no time to write, but not a good enough excuse. As you can imagine, the quads have no baby book. I've tried to make the blog their baby book so that one day, I can show it to them and remind them of just how truly special our family's story is. But I've really slacked lately so to you...my little ones...when you're reading this 20 years down the road....I'm sorry for not being a better storyteller once the first year passed :)

I swear that Luke has grown over 6" in the last 6 months and his vocabulary now rivals that of a 50 year old. He is so fluent in his speech and he talks with such expression. I just can't believe that my firstborn is 2 1/2 and will be starting a 2 year preschool class this Fall called Small Steps. I am beyond thrilled for him. I can't wait for him to get out of the house and be his own person - instead of just always being referred to as "the quads big brother". Luke really loves the babies although last week, he was playing with his pal Ms. Barb while Mom and I took the babies on an outing to Target and when we left he said to Barb "Ahhh....no babies to bother me!"

Tolerating the babies is sometimes hard work for Luke because 3 of the 4 area always crawling on him, playing with his toys, etc. Maybe this is why he has such a soft spot in his heart for Kate. She isn't crawling yet so she can't get to his things :) But, Luke is always kissing Kate and asking to hold her on his lap. It just melts my heart.

Kate is really starting to hold her own. We recently switched from formula to Pediasure so that she can try to put on some weight more quickly. She seems to like it so far despites it's icky sweet taste. Kate now weights about 17 lbs, 12 oz. and just feels bigger. She is desperately trying to crawl or at least move herself around like the others. She's starting to pull herself on her hands and knees and rock and little. She also likes to stand beside the couch or the activity table and stretch out. The progress with Kate is slow, but it's progress nonetheless. I looked at a picture of her the other day that is on the dry erase board in our house. The picture is of Kate exactly one year ago. When I see this picture and where she is today, I just can't believe how far she's come. How lucky we are to have her...

August 5, 2008

Claire, John and Elizabeth are doing exceptionally well. All three of my little buggers are crawling, cruising around furniture and getting into as much trouble as a 13 month old possibly can! Claire has mastered crawling and has begun to stand on her own for 15-20 seconds. Claire LOVES to squeal at the top of her lungs any chance she gets for any reason - happy, mad, sad, frustrated, etc. It makes no difference - she just loves to hear herself scream! Elizabeth is the bubbly party girl. She bounces and giggles and loves to make silly faces. Unfortunately, though Elizabeth has a dark side that comes out if you try to steal her toys. She has quite the wicked bite which both Claire and John have experienced all too often. I'm still trying to figure out how to break this nasty habit - and I'm sure the others are hoping I find the solution soon! John is so incredibly sweet - and active! He crawls EVERYWHERE and I do mean everywhere. He'll crawl over, under, around, on top of just about anything to get to something he wants. That includes crawling under the quad feeding table to get all of the left over snacks that have fallen on the floor after meal time. We call him "Hoover" for his vaccuum like skills :)

We've taken a bunch of pictures lately but just haven't had time to download them so we'll do that soon and be sure to post some of them on here for everyone to see. Thanks to you all for checking in with us! This slacker Mom is off to bed...the little rugrats will be up in about 7 1/2 hours!

Happy First Birthday Babies!!!!

2009-06-24T22:25:00.013-04:00

What a difference a year makes! It's so hard to believe that the babies turned ONE today! In some respects it seems like just yesterday that they were born. On the other hand, there are times when it seems like they should be TEN years old instead of one! We had a party for some family and friends this past Saturday and everyone had a great time! The kids enjoyed putting their fingers in the icing of their cupcakes. They weren't really interested in eating it but were very interested in feeling the texture of it and smearing it all over their table! It was a very special day for our entire family and one we won't soon forget!

The babies went to the doctor for their first birthday to be weighed and measured. Dr. Hennessey was so thrilled to see everyone and marveled at how far they've come. As of today, the babies are as follows:

John - 17 lbs, 15 oz and 28 1/2"
Elizabeth - 18 lbs., 1oz. and 27 3/4"
Claire - 19 lbs., 2 oz and 27 3/4"
Kate - 16 lbs. 1oz. and 25 3/4"

The kids are changing so much. All now have teeth - with Elizabeth leading the pack with 7! John has 4 and Kate and Claire have 2 each. Elizabeth is crawling and we are now starting to work on cruising around the furniture. She can go from her belly to sitting up and then pulling herself up with ease. She is amazing! John is an "army crawling" pro! He moves down the hallway at the speed of sound and will literally crawl over anything - including his sisters! - in his way. John is also an eating machine. There is nothing this kid won't eat - and do it with a smile on his face! Claire is the biggest of all of the babies as of today and also the most vocal. Claire loves to squeal and make noises I'm not always sure are human! Claire is sitting up and starting to get adventurous by rocking a little and getting on her knees. I'm guessing it won't be too long before she joins the others moving around the floor. Kate is doing great! Kate now sits up on her own and is just amazing! She is doing well with her physical therapy and is eating better now with the help of Erythromyacin - a motility drug that helps to move her food through the digestive tract instead of just sitting undigested in her stomach as it previously was. Kate not only has GERD but also has delayed gastric emptying. The medicine has done wonders to help with this condition and Kate is finally starting to be more successful at finishing her bottles. She still isn't real crazy about spoon feeding but this is something we're continuing to work on. John, Claire and Elizabeth love to sit at their feeding table and eat hulless popcorn and their Gerber Graduate puffs. They can't get enough of them! They go NUTS when they see me grab the popcorn bag!

Here are a few random pictures of our little birthday babies:

Elizabeth enjoying some frosting..

John whooping it up at the party!

Claire flashing that pretty smile after enjoying some of her cupcake...

Kate digging in....

Our family....

Some of the BEAUTIFUL pictures taken by our dear friend Natalie, at Portraits by Natalie...

Luke...

Claire...

John...

Elizabeth...

Kate....

The crew....

A million and one thanks to Natalie for these awesome shots. I couldn't have been more thrilled with the way they turned out! When you consider that the kids cried for 90% of the session, it's amazing to me that she even got these!

And as we wrap up, a million thanks to each of you for your love, support, prayers, time and everything else you've given us over the past year. We've reached an amazing milestone and we've not only survived, we've thrived. These children are not ours, they're God's. We are their stewards and we could not have made it over the past 12 months with each of you.

God bless you all!!!

YES...WE'RE STILL ALIVE :)

2009-05-14T22:23:00.002-04:00

I think Abe Lincoln was still President last time we blogged! Yikes! Sorry that it's been so long everyone! What a busy couple of months we've had! It would take me days to recap the past months so I'll give you the cliff note version...

* The quads had their baptism rededication service at church (they were baptized by our Pastor the night of their birth but our congregation had a rededication service for them to celebrate and reaffirm their baptism). It was an awesome day and the first time our congregation has gotten a chance to see the babies! It was a very emotional service and something John and I will never forget.

* We had an awesome Easter spent with family and friends. The Easter bunny was very good to Luke and the munchkins!

* The quads are eating 2 meals a day from a spoon now. They eat veggies, fruits and meat along with rice cereal or oatmeal. So far, they seem to like pretty much anything I give them. Sweet potatoes are definitely a favorite and green beans they could do without :)

* The quads and Daddy all came down with some type of stomach virus at the same time complete with fever, vomiting and other not so pleasant symptoms. It wasn't pretty! We're glad to say that everyone seems to be back on the road to good health!

* Claire weighs approx. 19 lbs. these days. She is an absolute moose! She downs a 7-8 oz. bottle in about 5 minutes flat! This kid is amazing! Claire is by far the best at sitting up unassisted. She has great balance and loves to sit up and play with toys. She isn't keen at all about being on her stomach and rolling. She'd much rather sit up and see what's going on around her,

* Elizabeth has 6 teeth. Yes, you read that correctly....6 teeth! 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom.She loves to use her new choppers to bite things - especially her bottle nipple and the spoon when we do feedings. She is especially giggly and one active chick! Elizabeth rolls around the room with ease and is on all fours rocking back and forth. It's only a matter of time until she's crawling around. So hard to believe!

* John has 2 teeth and is an absolute eating/rolling machine. I have never seen a child gets such pleasure out of eating! He eats from a spoon like a master - his mouth is open and he eagerly awaits every spoonful. He actually gets mad if you don't shovel fast enough! John loves to roll and is even pulling himself up on things these days. He is also on all fours rocking back and forth and is dying to crawl! He has great upper body strength and is actually quite strong in general. He wakes up every morning with a smile - no joke!

* Kate is doing well and is progressing at her own pace. She seemed to recover from this last illness a little more quickly than previous infections so we're hoping that her body is maturing and helping her to fight off things more efficiently. We still have some feeding issues with Kate related to her lung condition, GERD and delayed gastric emptying. We're working with a GI doctor at Children's along with a nutrtionist and speech/language pathologist to try and work out these issues. Despite everything Kate has been through, she remains the sweetest, happiest child and her smile literally lights up a room.

* Luke and Daddy are taking parent and tot swimming lessons and loving it. At first, Luke was very hesitant about getting in the pool and would cry the first few times when John would even pull into the parking lot. He's now loving his lessons and looks forward to going every week. He even jumped off the diving board to a waiting Daddy a few times! He is so excited about the summer and being outside.

We've got a ton of pictures to share, just not enough time to load them all and share them tonight. I promise to post them asap.

Sorry again for the lapse guys! We promise not to be away for that long again! Stay tuned for some pictures!

WE MADE IT....

2009-03-25T14:54:00.018-04:00

Funny how having 5 kids age 2 and under changes your perspective on so many things. I, in so many ways, am a long range thinker. I'm usually the type of person who is already thinking today about the appointments, to do lists, etc for next week. But this whole experience has taught me one thing...don't get too far ahead of yourself. Tackle life one day at a time. It's honestly the only way to stay sane and positive in the midst of this craziness we call life these days. It's actually been quite hard for me to accept this (I still have a little of the long range planner in my blood - old habits die hard!) but since February of last year when we found out about the quads, I've learned to try and set short term goals for myself and our family in everything we do so that when we succeed in meeting that goal, it encourages us to push forward and makes even the toughest challenges seem possible. When late October rolled around, I knew the winter was going to be tough.....AND IT WAS. Cold northeastern winters can be miserable and dangerous - especially when you're 4 babies born 3 months early. I swear the walls of this house were beginning to cave in on me! But just when the walls were just about the fall down....SPRING ARRIVED! SPRING, GLORIOUS SPRING! The birds are singing, the air smells sweet and my babies don't have to be dressed up like mummies just to run from the house to the van! I'm so thrilled I can barely stand it! Last week, we finally took the babies out in the quad stroller for it's maiden voyage. Here's just a few pictures from our outting....

John and Claire...

Elizabeth and Kate...

Here's a few of the pictures we had taken by Natalie at Portraits by Natalie (http://www.portraitsbynatalie.com/) in January. I'm so happy to have had these taken so that I can have this time in their lives captured. Check out some of Natalie's beautiful work...

Well folks, I'm one tired mama so it's off to dreamland for me! Take care everyone.........HAPPY SPRING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come on Spring!

2009-03-08T22:32:00.023-04:00

Ahhhh...what an awesome weekend it was weather wise here in Pittsburgh! Saturday was absolutely great.....mild weather in the 60's with a sprinkle of sunshine here and there. Just what we've been waiting for! John and I decided to let the quads go sans clothes for the afternoon and we took a few pics. The one above is one of my favorites. From L to R: John, Claire, Elizabeth and Kate.

The kids are all doing great. Kate is doing a million times better and almost completely back to normal following her recent hospital stay with Bronchiolitis. She is almost back off of the oxygen again and looking GREAT! We need to figure out how to post videos on this blog because she has become the most ridiculous giggle monkey I have ever seen! Her laugh is so funny...because of her poor lungs she sounds like a 20 year chain smoker when she giggles. It is absolutely hysterical! Elizabeth has two teeth in the past week! She has been uncharacteristically cranky later and we suspected that something was up. Sure enough, she cut her two front bottom teeth last week within a few days of each other! She looks so CUTE! Claire is now officially the biggest baby on the block at a whopping 16 pounds! She is so incredibly solid and her beautiful blonde hair is really starting to come in. She is so sweet and pleasant these days...she's really starting to mature. John is so amazing developmentally. He not only rolls from his belly to his back but is now starting to roll from his back to his belly also. He is very alert and eats like a champ! He puts down a 7 oz. bottle every 4 hours and is always looking for more. The developmentalist, Jarrett, who comes to work with the kids each week is amazed at their progress. They aren't only progressing...their thriving and surpassing expectations for 26 weekers!

Luke is so thrilled to see Spring coming! He's just itching to get outside and ride his quad and play on the swings! He's had a rough winter with colds, cabin fever,etc. so I can't wait to get him out in the fresh air. He and Daddy are starting their parent and tot swim lessons this Sat. He loves the water so we'll see how it goes! His vocabulary blows me away and I just can't believe that my little boy is growing up so fast. As with any normal two year old, his new favorite word is NO. I'm trying to showing his the positive benefits of saying YES, but he isn't buying it :)

All in all, life is good!

Here's a few more pics we've taken recently but just haven't had time to post...

Claire Renee enjoying some oatmeal.....(not really, she actually hates it! :)

John Quentin enjoying some oatmeal....(he actually DOES love it! Can't get enough! :)

Elizabeth Avery also hates oatmeal but LOVES John's hand!

Feeding time in the Bumbo chairs...

We love toys!

Big Bro Luke likes the Bumbo chairs too :)

Elizabeth... hiding those two new shiny toofers...

Daddy with Claire and Elizabeth in their stylish new hats! I bought these hats for the photo sessions with Natalie. Aren't they just to die for!

Lady Kate in her lovely hat...

A picture of my big boy John in his cool baseball cap I bought him for the photo session. I actually bought the same one for Luke so they match! You probably can't tell, but the hat has a picture of a yellow lab (just like Sampson!) sitting in a wagon on it. Too cute!!!

Luke and Lizzie...

The gang...

Luke's first time playing in the snow...

Luke THOROUGHLY enjoying his PB&J .....

Well, that's all for now. By the way, the ticker at the bottom of the pages says that our blog has had over 101,000 hits! That is UNBELIEVEABLE! Thanks for taking the time, all of you bloggers, to check in on our family and our amazing story. We love knowing that you're all out there!

Little Kate checks out of Childrens :)

2009-02-16T21:14:00.003-05:00

We're happy to report that after 5 days in Children's Hospital, Kate was released yesterday. She's made a lot of improvement over the past 5 days and although she still has some of the wheezing and crackling sounds in the lungs, she is feeling and looking a lot better. John and I were so anxious for her to be released for so many reasons. Although being there was an absolute necessity and the staff at Childrens is top notch, staying there for a few days is a big risk to a baby in Kate's condition. Kate had a roommate in the first room she was placed in. Her roomie was a 2 month old who had RSV. YES - YOU READ THIS CORRECTLY :) My little peanut with lungs that look like withered branches on a dead tree was rooming with a little baby already confirmed to have RSV. Nuts, right? Especially since Kate had been swabbed for RSV in the E/R and the culture came back negatively. Yahoo, we thought - we dodged the RSV bullet! Yeah, until we got to her room :( There are no partitions or anything separating the two bed spaces - just a flimsy little curtain. The situation was obviously not good, but the hospital was so packed, this was the only room they could offer us after spending 12 hours in the emergency room. After 2 days, they were able to move Kate to a private room and we thanked God for the peace and quiet and improved conditions. John and I took turns staying there with Kate while the other stayed home with the babies. We were obviously also concerned that we could bring some type of virus home with us from the hospital and infect the others with it. So far, everyone seems to be doing OK. We got some sniffles and runny noses here and there but nothing too worrisome so far. We're washing hands like crazy and praying that we all stay healthy :) We have Kate isolated back in our bedroom for the next week. She'll stay there until we can be more sure that she is no longer contagious and has recovered from her virus. Little Kate is back on oxygen again after being off of it full time for over 30 days. You can tell that she absolutely HATES having the cannula back in her nose again, but hopefully it won't be for too long. She's added another medication to her arsenal to help her lungs recover more quickly - so Albuterol is now added to our list. Other than that, she seems to be slowly returning to herself and is even giggling and making silly noises with her mouth. Thank God our little Kate is home again. We sure did miss her and we thank God for putting her on the path to recovery :)

Thanks to each of your for your continued prayers, words of encouragement and support. We love all of you, our extended family, both near and far!

And by the way...we've been meaning to say this for weeks now, but ....

HOW 'BOUT THEM STEELERS!!!!

For those of you who don't know, we're life long Pittsburghers and can't imagine any other place we'd rather live. Football is in your blood if you're from here and as you can imagine, it's been nuts here since the Super Bowl. So as we close for tonight, we'll say so long from SixBurgh!!!! :)

Kate's back in the hospital :(

2009-02-13T15:22:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone....sorry it's been so long since we've had a chance to blog. Things have been hectic around the Lemonovich household these days. Our little Kate has been coughing quite a bit and as of Wednesday she developed a fever that was escalating pretty quickly. After talking with our pediatrician, we decided to take Kate to the E/R to be evaluated. The E/R was ridiculous - there must have been over 60 people crammed into this little waiting room just waiting to get registered. Luckily, we got there just before the rush of people came in and we were escorted to a room quickly. It was amazing...it seemed like every person in the waiting room was holding a child who had the exact same symptoms as Kate. February is such a miserable month in so many ways!!! We waited in the emergency room for 12 hours - the hospital was so packed, it took that long for them to find a room on the main floor for us! Once we finally got settled, they tested her for RSV and fortunately, the test was negative. However, she does have Bronchiolitis which is a virus that seems to have settled in the lungs. She has a deep, chesty cough with some wheezing at this point with lots of nasal congestion and she's not very interested in eating. She's been in the hospital now for a few days and we're hoping that she'll be released sometime this weekend. For now, I have been going into the hospital overnight to care for Kate while John has been home taking care of the other 4 - including getting up with the babies to do their overnight feeding. Have I ever mentioned before that my husband ROCKS?!?!?!?!? My Mom, Dad and our nanny, Helyn, have been taking wonderful care of the kids while I run back and forth to the hospital and John goes to work. We are so fortunate to have such loving, wonderful family, friends and supporters in our lives!

It seems so strange at home without little Kate being here. You'd think that with 5 kids under the age of 2 you wouldn't even notice if one was missing....but you do. Things just aren't the same without Kate being here. Please keep our little peanuts...especially Kate...in your prayers and ask God to restore her to health and that each of us would stay healthy for the remainder of the Winter season. We'll update with any new news on Kate just as soon as we can...

Thanks all!!!

Roll Baby Roll!!!

2009-01-26T16:15:00.013-05:00

Last Wednesday night, I was busy in the kitchen cooking dinner. The babies were in various places around the living room. I had just put Elizabeth on her belly on a blanket on the floor when I went into the kitchen to stir a pot on the stove. I came back into the living room about 2 minutes later and Elizabeth was laying on her back. Hmmmmm.....I asked my Mom and John, "did one of you put Lizzie on her back?" The both said they hadn't flipped her. So I went over and put her back on her belly again and as soon as I did, my little rolly polly rolled right over on her back! YIPPEE!!! I couldn't believe it! John ran to get the video camera while I put her on her tummy again. We taped for the next 10 minutes and wouldn't you know it - that little stinker wouldn't roll over again! So, no video of the big event, but we're thrilled none the less! Not to be outdone, John was laying on his belly in his crib the next day after waking up for a nap when he rolled himself right over from his belly to his back and he's done it again 3 more times. Not wanting to be left out of the action, Claire was laying on her belly on the blanket this morning and she was so upset, that she rolled herself right over! Yep - that's three babies who have rolled over at least once in the last week! I don't think little Kate is all that far behind so we'll let you know when she makes #4!

Claire is starting to pick things up with her hands and of course, everything goes in the mouth!

She really is quite skilled at picking up her rattles, blankets, and especially the soft little blonde haired doll that Grandma bought her for Christmas. Claire also has a real love of her hands and is smiling so much these days. As you can see, she loves to sit on Daddy's lap and suck away while watching a good TV show. When she got weighed the other day by Marcia (our favorite visiting nurse :), Claire tipped the scales at 14 lbs. Unbelieveable!

Kate is working on eating with a new bottle these days. We went through a period here recently where we were having a hard time getting her to eat consistently. Her rhythm was very off and her eating skills seemed to be very disorganized. She would only eat a few ounces and then she would stop and refused to take the bottle back. She's also struggled with bouts of large spit ups on and off since early November. She takes Prevacid and Zantac for the GERD she has which has proven to be a good solution. We consulted with a speech pathologist who specializes in feeding disorders in both children and adults who suggested a few things to try as well as a new bottle and nipple which have worked much better. Despite all of these issues my little Kate is up to 11 lbs, 8 oz. Although she's an inch or two shorter than the others, she is growing by leaps and bounds in so many other ways. She's VERY alert, playful and as of the other day, she loves to giggle when Daddy tickles her under the neck. You just can't help but smile when you look at her! Check out the eyelashes on this little beauty!

Little John is now officially addicted to his thumb.

His thumb has become his new best buddy. When we lay him down in his crib at night to go to sleep, he may fuss a little at first but as soon as we put his thumb in his mouth for him, he is one happy dude! I check on the babies before I go to bed at night and most nights, I'll walk into their room and hear this loud sucking sound. It's always John sucking away, happy as a clam. I've never been a fan of pacifiers - that of course was prior to have quadruplets! Interestingly enough, the babies still like their hands better than an artifical soothers. I guess I'm happy about this, although there are times when I'd give everything I own for them to take a pacifier and be happy! Although my little Kate has by far had the most difficult road since birth, in many ways I think John has made the most remarkable changes physically. Take a look at John in these pictures. This first pictures was taken in the NICU when he was just 11 days old. The second picture is our sweet little boy today at 13 lbs, 2 oz:

Isn't that just amazing? God is good.

Last but certainly not least is Elizabeth. What a sweet girl she is - smiling and giggling all day long. As I said, Elizabeth was the first one to roll over and I believe will be the first one to sit up on her own also. We have a developmentalist that comes to the house once a week to work with the children and I on meeting developmental goals and Elizabeth routinely sets the pace that the others follow. She has amazing head and neck control and yesterday, she did us her hands to tripod herself while sitting upright for a few seconds. Lizzie has started to slow down on eating - John actually weighs more than she does these days - but she's still growing and doing quite well at 12 lbs, 15 oz. Here's a picture of her and her "bro" hanging out naked on some blankets on the floor (poor John always gets stuck laying on the pink blankets or using pink bibs! That's what happens when you're the odd man out with three sisters in a set of quadruplets!)

Another big milestone that we've reached is that each of the babies have slept through the night in the past week. Kate has always been a masterful sleeper - going 6-8 hours easily before waking up to eat. John and Elizabeth in the past week have each gone 8-10 hours before waking up. Claire has always been kind of the "weak link" in the sleep area, getting up every 4-6 hours. I'm thrilled to report that last night, Claire slept for 9 hours before waking up to eat! Yahoo! The babies all loved (and really NEEDED) to be swaddled at first. They needed that sense of closeness that swaddling provides. We no longer swaddle them now, but we do wrap their Swaddle Me blankets around the trunks of their boddies and under their arms to keep them warm at night. I love those things! So....Mommy is one happy camper now that we're getting the sleep thing going!!!

Thanks for checking in with us...I'm going to post the pictures of our photo session with Natalie in the next few days so check back to get a peak.

IS IT SPRING YET?!?!?!?!?!?!?

2009-01-19T22:06:00.007-05:00

OK....I have to admit that I'm starting to get a little stir crazy being in the house all day long during these seemingly LONG winter days. I went three days last week without even stepping foot outside and I think it's starting to get to me a little!!! In my LBFB (Life Before Five Babies!), John and I were very active people - always running here and there, enjoying our "get up and go" lifestyle whenever we wanted. When we were looking to buy our first house, one of our favorite things to do was spend the evening looking online as houses for sale and then going to get a cup of coffee late at night and driving all over Pittsburgh to check out our favorite ones. Ahhhh.....those were the carefree days! Today, the only coffee we have is usually first thing in the morning to wake ourselves up just enough to get the day started and get the bottles made :) Life certainly has changed...but for the better in so many ways. We may not be as active as we once were, but our blessings have multipled - literally! - times 5! I just can't wait for the Spring to come and warmer more pleasant weather. I can't wait to take the kids outside so that they can feel the warm sunshine on their faces instead of bundling them up in their carseats and rushing them in and out of the car everytime we have doctor's appointment! Not to mention the apprehension I feel every time they have to go to the doctor and people stopping to stare at them and wanting to touch them. I always get the ridiculous million questions like "are they ALL yours?" I'm dying to say "No, I stole these four and I've got six more in the car just for fun!" or the ever popular "was this planned?" I still can't figure this question out. Who plans to have four children all at once?!?!?!?

Now that I got that off my chest.....I digress.

Back to my original thought. I've tried to approach our crazy wonderful lives with small, short term goals. One thing I've learned is this: If you approach any big overwhelming situation or obstacle as a whole, you'll get swallowed up by it and you'll be defeated before you even begin. Start by setting small short term goals so that you have small victories which will give you momentum to address the next challenges ahead. This theory has served me pretty well so far. Don't get me wrong...sometimes I eat the bear and somedays the bear eats me! However, I'm proud to say that the Lemonovich crew has been very successful at achieving a lot of our short terms goals. The babies are sleeping about 6-7 hours in the night before waking up around 3:00 for feeding. John and I get up and feed all four in about 1 hour, 15 minutes. The babies - amazingly - eat and go back to sleep almost immediately. This is truly a blessing from God! Once back asleep, they typically sleep for about 4 more hours before waking up for the day. We're getting about 6 -7 hours of sleep right now which is awesome, I think. Anyone who knows me knows just how much I love my sleep and so I thank God tonight for my wonderful sleeping babies!

The babies' growth is really reflected in their eating. We're really starting to pack away the formula these days!!! Claire, Elizabeth and John each eat 5-6 ounces every 4 hours. Kate has been having some difficulty with feeding since early November when she returned home from her 2 week stay in Childrens. She has a difficult time manipulating the nipple correctly which causes her to be really disorganized in her eating skills. We're working on trying some new nipples and using oral stimulation prior to eating to help her overcome this so we're hopeful that we'll get the situation corrected. The babies are growing SO fast! We're going to try and start rice cereal on a spoon for each of them this week. Here's what they weigh as of Sunday:

- Claire - 13 lbs, 10 oz.

- John - 12 lbs, 10 1/2 oz.

- Elizabeth - 12 lbs, 13 oz.

- Kate - 11 lbs, 2 oz.

I swear that Claire looks like a toddler already! She seems so big and she feels so heavy! To watch them all smile, giggle, coo and wiggle is so much fun. Every week is bringing amazing changes. I was looking at the NICU pictures the other day of the morning they were born and it's nothing short of an absolute miracle when you look at them today compared to where they were just 7 months ago. Modern medicine, while imperfect, is a gift from God - PERIOD.

My sweet boy Luke has had Barney birthday party this weekend and had a fabulous time. He talked about the party for days before. He got so many wonderful gifts and got to spend the day with his cousins so it was a hit all the way around! I just can't get over the fact that my first born baby is 2. He is so wonderfully amazing and I love every minute of watching him grow, explore and experience new things for the first time. We bought him his first sled as one of his presents - now if we only had the time to take him outside to give it a try!

We're taking the kids to the Portraits by Natalie studio this weekend for their first official professional pictures! I can't wait! I am absolutely in love with Natalie's work and can't wait to see what she does with all 5 of my little peanuts! I'll glad share some of them here on the blog once Natalie forward them on to me. Check out Natalie's website if you're in the market for beautiful photographs of your family, wedding, etc....www.portraitsbynatalie.com.

I'm also getting ready to make our first major quad purchase. We're going to be buying a quad stroller. Up until now, we've been using two double strollers that we bought second hand, but with Spring approaching and Mommy ready to get out and about, a quad stroller is definitely needed. Here's a picture of the model we're purchasing:

Thanks to the wonderful donations from the students and faculty of Christ Lutheran Church & School in Forest Hills and the VBS students at Calvary Lutheran Church in Murraysville, we are now able to buy this awesome stroller for our little ones! These kids collected spare change, ran laps and various other things to raise money for our family. Is that amazing or what?!?!?! We are humbled by their hard work on our behalf and honored to count these kids, their teachers and families as our friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. THANK YOU!!!

Well...time to sign off for tonight. As of today, only 60 days until the start of Spring! March 21st - here we come! THINK SPRING!!!!

Happy Birthday Luke and Happy New Year!!

2009-01-04T10:24:00.024-05:00

As always there’s not much time to write considering every minute I stay awake now that the babies are all sleeping is one minute less of sleep before they all wake up to eat!!!

First things first…Happy Birthday to the apple of our eye Luke! Today marked his second Birthday and what a wonderful big brother he’s growing to be. Luke is so inquisitive, speaks like crazy in full sentences, deduces things that are amazing, he’s so playful, and so seemingly grown up! He’s also starting to be a big helper. Tonight while we were trying to get the babies fed and to bed Lukie was going over to our dearest screamer Claire Bear, and waved a big balloon in front of her saying “Look Claire…Look Claire” and Claire would stop screaming for a moment to check out what Luke was doing… thanks buddy!! Mysteriously enough sometimes it's like he holds things together and keeps us laughing.

Just the boys hangin' out on the couch:

Luke now asks to hold the babies (and by name too…sometimes the wrong name ..he he) and he holds them while petting their head and saying "nice baby…nice baby". He does this for about 20 seconds and then he’s done with them and wants to go do his thing. Unfortunately for his Birthday he’s not feeling the greatest but his big Barney party is this Saturday and we hope he’s feeling much better then.

As we look back and reflect on 2008 it was by far the most difficult, emotional, stressful, nerve-racking, and yet most rewarding year of our lives – all at the same time. So much of it seems to just be a complete blur. When I look back at the pictures of Carrie during the pregnancy and the pictures of the babies in the NICU and how seemingly fragile and vulnerable they were, it’s like a dream. We are forever indebted to so many people who helped us and continue to help us on a regular basis. It’s peculiar to look at the babies now and think back to how many times the circumstances sounded insurmountable – especially in the beginning of the pregnancy and throughout the whole year with Kate. Thanks be to God for the health of our babies and for keeping us strong and granting us patience!! (we need lots and lots of that) BTW – look at Kate now!

She can go for longer periods of time now with NO oxygen and no monitors!! It’s weird to carry her around and not have her rats nest of wires attached. She stares at you so intently when you hold her or feed her. All the babies are starting to coo and make various noises and even laugh. Lizzy smiles away and babbles and even lets a big giggle out here and there. I’ve tried to catch this on my camera as a video clip to upload on the blog…but no such luck. All the babies seem to know precisely when I get out the camera or camcorder as they abruptly stop whatever they’re doing that’s cute or interesting. The quads just had their first homecoming back to the hospital where they were born for their first developmental check-up and we are pleased to report they are doing very well. With this visit being the first data point and not much to see a trend the doctors and developmental specialist where pleased to see how they have thrived and to see that they are well into the percentiles of their adjusted age. The next step is to see them moving more toward the percentiles of their chronological age (in other words catching up to a full term baby with the same due date). Claire was the most “advanced” and got the highest marks while Kate was the lowest in percentiles for SOME aspects but as always, the doctors keep telling us to NOT compare her to our others and that she is doing just fine. As for their current weights Claire (by now since her last weigh-in) should be over 13 lbs while Elizabeth and little Quinny (aka the Goat Man) are just over 12 lbs and under 12lbs, respectively. Kate is starting to have some nice weight gains and should be pushing 11 lbs!! I need sleep so sorry to cut this short.

Some miscellaneous pics from 2008:

Carrie during the first trimester with the quads:

Carrie at about 12 weeks with the quads:

Carrie at just under 2 weeks from delivery:

Luke with Poppy enjoying the view:

Luke loved this swing last summer (as you can see):

Luke and cousin Jack for Halloween:

A couple recent pics:

Grandma, Claire, and Quinny:

Claire (upside down) and Lizzie:

The whole crew with Luke as the leader (who loves to say cheese and smile big):

Goodnight for now and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours...

2008-12-22T22:51:00.003-05:00

Life has been so utterly crazy around our house the past few weeks, that I haven't even had a chance to sit down at the computer and compose a new post. However, I wanted to take just a quick moment to stop and wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas. We are blessed beyond measure by each of you and the love and support you have shown our family. We have some great new photos to share but now that we're doing all of the overnight feedings on our own, I've got to get to bed! So we'll post them in the next few days. Until then...

From our family to yours....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Where does the time go????

2008-12-09T22:33:00.002-05:00

I can hardly believe it's December already. I have no idea where the past six months have gone. Time is just flying by these days! I can't believe that the babies will be six months old already on Christmas Eve. They are growing so quickly and are changing so much each and every day. All four babies are now cooing, babbling and smiling. It's so beautiful to see and hear! Elizabeth is especially chatty - she just loves to talk and giggle! She is one of the happiest babies I have every seen! Claire is also quite the chatterbox. She loves to make sounds that sound like an owl "who who-ing" and has aquired a real love of her hands. She is constantly searching for her hands and sucking on them any chance she gets! John is really starting to come out of his quiet little shell. His smile just lights up a room and his eyes are so big and bright. I swear they are turning a little lighter blue with each passing day. He also has a fresh crop of dark brown hair sprouting all over his head so he's really starting to look much more mature these days. Kate is also starting to grow and blossom. She is so alert and curious about everything. I bought Luke a large Barney balloon last week and of the babies love looking at it, but especially Kate. She tracks that balloon all over the living room for hours. That's pretty amazing when you remember that Kate had to have laser eye surgery because of her serious retinopathy condition just a few months ago. Kate is also starting to babble and smile and is a very contented baby.

Here's the latest weights of our little quaddies:

Claire - 11 lbs, 6 oz.
Elizabeth - 11 lbs, 1 1/2 oz.
John - 10 lbs, 9 oz.
Kate - 9 lbs., 7 0z.

As you can see, everyone continues to grow nicely. I was looking through some of my notes the other day and we are averaging somewhere around 32 bottles per day and around 200 diapers per week. Those numbers are just crazy! The babies are sleeping well also - they sleep for periods of 4-5 hours at a time during the night which is good news for when we start to do the overnights by ourselves in January.

Luke is really getting into the holiday season. John and I took him to cut down a Christmas tree this past Saturday and he had a blast! He and John spent Sunday afternoon decorating it and tonight, they put up the train around the base of it. Luke is absolutely in love with trains. He spent all night running around the house saying "we put up the choo choo train! we put up the choo choo train!" He still doesn't get the whole Santa Claus thing, but he's starting to get that there are presents involved! I cannot get over how much he has matured in the past 6 months. He is talking SO much and in beautiful, complete sentences a lot of the time. He started counting to 10 a few weeks ago and just blows me away with how much he absorbs. He loves the babies and rarely shows any jealousy towards them. He told me he wanted to kiss Kate today, so I let him kiss her on the head and he said afterwards "nice Katie, nice Katie". How precious!

I'm off to bed everyone....I'm beat! We'll try and post some new pictures again soon! Take care all!!!

Whew...it's been awhile!!!

2008-11-20T22:56:00.014-05:00

Hey all...it's hard to believe that we haven't posted a blog in 15 days! It seems like just yesterday! Time is flying by so quickly...I can hardly believe that next week, the quaddies will be 5 months old!

We're slowly getting back into the swing of things around the Lemonovich household. Kate was in the hospital for 2 weeks. The RSV swab that was taken came back negative but she definitely had a virus of some sort that sidelined her for awhile. She was one sick little girl. We're happy to say that Kate is back home now and doing pretty well. We recently saw a pulmonologist who diagnosed Kate with bronchiomalacia, GERD and a few other less significant conditions. She is currently taking 2 medications through a nebulizer and takes Zantac for the GERD. She is still on oxygen and an apnea monitor. She is looking much better these days and seems to be breathing a little easier. Kate is so very laid back and sweet. I can't believe everything this little girl has gone through and she is just as pleasant as can be. Our MAGNIFICENT visiting nurse, Marcia, comes every 3-4 days to check on the babies, weigh them, listen to their lungs, etc. I don't know what I'd do without her - other than go crazy with worry! I feel so much better knowing that they've been seen and evaluated and Marcia just adores these little "lovebugs", as she calls them!

All four babies continue to amaze us with their growth, increasing alertness and overall cuteness :) Claire is now officially the biggest girl on the block with Elizabeth trailing and close second and even little John is beefing up! Here's the tail of the tape as of a few days ago:

Claire: 10 lbs, 5.5 oz.

Elizabeth: 10 lbs, 1 oz.

John: 9 lbs, 6 oz.

Kate: 8 lbs, 8 oz.

It's so amazing to see them begin to smile these days. Any smiles they may have given us before were due to muscle twitches or gas! Today, they smile when you tickle under their chin or shake a rattle that they like. They still sleep around 18-20 hours a day but that's even starting to slowly change. Everyone LOVES a bath, except Kate. She cries from the moment you take off her diaper until you redress her. The babies are eating anywhere from 3 oz. to 4 1/2 (Claire is a horse this day - we're definitely in the midst of a growth spurt at sometimes she'll eat 5-6 oz!) They typically eat about every four hours and their nighttime feedings are going pretty well. Nanny Fran is still caring for them during the weeknights through January and John and I are doing the weekends. We'll start doing 7 nights a week in January - PRAY FOR US! :) I'm not sure what we'll do or how we'll do it once everyone starts teething!!! YIKES!

Luke is doing great! My goal all along has been to keep him so busy that he doesn't even know that 4 babies have invaded our household and our lives and believe it or not, it's been pretty successful so far! I've tried to make a concerted effort to spend as much time with him as possible and schedule activities for him with some of his friends, Poppy, cousins Jack, Augie and Same and his "best buddy" Mrs. Barb. He is honestly having the time of his life and it makes my heart smile to see him enjoying himself so much. He occasionally has one of his "put the baby down and pay attention to me" moments, but for the most part, Luke is awesome. He is OBSESSED with Barney (I actually sing along with all of the songs everytime we watch the video!) and we're beginning to start potty training. Wish me luck on this! I can't believe my little baby boy will turn 2 on January 7th. I just love him to death.

We have a few pictures that we'd like to share of the kids, but before we do, I'd like to make a prayer request on behalf of two wonderful men that our family knows quite well who have recently received the difficult news that they are battling cancer. Bill Phillips is the husband of my Mom's cousin, Nancy. Bill is a wonderful man with a big smile and an even bigger heart. Bill not only found out about the cancer diagnosis, but also found out about a serious heart issue in the process. He underwent a 5-bypass heart surgery recently and so far, is doing quite well. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nancy (one of my WONDERFUL volunteers!!!) and their daughters Amy and Courtney. The second gentleman I'd ask you to keep on your prayer list is David Hutula. David and his wife Mary are a fantastic couple from our church. Dave is an Elder and Mary is the dynamo behind MANY volunteer projects - not to mention the amazing organizer of all of the meals that have been donated to us (she's made more than a few of those meals herself!) Dave had been diagnosed some time ago with cancer and has recently had some additional news that the cancer may have spread to the spine. Please join me in praying that God would bless each of these men with good health, peace of mind and spirit and comfort in knowing that our God, the Great Physician, is right beside them through these difficult times.

And now for the pics...

John sleeping so sweetly...

Lizzie chillin' with the pacifier...

Claire catchin' some zzzzzzz's...

Elmer Fudd's long lost brother...

Lizzie and Kate having fun on the play mat...

Sweet baby Kate...

Claire :)...

Lizzie...

The first born...

Good night!

A quick update on Kate and the "sick ward"...

2008-11-05T22:51:00.004-05:00

Sorry that we haven't had time to post more lately folks but the Lemonovich house is quickly beginning to look like a sick ward! We've all been suffering from the stuffy nose/sore throat/cough thing and just can't seem to shake it. John, Luke and I have definitely been under the weather but so far - thanks to wearing surgical masks 24 hours a day and using LOTS of hand santizer! - John, Claire and Elizabeth seem to be symptom free! My Mom, Dad and even our Nanny Fran have caught the bug. We've been trying to air out the house over the past few days with all of the beautiful weather to let some fresh air in and clean things out. Hopefully it will work!

Kate is still in the hospital but is definitely making improvement. Her lung on the one side had collapsed and she was initially put back on a CPAP machine and her feeding tube was reinserted through her nose. She WAS NOT a happy camper about this. After some testing, the doctors don't believe that she had RSV, but they do feel that she did have some type of unidentified virus. As I said, she's definitely doing better these days and is now back on just a nasal cannula and is again feeding from a bottle. They are hoping to move her out of the IICU unit soon and send her back to private room on the regular care floor. The past 4-5 days have been so hard because we've all been sick so we haven't been able to go in and visitor our sweet baby girl. With that said, I guess I'm actually happy that she's in the hospital for right now while all of us are sick. Hopefully we can all get well so that we can be healthy and fresh for when she does come home.

Well, I'm off to bed with my Zycam in one hand and my Breathe Right strips in the other! Take care every one and may good health be yours!!!!

RSV Season...Things our Friends and Family Need to Know!

2008-10-28T13:32:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone...

RSV season is now officially upon us and has already begun to hit the Lemonovich Family (PLEASE SEE JOHN'S POST BELOW ABOUT KATE AND HER HOSPITALIZATION). RSV is a very important matter, especially to premature, low birth weigh infants such as ours. For those of you who have thought about visiting us, our family and volunteers who lovingly come daily or weekly to help with the babies and even those of you who live far away who have no intentions of stopping by, please take just a few minutes to read this post.

We want to start by saying thank you for the outpouting of support we have received from everyone. So many people have done so much for us, and every bit of help we have received truly is appreciated. We are experiencing the biggest challenge of our lives and we're lucky to be surrounded by so many family members and friends who have shown us so much love and support.

We'd also like to share an important topic that we recently discussed with our babies' pediatrician following John's recent diagnosis of bronchiolitis and Kate's current hospitalization. If you are not aware of RSV, respiratory syncytial virus, you are among the majoirty. Most people have not heard of RSV, even though nearly every child has had the virus by age two. For full term babies, RSV typically is not any worse than a common cold, but for preemies, the virus can be quite different. Babies born earlier than 36 weeks (the quads were born at 26 weeks, 6 days) are at the highest risk for serious complications like pneumonia, bronchiolitis and other sometimes fatal complications. This website offers a great visual comparison of a preemie's lungs compared to the lumgs of a full term baby: http://www.preemiecare.org/LungsTrees03-4.pdf

Preventing the spread of RSV is very difficult. Thus, we must be vigilant about keeping the babies safe during RSV season - October through April. The virus is spread through physical contact, in the air via a cough or sneeze, or by touching an infected object. The virus can live as long as six hours on the hands and up to twelve hours on objects, and it spreads very easily, especially from child to child. Studies have also shown that infants post an even higher risk of spreading RSV to others.

You may ask, "Can't they fight it off and build up their immune system? Kids need to get sick, right?" The simple answer is NO. Since our babies were pre-term, they did not acquire the necessary immunities to fight off infection. If they contract RSV, they could be hospitalized (as Kate is now) and develop serious complications.

Keeping the babies illness free for the entire period will be a near impossible task, especially with Big Brother Luke constantly trying to "love up" on them by kissing and hugging them. However, we are asking any necessary visitors or our volunteers to follow a few guidelines to help prevent the babies from contracting RSV or any other illnesses.

We ask that all visitors do the following:

1. When you arrive, please take your shoes off at the door so as not to track and dirt, slush from the snow, etc. onto the carpets.

2. Please always be sure to wash your hands with hot, soapy water and use hand sanitizer as needed before touching each of the babies.

3. Please refrain from coming over if you are currently sick and have not been symptom-free for at least 5 days, if you live with someone who is sick, or have been in close contact with someone who is sick.

4. If you smoke, we aks that you change your clothing and refrain from smoking prior to visiting, as a preemie's lungs are very sensitive to smoke.

5. If you are parents to a baby or toddler, PLEASE refrain from bringing them to our house during RSV season.

It will be difficult for us to attend many public events during the RSV season. Our goal is to make it through this season with as little exposure to RSV or any other illnesses as possible.

Please, please, please understand that this post isn't meant to offend anyone or imply in any way that we don't completely appreciate all of the love, good wishes and acts of kindness that have been done on our behalf. For right now though, the babies and their health is the most important thing.

If you have any questions about RSV or whether or not you should come to the house to visit, volunteer, etc., please don't hesitate to contact me via email @ carrielw33@hotmail.com.

Love and good health to you all!

Kate has a slight setback...lands back in hospital

2008-10-28T09:29:00.007-04:00

It seems like everyone is getting sick and our babies are especially susceptible to sickness, namely respiratory viral infections, and last week Luke came down with something that sounded like it was in his chest/throat. Despite our efforts to isolate him from the babies, each baby started with nasal stuffiness and a nasty cough. We took baby John to the hospital last week as his cough seemed especially bad. He was diagnosed with bronchiolitis, a common illness, especially in infants that is most likely caused by Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). He was given no antibiotics since it is a viral infection and they only work for bacterial infections. Trying to keep the others from getting it is pretty much a losing battle and sure enough Kate started with the symptoms before the weekend and seemed to worsen each day.

Kate has been fighting her chronic lung disease since the NICU and her "weak" lungs make her even more susceptible to illness. Kate seemed to get a little worse each day until Sunday night (in the middle of the night) Kate had a big choking episode and apnea and even a bradycardia. A special thanks to Fran, our nanny, for reacting calmly, sensibly, and in such a prompt way as the timing was critical once the choking started and went on from there. As you could imagine it was very scary and she was taken by ambulance to Children’s hospital where she is stabilized and they are monitoring her closely and providing treatment. From what we understand it sounds like she will be there for at least a week or so until they get her back on track with her breathing and eating. Whether the bronchiolitis is caused by RSV or influenza or other, her treatment is the same. They are giving her fluids to keep hydrated, increased O2, some steroid treatment, and monitoring her closely. Hopefully some of her CHP NICU friends can come and visit her while she’s there!

We pray for Kate and that God would hold her in his hands as she fights through another battle and we pray that she can come back home soon. We will be posting soon some information/restrictions on visitations and hand-washing, etc… now that RSV season has started and presents a serious risk to our babies.

Pictures of Luke among the nuthouse...

2008-10-22T19:40:00.010-04:00

As a follow-up to yesterday's post - what does Luke think about everything amongst all the chaos??...this picture sums it up :)

Luke is an excellent big brother so far! He "helps" us by always trying to give them his food, or shove binkys into their mouths, or give them a little rock if they're in the swing. This evening Luke was going to give Claire just a little push in her swing (okay it was more than a little push - he pulled it all the way up and was about to let go as we caught him!). He loves them very much though and he kisses each one before he goes to bed. He also still likes to say "nice baby... nice baby". In the midst of being so busy, in some ways Luke is more entertained now than ever before as so many of our wonderful friends & family come to play with him, and Luke often plays with his cousins. He especially asks for his cousin Jack as he sees him the most and is close in age to him. Our friend Natalie ("Portraits by Natalie" - see the link on our main page) takes fantastic pictures and recently took a few when 3 of the babies were home (minus Kate) and Luke. She is going to take more and we'll post them but here is one she already took of Luke:

I just wanted to write a little about Luke with what little "free time" I had so that's all for tonight - hope to post again soon.

Pictures from the Nuthouse courtesy of the Head Nuts!

2008-10-21T22:33:00.012-04:00

OK, so I said 10 days ago "I'll post some pictures of Kate's homecoming tomorrow". As you can clearly see, that never happened. Ahhh....life is so incredibly "full" these days at the Lemonovich household. The babies are doing very well - everyone is growing and getting so big! It's amazing to think that they were once so incredibly small. My Mom's cousin, Nancy, came over the other day for her volunteer shift and she brought us a small wooden sign shaped like an acorn with a small squirrell on it that said "Welcome to The Nuthouse". It couldn't be more appropriate!

Poppy Wible has assigned each of the babies their now famous nicknames so I'll use them as I give you updates on how each is doing:

Kate "The Slurper" Lemonovich is doing SO well at home. She has some occasional alarms with her apnea monitor but we're slowly getting used to it and not jumping into "panic mode" when it does go off. As hard as it is to believe, she's probably the most average baby out of the four! She eats well about every 4 to 4 1/2 hours, sleeps like a dream, and has a very pleasant disposition. She even stools once a day which is amazing when you remember what she's been through surgically since she was born! She acquired her nickname because she loves to slurp down her bottles in record time and she burps quietly like a dreamboat! I think she's still decompressing from her hospital stay - although I think the NICU was actually more quiet than our house!

John "The Goat Man" is also looking much older and mature these days as you'll see in the pictures below. He's up over 7 lbs. and despite some minor reflux and major gas pain issues, John is one sweet boy. John's nickname is obvious is you've ever been around him for more than five minutes. When he stretches or wakes up from a nap, he makes this gentle nanny goat sound that is absolutely hysterical! John has actually captured it on video and when we finally figure out how to upload videos on to the blog, we'll be sure to post it.

Elizabeth "Lizzie The Spitter" Lemonovich is one pleasant baby. Lizzie honestly doesn't make a sound unless she REALLY needs something. She lays on her boppy pillow and smiles or stretches and has the sweetest disposition of any baby I've ever seen. Lizzie has got to be close to 9 lbs. these days. She eats like a champ but as her nickname indicates, she's good for at least one big projectile spit-up a week. Tonight, for example, she spit up her entire 3 oz. bottle over John's shoulder and onto our sofa! The best part is - she doesn't even make a whimper when she's done! She just smiles and waits for you to feed her more.

Claire "The Screamer" Lemonovich is also affectionately known to us a "Lungs". The nicknames should be self-explanatory. Claire is so incredibly sweet and adorable. It's hard to believe just by looking at her that one minute she'll be completely happy and the next minute she is screaming her lungs out! Claire suffers from some wicked acid reflux and gas. I feel so bad for my little pumpkin because it's evident that sometimes, she's really uncomfortable. I wish there was something we could do that would ease her pain - believe me, we've tried every product, bottle, nipple and homeopathic remedy that they make - but sometimes, babies just fuss and you have to ride out the storm. Despite all of this, Claire is a precious little baby and we love her to death.

Well, it's time for bed but I'll leave you with a few pics of the babies to close out the evening. Good night and God bless!

Momma Bear with all of her cubs :)

Elizabeth and John squeeze in some snuggle time...

Beautiful Kate...

Group nap!!!

Kate's homecoming day...FREE AT LAST!!!

Lizzie gettin' some love from Grandma Wible...

Claire whispering secrets to John..."if you just scream a little louder, she comes running much faster!!!"

The Screamer and The Spitter team up as the newest Dynamic Duo!!!

Kate comes home...

2008-10-12T22:25:00.002-04:00

It seems as though I should have a much more thrilling title for this post than just simply "Kate comes home", but there are no words that can accurately describe the joy that we feel, so best just to keep it simple. At 4:00 this afternoon, brave, feisty, beautiful little Kate Lemonovich came home. She is on a very small amount of oxygen and has an apnea monitor, but that's it. She is doing so incredibly well. It's hard to believe that this little peanut was just 1 lb. 4 oz at birth. As of her discharge today, she is a pleasantly plump 6 lbs, 13 oz. I cannot share how amazing it is to see her with John, Claire and Elizabeth FINALLY! Seeing them all together with big brother Luke today made me totally "get" Jerry McGuire's famous line....my kids and my husband "complete me". Life got a little sweeter today just by looking at our family of 7 and seeing just how lucky we are.

In all honesty....I am totally exhausted. This is the best and toughest job I have ever had and ever will have, but we love it. There are days that we don't stop laughing and some days when all I want to do is cry. I'm going to hit the hay for tonight but tomorrow, I'll do my best to post some homecoming pictures, pictures of all four babies together and also post some pics of our sweet new conversion van. Oh yeah, my friends...can you say Scooby Doo's "Mystery Machine" with a fold down leather sofa and DVD player???

Until tomorrow then....

Carrie
(Chief Nut of the Lemonovich Nut Farm!)

The original due date passes and Kate pictures

2008-09-24T23:29:00.014-04:00

This was written last week on 09/24/2008 but we're just now getting the time to complete the post and get the pictures of precious Kate!

It's hard to believe that we are just now at the 40 week due date for the quads which brings into perspective their prematurity. All is going well and we're slowly adjusting to the busyness and chaos of our new lives. We'll take it any day as these babies are so precious and cuddly! Keeping up with who needs what when is quite the challenge but my wife Carrie is all over this. She has a huge dry erase board to write things down and a binder with entries of who ate what when, who got vitamins when, when they last stooled, etc... etc... Sometimes whichever baby is in the queue is getting restless waiting their turn to feed so Carrie and I have developed some skill in feeding/burping two at once! Although we're realizing that Luke is picking up on knowing when we're both feeding and has free reign to get into things.

John Claire and Elizabeth had a doctor's appointment today with their favorite and our favorite :) pediatrician Dr. Hennessy. He said they look great and he looked at some specific things on each of them. He gave us some things to adjust in their diet to get their bowels moving and some various other things to work on.

So anyway their due date weights are:

John - 5lb 15oz

Claire 6lb 12oz

Elizabeth 7lb 2oz

Kate 6lb 2oz (Can you believe this - it's almost 5 times her birth weight??!!)

As promised here are some pictures of Kate taken last week:

Kate actually doesn't have the tape on her face anymore since she gets all bottle feedings now! So she's left with just the nasal cannula for her O2:

The nurses had propped her up while she was awake and had some fun (read the sign and the cup has $$$ on it)

On a lighter note, we thought we'd post some humor. If you remember back to posts when we were in the "telling people" phase that we mentioned the funny/strange responses one receives when you tell them we're pregnant with quadruplets!

And the top 5 responses are:

5. Dude what are you gonna do...dude?...oh man...dude? what are you gonna do? This goes on for 5 minutes straight. (carpet guy)

4. ---------------------- This one is just blank because one common response is for people to be outright speechless completely.

3. Was this planned? (bank teller - I guess this was his way of asking if we actually asked the doctor to please give us four babies???)

2. Are you serious?...wait... how many is that? (plumber)

1. So was this induced? (what does this even mean???)

We're beat...good night!

An update and some pictures

2008-09-22T22:37:00.025-04:00

A glimpse into our new life...

Sweet baby John chillin' on the couch...

Elizabeth, Daddy and Luke...

Claire stylin' in some of her new duds...

Daddy multi-tasking with John and Elizabeth...

The boys hanging out in the "man room" watching some tube...

Mommy cuddling with Elizabeth while she says her prayers...

Daddy and his crew...

The gang...minus Kate :(

Luke lovin' up on sister Elizabeth...

Elizabeth....

John...

Mommy with Elizabeth and Barney in the background!

It's certainly getting tough to find time to give updates, take pictures, or even relax and watch a Steeler game :) but it is so worth it every time you hold one of these precious babies. In some ways the last 9 months have been painfully long and slow yet at the same time it's all a blur and here we are! From the day we found out about the quads to the days praying to make it another week in the pregnancy, to their birth and the roller-coaster ride in the NICU - I can't believe where we're at and where we've come from.

To reiterate Carrie's thoughts in the last post we can not thank everyone enough for all the help in so many different ways. We laugh now and think back to the initial worries after we found out of "how are we going to take care of all the babies and Luke?", "how will we handle taking them to lots of doctor's appointments?", "how will we handle the financial impact?" "how will we have time for anything??" I could go on forever about this but all I can say is that we have been blessed beyong belief with each other, our beautiful babies, and all the eager and willing helpers. I won't even start mentioning names for fear of missing someone! For each and every worry there has been an equal and perfectly adequate blessing bestowed upon us.

It's amazing to watch them all grow and notice the different personalities even at this early point in their lives. John and Elizabeth are both pretty laid back, especially the chunky monkey Elizabeth. Except for some occasional gas they're so content and John still seems so small although he's gaining steadily. Claire lets the whole worls know the instant she wants fed, changed or tended to in general. Let's just say she has a set of lungs on her! They're really doing well and Claire was cleared of her ROP (Retinopothy of Prematurity) last week (it had resolved from stage I)!

And last but not least our little Kate (who's not so little anymore) is doing well at AGH. The doctors and nurses are taking great care of her and she's coming along with bottle feedings and with her breathing. We found out last week that she has ROP stage III with "Plus" which, in short and to the best of my limited understanding, is a condition with her eyes caused by being given high levels of oxygen for so long to sustain her. The optomologist has recommended a laser surgery on both eyes that is really preventative so that it does not progress and cause permanent vision impairment. This surgery is happening tomorrow late afternoon so we pray that the surgery is successful. This is our little fighter's latest hurdle but I think she'll do fine again. Courtney - she misses you!

We can't wait to get them all together to take pictures of the whole crew and we'll soon get some recent pics of Katie.

Greetings from Crazy Town!!!

2008-09-15T11:32:00.005-04:00

I feel like it's been six years since I wrote my last post! Life is so incredibly "full" these days with roughly 24 diapers to change daily, 24 bottles to make and feed in a day, 6 doctors appointments in 13 days, laundry out the wazoo...and that's just for the quads! BUT....life is good and we're enjoying every minute of it (well, almost every minute!) John, Luke and I are getting used to having the babies here and they are getting used to us. Each baby definitely has a very distinct personality - Elizabeth is incredibly peaceful and laidback. Such a sweetheart! John is reserved and quiet but lets you know when he's not happy which isn't all that often. Claire is a masterful eater and pleasant but she wants what she wants when she wants it (sound like anyone else you might know?!?!?!) I don't think any of them look alike but there personalities make them all the more different. Fran, our nanny, has been coming in the evenings for the past week and watching them over night so that John and I can get some sleep. This has been an absolute Godsend and one of the best decisions that have made so far. I have a chance to get some rest so that I can be bright eyed and bushtailed during the day time for Luke and the babies. At the end of the day, I'm ready to crash so having Fran take the reins from 10pm until morning is a real blessing. To hear the babies at night "talking" amongst themselves is a riot! It sounds exactly like a barnyard - no joke! Each one of them sounds like a different animal- John is definitely a horse making his sweet little "neigh, neigh, neigh" noises. Elizabeth is the billy goat with her "whaa, whaa, whaa" sounds and Claire is the duck with her "quacks". It's hysterical! During the daytime, Fran's daughter Helyn comes to help 2 mornings a week and the rest of the week is filled with the helping hands of my fantastic volunteer group, the Diaper Darlings. My sister Susie has done such a wonderful job of assembling a fantastic team of ladies who come to the house in various shifts to help with the babies and Luke. Speaking of Luke, he's doing pretty well with the babies so far. He still touches their heads and says "nice babies" and loves to rub his cheek against their soft furry heads, but every once in awhile the jealousy gets the best of him and he gets very whiny and wants Mom to put the babies down and hold him. He was saying "Mom no go!" and crying quite a bit this weekend. It just breaks my heart. Luke and I are so attached to each other and for so long, it was only he and I playing together all day. Now, I'm sharing that attention with three others (soon to be four) and it doesn't always sit well with him. Grandma and Poppy have been keeping him busy and he has been spending some time playing with cousins Jack and Augie. All in all, little Luke is hanging in there and doing pretty good. Keep him in your prayers!

I also have to mention some of the other amazing people who have offered their time to help us during this transition time. Mary Hutula who has organized all of the delicious meals that have been delivered to us has been absolutely amazing. I'd also like to mention sweet Dottie Heslop who comes to pick up the babies laundry twice a week. What a huge help this has been! What more can I say other than we are blessed beyond words.

Finally, I want to end this post with a question for each of you...do you believe in miracles? If you don't, then please start at that very first post we ever wrote back in April and read all of the posts since that time up until this one and ask yourself the question again. John and I are thrilled to share some great news with you. Our fourth baby, sweet baby Kate, is not only no longer on her ventilator, she is now only on a nasal cannula of oxygen. This amazing child who only two weeks ago was still desaturating constantly and had a chest x-ray just full of haziness as a result of her chronic lung disease, is not only improving, but SHE IS THRIVING! I went to the hospital last night to check on her and I cried when I saw her. Not because there was anything wrong, but because everything was finally right. I looked and her and it was the first time I actually got to see her face - no tape, endless tubes, head gear, lead wires. It was just her beautiful sweet little face, smooth dark brown hair and beautiful soft brown eyes. Having a child in the NICU is TOUGH - emotionally, physically, mentally - but by the grace of God, we have persevered and reached the point where we can finally exhale. Don't get me wrong, we aren't out of the woods yet, but the forest isn't quite as thick as we once feared it might be. We don't always understand the what's and why's of life, but I KNOW that God holds each of us in the palm of his hand and no matter what, we can be assured of His love for us and that His plan is perfect. John and I are so grateful to God for these miracles and we pray that their lives will glorify the name of our God in every way possible. So when you pray tonight, thank God for His miracles.

AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD! Joshua 24:15

More pictures to come soon...I PROMISE!!!

A few pictures from yesterday's homecoming...

2008-09-08T22:52:00.008-04:00

Luke and I with Elizabeth, John and Claire...

Elizabeth (L), John (Center), Claire (R)...

My man John wrapped up like a sausage in his swaddler...

The ladies co-bedding in their crib - Elizabeth (top), Claire (bottom)

Claire (L), Elizabeth (R)...

Kate made is safe and sound to AGH today. She's doing well and the doctors are going to give her a day or 2 to acclimate. We'll keep you updated!

Holy babies Batman!!!

2008-09-07T23:14:00.002-04:00

I'll apologize in advance for how short this post is, but John and I have got our hands full - LITERALLY! - caring for three babies! Yep folks, you read that correctly - we've now got 3 babies at home! YIPPPEEEE!

John Quentin and Elizabeth Avery came home today just in time for the Steelers season opener! We got a call from the nurse practioner at AGH on Friday saying that both little peanuts were doing well and were ready to join Claire here at home. We picked them up around 11am and brought them home to meet Luke. When we brought the babies up the stairs in the car seats Luke smiled and looked us like, "come on guys, you can't be serious!" I didn't have the heart to tell him there will be another one coming hopefully someday soon!!! To tell you the truth though, Luke has done pretty well so far. My darling little boy just runs around the house and says "babies, babies, babies"! John got him out of his crib this morning and "babies" was the first word out of his mouth. It's still early, but so far, so good!

John and I can't over how quickly the day goes. It seems like all we did today was change diapers and clothes and feed bottles- just as soon as you get one set of feedings done, it's time to start all over again! Grandma and Poppy came over to see our little bundles of joy and Grandma was a huge help in getting us organized, not just today but over the past 2 months. She has washed every piece of clothing, organized everything by size and then put everything in bins in the kids closets. Absolutely amazing - my Mom is a real dynamo. I'm not sure what we'd have done without her!

As for little Kate, we thrilled to say that she is returning to AGH tomorrow. She is doing wonderfully on her feeds. She gets about 1 oz. every three hours and has been dramatically weaned on her ventilator over the past week - so much so that they are hoping to possibly extubate her this week once she gets to AGH. We will be so ecstatic to finally see her off of this machine! We'll keep you posted on how she does after the move. As excited as we are to see her return to AGH, it's bittersweet in a way because we absolutely love the nursing staff at Childrens and will really miss them. They have been so supportive of us and have taken such amazing care of Kate. Courtney, Brianne, Adrienne, Joedda, Tamika and all of the other wonderful men and women on the nursing staff have been a godsend to us and we're so thankful that they were there for us when we and Kate needed them most.

We took some pictures of the homecoming today but in all honesty, we're too pooped to download them tonight! it's 11:30 and we've got to go to bed because we have to be up at 1:00 again to start the feedings all over. So, we'll try to post the pictures tomorrow. For now, it's time for some sleep...

WELCOME HOME BABY CLAIRE!

2008-09-02T23:32:00.013-04:00

What an exciting day for the Lemonovich clan! We got the good news yesterday that baby Claire was ready to come home. The past 9 months have been so incredibly difficult and challenging in so many ways, but news that one of our children would be able to finally came home made all of that a distant memory. We picked Claire up today around 1:00 from the hospital. After nearly an hour of getting directions on her care, changing her clothes, getting her set up in her car seat, etc. we were finally ready to head home. I looked back at Elizabeth and John and just started to cry. Even in the midst of my joy at being able to bring Claire home, I was so sad that John, Elizabeth and Kate couldn't come too. John was laying on his side in his isolette with his bright eyes wide open looking at me like "can I come too Mommy? Pick me, pick me!" It near broke my heart! I take comfort though in knowing that they are doing very well and will be coming home soon, so we left the babies in good hands with the nursing staff for a little while longer.

Claire left the NICU weighing 5 lbs, 8 oz. She eats just over 1 oz. every 3 hours. The only "medication" she needs is her infant vitamin supplement. She breathes very well on her own and didn't need to come home with any monitors. When we arrived home, we were greeted by big brother Luke. I was very suprised and so greatly relieved at how well Luke responded to Claire. He went over and stroked her quite a few times and kept saying "niiiiiccccceeee baby!" He also kept trying to put her pacifier in her mouth which was very sweet. We spent the afternoon just getting used to having Claire around and letting Claire get used to us. She slept a little, ate well and visited with Poppy, Grandma and Aunt Susie who stopped by to take a peek.

Today was also a big day for us as our new nanny, Fran, started today. Fran is a wonderful woman with a real gift for caring for children. Fran has over 30 years of nanny experience, including helping to raise her cousins quintuplets a few years back. Fran's enthusiasm, confidence, organizational skills and ability to relate and comfort kids at any age made her the perfect candidate for us and we are so thrilled to have her here! She came this morning with a whole bag of new toys for Luke - yes, bribery does work! Luke seemed slightly cautious when Fran arrived but after a short time, he quickly warmed up to her and by the end of the day was calling her "Frannie". What a big load off of my mind!

Here are some pictures of little Claire first outing into this big crazy world...

The doctors told us today that Elizabeth may well be ready to come home by the end of this week, beginning of next week. She is doing well and is needing her oxygen less and less. They'll continue to keep an eye on her but we may have another "little lemon" home soon! I would be so sad to have little John there in the NICU all by himself....but no worries, folks because there's more good news! KATE'S DOCTORS ARE HOPING TO SEND HER BACK TO AGH BY THIS WEEKEND!!!!! YAHOO! Kate is doing so remarkably well. She is 5 lbs. and is eating 10 ml of food per hour as of today. They are increasing her feeds every 12 hours because she is doing well with the processing of her food and she is also consistently stooling which is a great sign. As of last night, she is also totally off of her artificial nutrition. She is now officially feeding on breastmilk and a dextrose/saline mixture only. This is such good news as the artifical nutrition she lived on for the past 10 weeks has the long term potential of causing damage to her liver. Kate is still on the ventilator but now that she has done so well with increasing her feeds daily, they will begin to get more aggressive with getting her off of this machine and work towards breathing independence.

Here's a picture of Kate that John just took tonight during his visit with her... check out how big my chunky monkey is and how alert she is!

My little man John... so stinkin' cute I can barely stand it!

The "oh so pretty" Queen Elizabeth.... sleeping away and dreaming of milk!

We praise God this night for these children and that God has chosen us to love them and care for them.

A few more days in the NICU for baby Claire...

2008-08-29T21:27:00.003-04:00

Well, Claire homecoming was delayed a few days today by her doctors. Her weight gain since being in room air in a regular crib hasn't been stellar and she needs just a little more work on having all of her feeds from a bottle so the doctors decided to keep her in the NICU for probably about another week. At that point, she and maybe even Elizabeth will be ready to come home. While we are thrilled at the thought of having the babies come home, we also want to be sure that they are physically ready to come home so a few more days at the NICU is best for now. We took Luke to see the babies today and he was so curious about them. He wanted to touch them so badly! Overall, he was pretty good and pretty well behaved. We'll see how he does once he sees Mommy holding the babies here at home!!!

We got good news today that not only is Elizabeth cold stressing and working on the transition to room air in a regular crib, but so is Kate! Both girls are doing very well so far with this new environment and look just adorable in their "big girl" clothes. Elizabeth has been doing better with her feeds and doesn't need oxygen quite as much. Kate has slowly been increasing her feed amounts and has been passing stool quite successfully the past few days. This is a good sign as it means that her bowels and intestines finally seem to have good motility which was a concern last week when she took a few steps backward in her progress. She is also very slowly attempting to wean down on her ventilator settings.

Baby John is doing very well also. He just crossed over the 4 lb. mark and is doing quite well with his feeds also. He's still smaller that the girls but he seems to be doing the best of all 4 when it comes to breathing. John isn't quite ready to cold stress in his bed yet, but the doctors are hoping to that he'll be ready someday soon!

That's all for now....we'll keep you updated!!!

Baby Claire comes home on Saturday!

2008-08-27T23:15:00.003-04:00

Well, we got the good word late yesterday that Claire Renee will be coming home on Saturday! Claire has been cold stressing for two days and has been doing quite well at maintaining her regular body temperature. It's so funny to see her in all bundled up in clothes in a regular hospital crib instead of her isolette. We can't wait to start seeing our little miracles come home. We'll be sure to post some pictures asap! Continue to keep John, Elizabeth and Kate in your prayers. We're hoping that they won't be far behind!

SOME BIG NEWS.....

2008-08-25T21:50:00.003-04:00

OK....so I went to both hospitals today to see the babies (yep, Kate is still at Childrens...I'll tell you more about this later....) At AGH, I'm so happy to say that all three babies - John, Claire and Elizabeth - are all breathing completely on their own! Can you believe it?!?! On top of that, Claire and Elizabeth had had their feeding tubes removed and are doing all of their feeds from bottles! John is also eating from a bottle but still has at least a few feeds from the feeding line that goes to his stomach. Each of them is eating just over an ounce at each feeding and they have done very well teaching themselves to suck, swallow and breathe while they eat. It's absolutely amazing how well these babies are doing. They're not just surviving - they're thriving! Dr. Balest came in while I was feeding John and I said, "So when you do think that the first one will get to come?" Dr. Balest pulled out their charts and said, "well based on what I see, they're all an acceptable weight, they're all eating successfully from bottles, they're off all medications with the exception of vitamins. The last test will be to cold-stress them and remove them from the isolettes to regular newborn cribs. If we're successful with this and they're able to maintain their body temperature, I'd say that they'll probably start coming home NEXT WEEK".

Excuse me....WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

Yep - that's right. She said that they are going to potentially start sending the babies home next week. I have to say that my heart jumped up into my throat! I couldn't believe it! Our babies will finally start to come home. How incredibly exciting! I have to admit though, I'm pretty nervous too. Beginning to care for four premature children is a rather intimidating task and the anticipation has been building for so long now that I can't believe it's finally here. Dr. Balest said that Claire will probably be first, then probably Elizabeth just a few days after Claire and John won't be far behind! Of cousre, my mind is working overtime tonight with all of the things I need to do before the babies get here and my list is growing with every waking moment. I'll keep you all updated on how things go the rest of this week and when we think that Princess Claire, Queen Elizabeth and John - aka "Q Dog" to his Dad and I :) - will bust out of the NICU into this big crazy world!

As for Kate, last week started great with us getting to hold her for the first time, but she hit a few bumps in the road starting the following day. A few small issues snowballed and caused Kate to take a few steps back in her progress. Kate's belly became round and distented and after further investigation, the dr's found that she wasn't digesting the breastmilk she was receiving as well as they had thought. They found 13 ml of partially digested milk in her belly along with pockets of bowel gas. In short, her bowels didn't have good motiilty and her intestines weren't able to process her food as well as they had thought. On top of this, the swollen belly didn't allow Kate to expand her lungs as much as needed in order to take good, deep breaths so her ventilator settings had to be increased to assist her breathing. Additionally, Kate has a lot of thick secretions in her endotracheal tube so they've had to do physiotherapy on her chest every two hours and suction her tube to remove these secretions. John and I were so disappointed. We were so encouraged by Kate's progress and then - like the flip of a light switch - we went from moving forward to stepping back. It seems like just when you think you've turned the corner, you hit a wall. However, our Kate is showing again how tough she is. After 5 days of taking a break from feeds and allowing the gas in her belly to reduce, the dr's decided today to reintroduce the breastmilk in smaller amounts and to increase it very slowly based on her response. They also gave her Eurythromyacin which will encourage motility in her bowel and intestines so that hopefully, she will resume stooling again. We're hoping that she will again begin to slowly wean down on her ventilator settings so that someday soon she can get closer to extubation. This little girl has chutzpah and if any baby can do it, she can.

So, there you have it. An update on our bambinos. We also hired a terrific nanny last week that I'm thrilled to have on board with us. I'm dead tired tonight, but I'll blog a little about Fran in the next few days. She's a dynamo!

Please continue to keep all four angels in your prayers as well as our little man Luke. The coming weeks and introduction of these four little ones into his life are going to be a challenge but I know that he will grow to love them as much as we do. Luke is such an amazing boy. I simply adore him. Please also keep John and I in your prayers also as we begin the next chapter in this amazing journey. May we be reminded daily of just how blessed we are to have these five precious gifts to call our own.

Attention all "Rockers", "Cuddlers" and "Walkers"

2008-08-20T11:25:00.006-04:00

Rocking, cuddling and walking . . . three things that all babies need! When baby is fussy, or just needs loving attention, one of these time-tested techniques usually does the trick. The challenge for Carrie (especially while John is at work) will be to give Kate, Claire, Elizabeth and little John all the care and nurturing they each deserve. But, as any parent can imagine, this will be impossible with only one set of hands! That's where we come in . . .

Hi, I'm Susie, Carrie's sister. I'm organizing a group of volunteers called the "Diaper Darlings," who will lend a hand to Carrie and John once the babies come home from the hospital. Diaper Darlings will help Carrie with feeding, diapering, and other aspects of baby care. Since it will be important for the Lemonovich family to develop a routine for the babies, we're looking for Diaper Darlings who would like to come to their house in Bridgeville and help on a regular basis, anywhere from 4 to 8 hours per week.

If you have that special knack with newborns -- or you just want to spend some quality time with the cutest babies on the planet! -- please send me an e-mail with your name, telephone number, and the day(s)/time(s) of the week you'd like to help. Our Diaper Darlings schedule will begin when at least two of the babies come home from the hospital, hopefully sometime in mid-September.

I'd love to hear from you!

Blessings,
Susie Bishop
bishops.three@verizon.net

A big day for our little babies....

2008-08-18T21:45:00.011-04:00

Today started like any other day...get up early to take a shower before Luke wakes up, pack all of my bags and head down to see the babies at both hospitals. I have to say that driving to both places is getting to be a real pain in the you know what! I spend more time in traffic jams and looking for parking spaces than I do with my kids and that drives me nuts!

I decided to head to see Kate first so that hopefully I could have a chance to chat with her doctors to see how they feel about her progress since the surgery and when they feel she might be able to rejoin her sisters and brother at AGH. I apologize for not blogging about this sooner, but last Wednesday was the first day that Kate was given breastmilk! She started on a only a 1/2 cc as I mentioned and she tolerated it pretty well. They have slowly been increasing her feeds and as of today, she is getting 4 ml per hour (again, 30 ml is 1 oz.) and she weighs3 lbs, 14 oz. That is absolutely amazing and if you had seen Kate when she was born vs. the way she looks today, you wouldn't believe your eyes. This little girl and her progress is nothing short of a miracle. Anyways, when I got to the hospital, I was excited to find that one of our favorite nurses (and Kate's!), Courtney, would be caring for her today. Courtney greeted me with fantastic news. The surgeons have kept a watchful eye on Kate and were very pleased with her progress since starting the feeds. They are going to continue increasing her milk 1 ml per day as long as she tolerates it well and if all goes well, they are hoping that she might be able to return to AGH with the other in a week or two! You have no idea how thankful we are to hear this - our kids can finally be together again and we can spend all of our time cooing and cuddling with them instead of driving all over the city of Pittsburgh just to spend an hour here and an hour there! And then Courtney gave me the best news of all - the doctors said that I would be able to hold Kate today. Our babies are 55 days old today and we've never gotten to hold Kate because of her various medical issues. I cried like a little baby at the news. Courtney gently lifted her out of her "cave" (her isolette) which she hasn't been out of since she was born, and placed her on my chest for some cuddle time. I cannot begin to tell you how amazing this was. We cuddled for about 20 minutes before it was time to put her back in her isolette. I couldn't wait to call John and tell him, but I knew he was in a meeting so instead, I had Courtney take a picture of me holding Kate and we text messaged the picture to him with a note that said "look who I'm holding!". We quickly got a message back from Daddy who said "AWESOME!" and told me to call him asap. I shared the great news about Kate's progress and hopeful return to AGH. John was able to go see Kate after work and he too got to hold our little princess. Here are just a few pics from our special day. Check out the cute little bow Courtney put in Kate's hair:

BUT WAIT....THERE'S MORE GOOD NEWS!!! After spending time with Kate, I headed to AGH to see John, Claire and Elizabeth. The doctor told me over the weekend that it would be a good time to try and start bottle feedings with Elizabeth and Claire. John is probably just a week or so away from giving the bottle a try but Elizabeth and Claire are ready to go so today was the big day! Elizabeth went first and her nurse, Susan, cautioned me that usually premature babies don't do so well the first time out. They play with the nipple because they think it's a pacifier but once the milk starts to flow, they get confused because sucking, swallowing and breathing all at the same time is new for them and very difficult. Many times the babies will start to gag because they don't know what to do with all of the milk building up in their mouths. So, I didn't have any great hopes for our first feeding. I gave Elizabeth the bottle and she gently began sucking on it. Her eyes opened wide as the milk went in and she began to swallow. Before I knew it, she had half of the bottle down! Susan was in shock! We took a break for a burp and then continued on and I'm proud to say that on her first time out of the gate, Queen Elizabeth finished her entire bottle! Feeding from a bottle represents a great deal of work for these tiny little babies so one bottle per nursing shift is the maximum allowed for now. After she was done, Elizabeth curled up in a little ball back in her isolette and was fast asleep on her belly in no time. She was so content! Claire was next to give it a try. I have to give mad props to my girl Claire because not only is she probably the most alert of all four babies, but she is also the first to come off of any type of breathing support. Claire breaths totally on her own as of late last week and is doing an awesome job! She also makes the nurses laugh because every 3 hours - on the nose! - she let's out a big cry to let them know it's feeding time. I placed the nipple in Claire's mouth and she also opened her eyes big and wide once she started to taste the milk. She sucked on it happily for awhile and finished probably 3/4 of her bottle before she tuckered out. Like I said, learning to breath, suck and swallow all at the same time is a lot of work for these little kiddos so I was so proud of how well both did on their first try!

My little man John was sound asleep in his isolette the whole time. John was a little pale today and will probably need a blood transfusion for a little pick me up. These transfusions are routine for premature babies and hopefully, once John gets his tank filled, he too can try and start to feed using the bottle. John also has been doing VERY well on his nasal cannula. They have attempted to remove this support and let John breathe on his own, but he stills needs a little help every once in awhile so for now he remains on the cannula.

Our mantra around the Lemonovich house these days is "we glory in the small victories". Today however, we were able to clear a few large hurdles and takes some pretty big steps closer to having our kids come home. Thanks be to God!

Happy 7 week birthday babies!!!

2008-08-12T20:12:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone....can you believe it!? The babies are 7 weeks old today! In some ways, it seems like they were just born yesterday and in other ways, it seems like they've been around for years. The past 7 weeks have been so hectic and filled with the full range of emotions but I'd do it all over again in the heartbeat. Just seeing their faces makes my heart melt and I can't help but kiss them from head to toe. GOD IS GOOD!!!

Thought I'd post a quick blog and update everyone on how the babies are doing. I'll start with Miss Kate as she is the one who has had the most excitement over the past week or two!

Kate - I'm happy to say that Kate is doing well following her surgery. She spent a few days following the surgery on the oscillating ventilator and she's now back on the conventional ventillator. Kate really hates this machine and she desatures a decent amount more when she's on it, but the machine represents WORK for Kate so she's not as keen about it. She is still a little swollen from the constant flow of fluids that she gets through her artificial nutrition, medications, etc. but the diuretics are helping her to pee most of the fluid off that she has retained. As of this Friday, she will finally be done with the Phenobarbital she has been on for the past 2 weeks due to possible seizure episode she has a few weekends back. She has had no additional episodes so I think the neurologists feel that what she experienced was either not a seizure or possibly just a one time thing. The really big news for Kate is that they are going to attempt feeding her sometime this week, possibly even tomorrow! They are going to start with extremely small amounts of breastmilk - only a 1/2 cc in the beginning. Increases in the feeding amount will be very small but if she tolerates it well, they will move her up slowly. The breastmilk will do wonders for Kate's overall health, including her lungs so I'm anxious to pump her full of milk so that she gets bigger and stronger with every feeding. I'm just so thankful to God that she's here.

Elizabeth - or as Susan, one of the nurses in the NICU, calls her "Queen Elizabeth"! I just love that! Elizabeth is big and plump and happy :) She weighs 3 lbs., 11 oz. and is doing quite well. Like Kate and everyone other preemie baby, she does desaturate a little more that the other two, but she is still getting a relatively small amount of oxygen in through her tiny nasal canula. I've decided to try and nurse a different baby every time I visit. I'm not going to continue breastfeeding once the babies come home (although I'm going to continue pumping milk for them) but the doctor suggested that nursing them occasionally would not only be a chance for them to bond with me, become familiar with my smell and allow them to share my body warmth, it would also increase my milk supply. I started today by nursing Elizabeth for a short bit and after a few eye opening looks from her saying "what the heck is this?!?!?", she actually did quite well for the first time out. We'll keep working on it occasionally over the next few weeks. So, my little 'Lizabeth is doing well!

Claire - Claire is definitely the most alert of the four babies at this point. It seems like every time I visit, her eyes are wide open and she's squirming around making noise. Her cry actually sounds like a duck! She is quite the demanding little lady also as every three hours, she's like clockwork squealing for her feeding! Claire is now 3 lbs, 6 oz. and is only on a 1/2 liter of oxygen which is awesome! They are hoping to try to wean her completely off of the oxygen over the next few days so we'll see how she does. She is definitely getting stronger and I'll try to nurse her next so that we can share a little snuggle time with each other :)

John - my "little bird" is just SO adorable! John and I snuggled for awhile today and he just makes your heart melt. He is so calm and laid back - very much like his Daddy! John weighs 3 lbs, 1 oz. as of today. He still seems so much smaller than the girls, even though he's just 5 oz. less than Claire. He is doing SOOOOO well on his nasal cannula and is quietly becoming onE strong little boy. I was asking the nurses today about why he appears to be so much smaller and they said that boys, in general, develop more slowly than girls. Also, as you all recall, John's sac ruptured 4 days before the babies were born so he probably lost some nutrition from that episode as well. All in all though, my little man is lookin' good. He'll be bypassin' those girls before you know it! :)

Thanks to each of you for keeping our four little treasures in your prayers! We ask you to keep one of our NICU friends, Joey, in your prayers also. We've gotten to know Joey over the past 7 weeks while her son was in the NICU with Kate. Joey's little boy, Wyatt (who was only 5 days older than our quads) passed away on Saturday after struggling with some serious genetic issues and an infection that occurred after he had surgery. Joey is a very brave 20 year old single Mom who despite the odds and the suggestions of her doctors, decided to give little Wyatt a chance at life. His time on this earth may have been short, but the joy that he brought to his Mom in those 8 short weeks is something she will treasure forever, I'm sure. We ask that God would bless Joey with the peace that passes all understanding now that her little angel is safe in the loving arms of our heavenly Father.

Thanks be to God for a successful surgery today!

2008-08-06T21:20:00.004-04:00

After 6 weeks of anticipation, apprehension and uncertainty, we are thrilled to report that Kate's surgery went extremely well today. When we got to the hospital we were concerned to see that Kate was still on the oscillating ventilator. We thought for sure that this was sign that the surgery would be delayed again - how can you do surgery on a 3 lb. baby while she is being gently shaken by a machine? We talked to Brad, the surgeon, however who said that although it's not optimal, he could do the surgery on the oscillator. This totally blows my mind! Brad has been absolutely amazing and his incredible surgical skills on babies this small and his ability to communicate with nervous parents such as ourselves are truly gifts from God. Kate appears to really like the gentle vibration the oscillator provides as it assists her in the breathing process so Brad felt that keeping her on it would be best for the surgery. He also decided that instead disrupting Kate and moving her from her isolette into the operating room, he would do the surgery bedside in the NICU. For those of you who have never seen the Childrens Hospital NICU before, it is typically a place of a million beeping machines with cords stretching everywhere in the midst of sheer organized chaos. To top it all off, it's a wide open air room so when a bedside surgery is performed, they have to clear all visitors and unecessary personnel out prior to getting started. This also totally blows my mind that they can do these complicated procedures right there while Kate is still in her bed! We spent most of the day just sitting next to Kate just waiting for Brad to say that we were next in line. He finally came over around 4:00 and said that we were next in line and told the nurses to get everything ready. I started to cry just thinking about what my little girl was about to go through. I was so scared as all of the "what if's" raced through my head. John and I talked with Brad who reassured us that he would take excellent care of our little girl and treat her as though she were his own. That meant so much to me as there are so many doctors today who forget to be human in the process of being a medical professional. John and I waited about an hour and a half and then Brad came into the waiting room to report the good news. There were a few possible outcomes from the surgery. The options, based on what they found once they opened Kate up, ranged from just simply snipping the remnant, putting a few stitches in the intestines and sewing her back up to snipping the remnant, bringing both sections of the intestine up to the surface of her skin in the abdominal area (this is called and ostoma) and having the ostoma drain into a bag for a few months until she is old enough and big enough to have a second surgery to reconnect the intestines. Brad initially told us that there wasn't a great chance of just snipping the remnant, doing the repair and sewing her back up yet this is exactly what happened. Brad actually took pictures on his PDA of Kate's intestines which he examined while doing the surgery. The pictures were absolutely amazing and he said he would email them to us at home to get a better look. He found no perforations or other areas of concern in the intestines which was also fantastic news. At the end of the day, we got to go back into the NICU and see our little miracle. She was still sedated from the anesthesia although she was slowly starting to come out of it and she looked absolutely beautiful. They took a blood gas reading just after we came back and they said that her readings were actually some of the best they had ever gotten from her. They will continue watching Kate very closely over the next few days to make sure they she does not get an infection at the suture site in her intestines or that there is no leakage from the suture site. If all goes well, they hope to begin starting Kate on very small feeds of breastmilk in about a week. Overall, not a bad day for Miss Kate to say the least. Here is a picture of Kate taken yesterday one day before her surgery (quite a chunky little monkey huh?)

We give thanks and praise this night to our Heavenly Father for using Brad, Kate's nurse Breanne, and the rest of the medical team as his instruments of healing. God has truly blessed our family and we ask you to join us in continuing to pray for Kate's recovery and progress as she moves forward towards starting regular feeds of breastmilk.

Just a brief update on the other 3 quad babies over at AGH, all is going well with them. All 3 continue to grow steadily and increase their feeds. Within the next few weeks they may attempt bottle feedings as another big step toward their homecoming. We have found through all this that no news from the NICU is definitely good news and lately, it has been pleasantly quiet over at AGH!

Just a random great picture of Luke and his good buddy Sampson:

Good night for now.

Kate's surgery still on for Wednesday...

2008-08-05T23:00:00.003-04:00

We went to visit Kate today and as of right now, we're still scheduled for surgery tomorrow. They were able to wean her off the ventilator and she is currently back on the conventional ventilator. Her blood gases were decent today and the surgeon said that he is prepared to move forward tomorrow if she remains stable through the night. They'll take her gases again in the morning before making the final determination.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day but we know that God is guiding the hands of the physicians, nurses and medical staff who care for our darling baby Kate. We'll let you know how everything goes just as soon as we get a chance.

Kate's surgery on Wednesday???

2008-08-04T21:32:00.002-04:00

Yet another rocky weekend for our sweet little angel, Kate. Kate continues to have respiratory problems which are still considered somewhat normal for a preemie born at 26 weeks, 6 days at 1 lb. 4 oz. Kate was moved from a conventional ventilator to an oscillating ventilator this past weekend. Her lung on one side collapsed slightly so the oscillating ventilator is used to provide continuous pressure to the lungs to keep them wide open. This helps Kate to stabilize so that she doesn't have to work so hard to breathe and also helps her to blow off her carbon dioxide efficiently. However, at the same time, the oscillator is considered a step backward as it is providing even more support to her already fragile lungs. Her blood gas readings were also low over the past few days so as I said, not the greatest weekend for our little one. Her blood gas readings were better today and when I went to visit, the neonatology attending physician and fellow informed me that they spoke with the surgeon this morning about Kate. He has decided that if they can wean Kate off of the oscillator and stabilize her for at least 24 hours on the conventional ventilator with good blood gas readings, then he will perform the surgery to repair her omphalomesenteric duct remnant on Wednesday. As I've said so many times before, I so badly want them to be able to do the surgery so that Kate can get on the path to good health and start receiving enteral feeds of breast milk yet at the same time, the thoughts of surgery are so scary to me. I know that Kate is in God's hands though so I ask that you join us in prayer that Kate would have her surgery on Wednesday and that they would be able to succesfully repair her duct remnant easily and with as little reconstruction as possible.

We'll keep you updated on the status of the possible surgery...

We sold the house!!!

2008-07-31T21:48:00.004-04:00

Hallelujah!!! We are so thrilled to have this one big item checked off of our list of a million things to do these days! We received a very good offer a few weeks back so we accepted it with glee! We met with the realtor and new owners today for the closing. Although we're glad to no longer have to worry about the house, turning over the keys and signing it away was bittersweet. The house holds so many wonderful memories for us, not to mention a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into remodeling it over the past 4 years! As we walked through it the other night after we finished clearing out the last few items, I reminisced about how excited John and I were when we saw it for the first time, how thrilled we were the day we closed on it, remembering moving into our first home together after our wedding, the excitement of bringing Luke home from the hospital, sitting on the back porch and marveling every day at the beautiful view we were blessed to have, etc. I know we're moving on to bigger and better things as our circumstances are definitely changing these days, but we'll definitely miss the old place and all the wonderful memories she holds!

The view from our back deck...we're really going to miss this!

A few pics to share of our little miracles and an update...

2008-07-29T22:00:00.010-04:00

Hi everyone...

Just wanted to post a quick update on Kate. To make a very long story short, the doctors were fairly confident that as of last Thursday, Kate had an infection of some sort so they immediately started antibiotics and took cultures to see if their hunch was correct. The cultures were negative after 24 hrs but due to a fever, high white blood cell count and some other factors, they were still convinced that she was "brewing" something inside of her tiny little body. The doctors decided to draw some spinal fluid to rule out meningitis. Just after the doctors did the fluid draw, they noticed that Kate's body was twitching rhythmically for about 20 seconds. The nurse practioner who did the draw said that although he wasn't exactly sure that he would call it a seizure, it definitely did not appear to be normal baby twitching that typically would only last a few seconds. As a precaution, they called neurology for a consult who suggested that they immediately put Kate on Phenobaritol, which is a medication used to control seizures and relieve anxiety. They gave her a relatively small dose and requested that she have an EEG (electroencephelogram) which measures and records the electrical activity of the brain. They also ordered a brain ultrasound to verify that she had no bleeding of the brain. The ultrasound came back normal and the EEG showed no signficant activity other than a few "spikes" in activity over the whole report period. The neurologist feels fairly comfortable stating that Kate didn't have a seizure, but they are going to continue giving her Phenobarbitol in weaning doses over the next 3 weeks. If she doesn't have any other episodes resembling the one she had on Saturday, they will do a repeat EEG and hopefully discontinue the medication. They're continuing to give her a 7 day course of antibiotics to fight the infection they initially suspected. The good news is, the Phenobarbital will not delay the possibility of Kate's surgery so the neonatologist told me today that she'll be continuing to push for the surgery as soon as the antibiotics are done. Kate looked much better today when I went for my daily visit. She was nice and pink and although a little groggy (one of the side effects of the Phenobarbital), she was doing well. Kate is continuing to grow on her IV nutrition and as of her last weigh in is approximately 2 lbs, 9 oz. Although delaying the surgery has been difficult because we're so anxious to see her begin feeding on breastmilk, it has given her an opportunity to grow and strengthen and she'll be in a much better condition when the time for her surgery does come. This little girl is going to be one tough cookie! We praise God for sustaining her ( and us!) through the tough weekend.

Good news about our little John...he continues to do FANTASTIC on his CPAP machine! He is really thriving on this machine....so much so that as of this afternoon, he moved over to the NICU step down room with his sisters! I can't tell you how excited I was to hear this! John weighs about 2 lbs, 6 oz. and now that he has recovered from his infection from 2 weeks ago, he has resumed his feeding schedule is back on track.

Elizabeth and Claire are both doing awesome. Both girls continue to do great on their nasal cannulas of oxygen and are eating up a storm these days. Miss Elizabeth is teetering on the 3 lb. mark (she was 2 lbs, 15 oz. as of yesterday) and Claire isn't too far behind. I got to hold both of them together the other day and I just have to share this story....I was "kangaroo holding" both girls (they were tucked inside of my shirt right against my skin so they could hear my heartbeat and use the warmth of my body to stay warm). They been out of their beds for awhile and were ready to go back into their isolettes. The nurse went to take Claire back to her bed and when she started to lift her up, Elizabeth put her arm around Claire's waist as if to say "you're not taking my sister!" It honestly was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. So of course, I let them stay and snuggle with each other a while longer. I can't wait until Kate comes back to AGH so all four of them can snuggle together hopefully someday soon!

Before I share a few pics with you, I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who worked so hard at the car wash/bake sale that was held on our behalf this past weekend. A huge thank you to Kathleen Conn and Shelly James who put in so much time and effort to make the day such a success. The team of helpers who were washing and vaccuming cars, holding signs, grilling hot dogs, selling bake goods, etc. were truly wonderful. I cannot tell you how humbling and heartwarming it is to see people working so hard and giving up their free time in order to help friends in their time of need. We feel so blessed. Our friends and family from Zion have been a godsend and we give thanks to our Heavenly Father every day for their love and support.

OK...just a few pics to share for now. I actually have a few more, but I need still need to have them scanned. I'll have one of Kate, I promise! More to come over the next few days...

This is me "kangarooing" with Elizabeth (on the left) and Claire (on the right)...

A close up of Elizabeth (on the left) and Claire (on the right)... are they stinkin' adorable or what?!?!?!?

Our little man John....I absolutely love this picture! This is while he was still on the ventilator - before he graduated to the CPAP machine.

Please continue to pray for the health and progress of all four babies.

Keep checking over the next few days for some additional pictures!

John starts off on the wrong foot and ends up with his first day out!

2008-07-23T21:42:00.005-04:00

We’re always talking about the ups and downs of the NICU (with our babies and with seeing others in there) but today was a big surprise that started scary and turned fantastic. I left work a little early today to go and see John, Claire, and Elizabeth. I first visited John and the nurse filled me in on the day’s happenings. She was indicating that we was having a rough day desaturating and that it may be due to his infection with his vent tube and there may even be a possibility of pneumonia. I then spoke to the doctor and she ruled out the pneumonia thing saying that his lungs aren’t showing this to be true but that his secretions are still there and they are affecting his breathing with the tube. So as I’m standing there he has one of his desats except he keeps going down and down and before I knew it Dr. Clouser was telling the nurses to replace his tube and asking me to leave! So I go over to the step down area where Claire and Elizabeth are and I’m trying not to watch around the corner at what they’re doing with little John. After about 15 minutes a nurse comes over and tells me I can come see John again and she seems happy… ??? I go over to John and there he is with the CPAP connected! This is the thing that just provides positive air pressure at his nose so that when he spontaneously breathes it helps the lungs expand. This I know now from my NICU savvy-ness :) is a big step in the right direction. His nurse indicated that he is doing really well on it. After sitting with him for a while I went back to hold Claire for a while as she was feeding. I was talking at length with a couple very nice nurses the whole time I was in there holding Claire. Elizabeth was sleeping very peacefully so I decided not to bug her too much.

When I went back over to John before I left they re-iterated that he was doing quite well on his CPAP without the ventilator! They needed to have another nurse come to hold him up while they were to change his bedding. But instead they thought it was a perfect time for me to hold him for the first time while they changed his bedding. This was an extremely gratifying moment and I couldn’t wait to tell Carrie who I knew would be so happy, yet so jealous :) I can’t explain what this was like – the joy and thankfulness. John has been a little behind the eight ball since his sac was the one that ruptured several days before their delivery. Hopefully he can last for longer this time before getting “tired” and maybe the 3rd try on the CPAP will be the charm. They took a couple great pictures that I, once again, can’t post because they just gave me a picture and I’ll have to scan it (I’ve been meaning to buy a new printer/scanner). We’ll try to get picture of him and Kate as soon as we can.

Anyway it all worked out to be a good evening for John and we thank God for every small victory.

An update on the babies...

2008-07-22T22:46:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to post an update on how all of our little lemons are doing these days. We're thrilled to say that all four are stable and are continuing to gain weight - yahoo! Here's what's new with each little peanut...

John - John has recently had a few "bummer" days as he has had an infection in his endotracheal tube. He's had quite a lot of secretions that they've had to suction out of him lately. The doctors started him early on antibiotics to treat the infection when they first recognized some of the first signals he was sending out that something might not be right. When I went to visit one day last week, he seemed very pale - almost like the color of oatmeal. However, after receiving his antibiotics, he pinked up quite a bit and seemed to be feeling much better. John continues to be on a ventilator but his settings are quite low these days and the nurses informed me today that they're hoping to check his blood gas readings over the next few days and if all is well, they're hoping that he can step down to a CPAP machine. This is such great news! Especially in light of the recent infection in his endotracheal tube. John is eating 18 ml of breastmilk (30 mls = 1 oz.) and he weighs 2 lbs. 6 oz. My little bird isn't so little anymore! He's definitely growing and chubbing up a little! I PROMISE that we'll get a picture of John posted soon!!!

Claire - Claire has been doing well lately also although she is not thrilled AT ALL with the Polyvisol vitamins she is given. The nurse told me that these commonly make the babies spit up and Claire is no exception here. She spit up pretty well the other day while John and I were there to visit. John got to hold her while she fed through her feeding tube. She is so stinkin' cute! Her blonde hair is so sweet and her fingers are SO ridiculously long! She currently eats about 22 mls of breastmilk and she also weighs 2 lbs 6 oz. Claire occasionally has A's and B's (which stands for apneas and bradycardias). This means that Claire has basically forgotten to breathe (yep, this is pretty common in preemies although it sounds really bad!) and that her heart rate is less than 100 beats per minute. They usually tap the bottom of her foot or sit up her and give her a little pat on the back to reminder her to breathe. Claire only needs a nasal cannula with oxygen for breathing assistance.

Elizabeth - Elizabeth is also doing really well. Our little chunk is up to 23 mls of breastmilk at each feeding and weighs 2 lbs, 11 oz. She has recovered very well from her surgery and although she has some occasional A's and B's like Claire, she is breathing quite well on her nasal cannula of oxygen. I've held Elizabeth a few times over the past week and today I got to do "kangaroo" holding with her. They placed her right on my chest so that she could feel my body warmth and then they covered her with a blanket to keep her temperature up. She was so warm and snuggly! I just loved it and I think she did too! I'm betting that our little Elizabeth will be the first one to come home - we'll have to wait and see!

Kate - Kate is doing well. She continues to desaturate as so many preemies of her size do, but it seems as though she is desating less lately. She still has some signs of fluid in her lungs and she continues to receive diuretics to assist with this. The doctors have said that they would like to revisit the possibility of doing her surgery again this week, but so far, no date has been scheduled. Although she doesn't get any breastmilk yet, she continue to grow little by little and as of today, she weighs 2 lbs, 2 oz. The nurses believe some of this represents fluid but they are still happy with the small weights gains she's had while being solely on artificial nutrition. She is just so adorable and such a fighter. I can't wait to hold both her and John! Then my heart will really smile once I've gotten to hold all four of them!

Well, that's it for now. Thanks to everyone who has kept our family in their prayers. Keep 'em coming!

Good night all...

Carrie, John, Luke, Elizabeth, Claire, Kate and John

Kate's surgery was cancelled....

2008-07-18T16:39:00.003-04:00

Well...it turned out to be the big day that never happened. We got to the hospital only to find out that Kate had her blood gas taken this morning and her numbers were not very good. They took them again and they were a little better, but not by much. We met with the surgeon who showed us chest x-rays that they took of our little princess this morning. The x-rays were somewhat hazy and cloudy which is an indication that fluid is present in the lungs. This also explains some of the weight gain that Kate has had. We were excited thinking that she is growing at a great rate on the artificial nutrition, but as it turns out, some of the weight gain is probably due to fluid retention. The surgeon said that although they probably could go ahead and do the surgery, he didn't feel nearly as comfortable proceeding as he did the day before. He often describes our little Kate as a "delicate flower" (which I love :) and said that the surgery at this point is still considered to be elective as the remnant issue is not serious or life threatening so he felt better waiting until next week to possibly attempt the surgery again. They are going to give her Lasix, which is a diuretic that will help her pee out some of the fluid that she is retaining and they also are going to give her Albuterol, which will help increase the air flow in her lungs.

John and I were somewhat disappointed in the news that surgery wouldn't take place. We had emotionally prepared ourselves that today would be the day and hopefully after the surgery, Kate would turn the corner and be on the road to better breathing and breastmilk! Unfortunately, it was not to be today. On the other hand, we felt relief that the surgeon (who is about my age and also has four young children)wasn't willing to proceed when there was any possibility of additional problem other than the usual risks for a preemie child this small.

We did have the chance to see Claire, Elizabeth and John today. The girls are doing beautifully (John and I got to hold them today while they were fed their breastmilk through their feeding tubes - yahoo!) Elizabeth is 2 lbs, 5 1/2 oz. and Claire is 2 lbs., 3 oz. They both had their eyes open the whole time we were holding them and I words don't do justice to how beautiful they are! John had a tough day yesterday experiencing a few desaturation episodes (his monitors "alarm" because he has too little oxygen in the bloodstream) and the doctors were concerned by some of the symptoms he was showing that he may have an infection in his bloodstream or endotracheal tube. They sent some of his secretion samples and bloodwork to the lab to be tested. So far, the tests have been negative but they are treating him with antibiotics just to be safe. Our John is so absolutely adorable. He is weighing 2 lbs, 1 oz these days. I call him "Bird" because he is so long and skinny and just reminds me of a tiny little baby bird every time I see him. I can't wait to hold him and snuggle with him!!!

So, keep those prayers coming for the health of all four babies and and we'll see what the next week brings for Kate and the possibility of rescheduling her surgery.

Take care everyone and God bless!
Carrie, John, Luke, Elizabeth, Claire, John and Kate

A car wash/bake sale to benefit the quads...

2008-07-15T22:55:00.004-04:00

Have we mentioned how wonderful our church family has been and continues to be? Not only have they showered us with love and prayers, they've brought us meals, given us wonderful gifts, helped to care for Luke during my hospitalization and beyond and now, they're having a car wash/bake sale benefitting the quads. How amazingly blessed we are to be surrounded by such wonderfully caring people!

The organizers of the event have asked me to pass along the info about the car wash so that anyone with a dirty car and/or sweet tooth can join in on the fun!!! Here are the details:

WHERE:
ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH
3197 WASHINGTON PIKE
BRIDGEVILLE, PA 15017

WHEN:
SATURDAY, JULY 26TH FROM 9AM - 2PM

QUESTIONS?
PLEASE CONTACT KATHLEEN CONN AT waconn@comcast.net OR SHELLY JAMES AT shelly.a.james@verizon.net

A million thanks to Kathleen, Shelly and our friends at Zion for organizing this event on our behalf!!!

Kate's surgery is schedule for Friday...

2008-07-14T22:33:00.003-04:00

Well, we finally got the news we've been waiting for this morning. We met with the pediatric surgeon and the neonatologist who confirmed that they have scheduled Kate's surgery to repair her omphalomesenteric duct remnant that was detected when she was born. The surgeons will also do some exploration during the surgery to verify that there are no perferations in the bowels, blockages, etc. Kate will receive general anesthesia for the surgery and the incision will be just below her belly button. It is so hard to believe that a child this small (her last weigh in tipped the scales at 1 lb, 11 oz.) can endure surgery at such a young age. Her size is of course a concern to the doctors and surgeons, but they have indicated that they feel confident that surgery will be successful despite this. We have been anxious for the surgery to take place because Brad has indicated from the beginning that, in his professional opinion, giving Kate enteral feedings (breastmilk provided to her by means of a feeding tube) would be very risky for many reasons without knowing for certain that her only issue is the duct remnant. Our hope is that the surgeon will be able to clamp the remnant, the exploration into the rest of her gut will show no other issues and that hopefully, they will begin giving her breastmilk sometime shortly after in extremely small doses initially. Now that the surgery is finally scheduled however, John and I have mixed emotions because although we're thrilled at the possibility of her being able to be fed breastmilk as opposed to the total artifical nutrition she's receiving now, the risks of surgery on such a small child are very real and very scary. We know that God holds our little angel in the palm of his hand and we pray that he would guide the hand of the surgeons, the neonatologists, nurses and all who care for her. We will post an update following the surgery just as soon as we have a chance.

Our other 3 little peanuts are continuing to do well. Claire and Elizabeth are currently only receiving oxygen through small nasal cannulas and are doing quite well. John seems to go back and forth from ventilator to the CPAP machine. This is quite common in preemies, especially as John was the 3rd smallest baby of the 4. As his lungs continue to the develop, he sometimes needs additional breathing support so this is the reason for the switch back and forth. All 3 are receiving breastmilk and are continuing to gain weight.

We decided to take Luke to see John, Claire and Elizabeth on Saturday for a few minutes. He was fascinated by all of the machinery, the buttons, the beeping sounds - everything but his brother and sisters! He did take a few peeks inside of their isolettes to "check them out". We got to hold Elizabeth for the first time on Saturday and Luke seems very curious about why Mommy was holding someone other than him! As I said, our visit didn't last too long...the NICU is definitely not a place for an 18 month old!

We thank each of you for keeping our family in your prayers and ask that you continue to pray for us as we approach Kate's surgery on Friday.

God bless,
Carrie, John, Kate, Elizabeth, Claire and John

An update on Elizabeth's surgery and more...

2008-07-09T22:22:00.003-04:00

Elizabeth had the surgery this morning to close the PDA in her heart around 11:00am. The surgery only took about 10 minutes and she did wonderfully! The doctors made a small incision just under her left arm and inserted the clip. They used a surgical "glue" to seal the incision so there will be little, if any scar. When I visited with my little peanut today, she was still quite out of it from the anesthesia but her vital signs were good and the doctors were very pleased with the results. They had to reintubate her in order to do the surgery, but as of tonight, they are slowly weaning her back off of the ventilator so that she can return to just using her nasal cannula for oxygen again tomorrow. We're so thankful that Elizabeth came through the surgery with flying colors and we praise God for watching over our little girl while the doctor's swiftly and successfully were able to close her PDA. We're hopefully that she'll now be able to increase the amount of breastmilk she is eating at each feeding to catch up with Claire and John!

I also visited with little Kate this morning. When I walked into the NICU, I was thrilled to see that the oscillating ventilator was no longer beside her bed. As I got closer, I met up with Kate's nurse for the day, Casey who told me that she had good news to share. Kate had "bumped" her ventilator tubes while stretching and moving around and the tube had become dislodged. When Casey noticed this, they let Kate go for a little while just to see how she would do. To the surprise of the doctors and nurses, Kate did fairly well and held her own for a short while! Instead of reattaching her to the ventilator, they decided to extubate her and put her on a CPAP machine instead to see how she would do. Her blood gas numbers weren't that great, but they decided to give her a little free rein and see what would happen. They did another blood gas check again at 2:00pm and her numbers were excellent! Although the chances of Kate staying on the CPAP machine aren't great, the neonatalogist was still thrilled to see that she was able to stay off of the ventiltor, even if for a short time. It gives her lungs a chance to take a break from the ventilation and allows Kate to move about a little more freely. She was on her belly the entire time I was there and just LOVED it! I called the hospital to check on her tonight around 10:00pm and her nurse reported that she was still doing well. She seems to be working a little harder to breathe and the next blood gas check will determine whether or not they decide to reintubate her, but again - 12 hours off of the venilator is something to celebrate! We glory in the small victories these days! The nurse also reported that they were able to weigh Kate today because she wasn't on the oscillator. Kate has gained 90 grams and now weighs 780 grams (or 1 lb, 11 oz)! That's awesome news for a baby that is currently only allowed to have IV nutrition. Kate is also receiving doses of caffeine (just like her sisters and brother) to stimulate the central nervous system and her ability to breathe.

Overall, a very good day for my little princesses. I thank God for every little nibble of good news and pray that there are many more nibbles coming our way in the months to come for all four of our babies! Keep those prayers coming everyone!!!

John and I have been trying to teach Luke to say the babies' names. He can say Claire, John and Kate pretty well but Elizabeth will take some time! Luke still talks to my tummy occasionally and points to it. He doesn't quite understand that the babies are here yet! We probably won't take him to the NICU for a visit until the babies are a little older and out of their isolettes. I'm so curious to see how he'll be once there's 4 more people occupying our house!

Time to get some rest...

In Christ,
Carrie, John, Luke, Elizabeth, Claire, Kate & John

I got to hold one of the quads today!!!

2008-07-08T22:17:00.004-04:00

One of the hardest parts of our journey so far is having these four tiny, beautiful little babies and not getting to hold or snuggle with any of them right away! I've been waiting for the day when one of the nurses would tell me that it would be OK to hold someone and today was finally the day. I went to the hospital for my two week check up and went to the nursery after that. When I got there, Claire's nurse said, "well today is the day!" Yahoo! She wrapped Claire up in a blanket and put an adorable little hat on her head and handed her to me. I couldn't believe I could finally hold her! She seemed even smaller than she does in her isolette! I know I'm partial and all, but she is absolutely adorable! She had her eyes wide open and was looking all around. I talked to her for awhile and sang my best rendition of "Jesus Loves Me" a few times. She had her IV feeding of breastmilk while I held her(she's up to 7ml!) and after awhile, she fell asleep. She could only tolerate the room temperature for about 1/2 before I had to put her back in her bed, but what a glorious 1/2 hr it was! It was so wonderful to finally hold one of the babies and I thanked God for every minute. I'll be even happier when I get a chance to hold all four at once!!!

Elizabeth is going to be having surgery tomorrow to repair her PDA. As you may remember from before, this is the hole in the heart that causes a murmur. Each of the quads was born with this condition and we're told that it is common in preemies. The surgeons will put a clip over the open duct to permanently close it. She will have general anesthesia in order to have the surgery so we're praying that the surgery goes quickly and is successful. Elizabeth should be able to breathe more freely after this surgery has been done and will also be able to increase the amount of breastmilk she receives at each feeding.

Well...enough for tonight. Time to hit the hay! Please continue to keep all four babies in your prayers and ask that God would bless each of them with good health! We also pray daily for the amazing doctors and nurses who care for them. We are so thankful for these incredibly talented medical professionals.

Good night everyone...
Carrie, John, Luke, Elizabeth, Claire, John and Kate

Just an update and a couple pictures!

2008-07-05T22:10:00.020-04:00

It's been a hectic week for us as we've been busy visiting the kids every day at both hospitals. Traveling downtown every day has been interesting with all of the construction going on. It's a madhouse in Oakland every time we try to go to Children's. We actually almost witnessed a fight the other day as people were fighting to get parking spaces in one of the two parking garages that are constantly filled. Having babies in the NICU is stressful enough and the parking situation sure doesn't make it any easier!

We're learning that the life of a NICU parent is filled with ups and down and adjusting to the emotional roller coaster isn't easy, but overall we are doing pretty well. We'll give an update on how the babies are doing and post some anxiously awaited pictures. It’s been hard to get good pictures inside the isolettes as the lighting is low (intentionally for their eyes) and often there are too many tubes in the way, etc… Just so Luke doesn’t feel left out I’ll put a couple pics of him too! I don't have good pics of Kate or John (actually we do but they're prints the hospital gave us and they're not scanned yet).

John is doing quite well and is feeding on full breastmilk. He never had the surgery for the Broviac as all his sisters did. They’re having trouble getting IVs into him and so the Broviac remains a possibility in the future but not definite. John is different than the others in that he seems to want to keep to himself more. He sort of moves and squirms around and his "numbers" (the "numbers" we always refer to is a crazy thing that you get tired of worrying about) fluctuate – and then when you leave him be, he seems as though he’s cozy again. He’s pretty long and slim (over 14 inches) but is eating 15ml of breastmilk per feeding and soon they will add a "fortifier" to it to add calories!

Elizabeth is doing well and is still getting IV nutrition and getting an increasing amount of breastmilk. Doctors are telling us that they hear her heart murmer and that the echo does show that PDA still open so they may have to give her some more medication to try and get it closed. If this doesn’t work she may end up having the surgery to repair it (this is apparently a minor surgery). I (John, yes that’s right) actually changed her diaper today. I was afriad I would break her but the nurse insisted I try it. Elizabeth has passed her birth weight and is, as they say, part of the kilo-club as she weighs over a 1kg now!!! You can see in the picture below how she looks like a real chunk (the wrinkles on her chest are from tape that holds the sensors in place.

Claire is quietly doing well and on her tummy all the time because that’s what she likes. Claire seems to like being touched and/or having my hand on her back – she sort of just snuggles around as you touch her. They think that one of us can hold her soon. Claire is ramping up on breastmilk and weaning down on the IV nutrition. Here is a picture of her and I don’t know if you can tell from the size of this picture but she is going to be very blonde because she’s already more blonde than Luke was as an infant and look how blonde he is now!

Kate’s situation changes often and has given us the feeling like we’re riding a roller-coaster. Yesterday we were ecstatic, and if we would have had time we were going to post a blog, because she had stooled in her diaper I think on Thursday and Friday – and that nothing was "oozing" from around that umbilical area. This was positive news and gives an indication to the doctors that the GI tract is functioning somewhat so that may rule out the possibility of a tear or complete obstruction. Fast-forward to today and Kate was back on the "oscillating vent" due to having bad blood/gas readings again. Since then she has improved on that front, but this issue with her gut is keeping them from feeding her (other than IV nutrition) which works against her ability to grow faster. Kate is quite the feisty one and likes to wiggle her arms and legs to get comfortable. Our best pictures of Kate were given to us by the nurses who take them once in a while but I haven’t scanned them in so Kate's pic is soon to come.

And last but not least as promised, some pics of Luke. We took him with Poppy and Grandma to see fireworks and at first he really liked them but quickly became more interested in his animal crackers. He was intrigued off and on but eventually got pretty tired and we headed home right as they were ending. He got to go to the Zoo today with Aunt Holly, Uncle Joe, and his two cousins JJ and Tyler and he loved it! Here are a couple pictures of little Luke.

A couple July 4th pics:

Just a random Luke picture!

Please keep all in your prayers, especially Kate and the doctors who care for her.

Week 1 Quad Babies Update

2008-06-30T22:07:00.001-04:00

We’re sure that many of you are wondering how the "lemon quads" are doing. So many of you have called, sent cards, volunteered meals, offered to watch Luke, etc. and we are truly grateful. We hope that you’ll understand if we haven’t returned your calls or emails. We’re still trying to recover from the events of last week both mentally and physically as well as trying to deal with the reality of having an 18month old who still needs our daily love and care and also dealing with the realities of having 4 tiny babies in need of intensive care spread across two hospitals in the hustle and bustle of downtown Pittsburgh. We assure you that we’ve heard every kind word or note you’ve passed along so don’t think your prayers and good wishes have gone unnoticed!

So here’s an update on how our babies are doing as of today (keep in mind this changes constantly!)

John Quentin – Baby A:
As you read in the blog from delivery day, there was much concern in the last days regarding our little boy. In addition to the hemorrhaging from the partial previa, baby John’s sac had ruptured, leaving very little amniotic fluid for him. The threat of infection became very great and John’s health was potentially compromised. As of today, we’re happy to report that John is relatively well and is experiencing normal premature issues for a baby born at 26 weeks, 6 days. Yesterday, John was breathing so well that they removed his ventilator and he began to utilize a CPAP machine to assist with his breathing. This is a step down from the ventilator and allows him to do more of the work himself. He moved back to the ventilator today but the neonatologist assured us that it’s perfectly normal for the process of weaning to involves going back and forth. We’re also happy to say that John is receiving normal preemie nutrition through intravenous methods but is also able to take some breastmilk, although in small doses. He has beautifully dark hair and seems to love to sleep all curled up on his belly in his isolette. His ribs seem very prominent in his chest and he’s definitely thinner than Claire or Elizabeth, but as of now, John is doing well.

Elizabeth Avery – Baby B:
Elizabeth is also doing well and when you look at her, she is obviously the largest of these tiny little wonders. She loves to squirm and we laugh at the crazy positions in which she falls asleep! She is currently having a Broviac line inserted into her chest, which is a fancy term for a central venous longer-term catheter. It is inserted into a large vein leading directly into the heart. It was decided that this would be best for Elizabeth as it would allow the nurses to draw blood and give fluids in a less intrusive way. Elizabeth is also currently using the CPAP machine for breathing although they’ll need to put her back on the ventilator during the Broviac procedure since she’ll be sedated. Elizabeth also has a small hole in her heart which creates a murmur. We’re told this is commonly seen in premature infants and is also referred to as a PDA, or a peyton ductus arterious. This hole can often be closed by using medications or could close on it’s own. In some cases, surgery may be required. Elizabeth is currently taking the medication route so we’re praying that this works so that no surgery will be needed. Elizabeth has light blonde hair and like her sisters, appears to be quite feisty.

Claire Renee - Baby C:
Claire has many of the same issues as Elizabeth – again, most of them are common for infants their age. Claire also has had the Broviac line inserted. She also has the PDA in her heart as does Elizabeth. She has had a course of medication and we were told today that the murmur in her heart is more faint. The doctors will wait to see if the hole closes for good on it’s own or if further medication will be needed. Claire is also on a CPAP machine for now. When we called to check on her early yesterday, her nurse told us that she had actually fussed so much that she pulled her CPAP nasal prongs out and was actually breathing on her for a short while! She seemed to do well but eventually ended up back on the CPAP. She’s receiving low levels of oxygen and doing more of the work on her own. Claire has blonde hair just like Elizabeth and fine little strands of it covering her tiny body. Everyone who sees her comment on the length of her fingers. They are SOOOOO long and thin! I like to say that they are dainty and ladylike. Claire appears to be progressing well so far.

Kate Mackenzie – Baby D:
Our little Kate has continued to struggle outside of the womb just as she did inside. As the delivery day blog stated, Kate was the tiniest of the four babies and also had this pretty rare duct remnant which doctors are speculating is connecting her bellybutton to her intestines. This connection is normal for an embryo but should be completely gone by 7 weeks of gestation. In some rare cases the connection stays and sort of grows with the intestines. Several complications can arise from this such as the bowels being twisted around it, or an obstruction due to narrowing of the intestines in the area (this is all to the best of my comprehension from the doctors). So Kate has not had a stool and even though she is on NPO (which means no food by mouth to keep her digestive tract clean) and only gets IV nutrition, she should still have a very small stool. Since she hasn’t the doctors are concerned and compounding matters are her X-rays. Her X-rays seem to have many highly skilled pediatric surgeons and neonatologists completely puzzled. It sometimes shows gas moving through some of the intestines down toward the rectum and sometimes it indicates that it’s building up and not passing through, which is concerning. Ultimately they would love to do an exploratory surgery to find out what’s going on in there but she’s so small they just don’t want to risk it. Just the other night we recorded in our journal that Kate had a good day (good blood/gas, O2 level, pressure, etc…) but yesterday, as the doctors put it, she had a bad day and they were kept very busy trying to get her readings in their proper range. Most of her symptoms would point to immature lungs, but on X-ray and listening to them they say they are fine – mystifying them further. In short the goals for Kate are that she would become stable long enough to strengthen and possibly endure the surgery if necessary, or that the abdomen issue would somehow reveal itself to them. Kate is tiny and all the nurses talk about how feisty she is, and like John she has dark brown hair.

As you can tell we’ve had a lot to learn in terms of NICU terminology and medical care for preemies. There are times we look at each other completely baffled by what the doctors are have just said. Sometimes they will take notice and even draw us pictures (but sadly sometimes we still don’t get it!!).

Tonight we ask you to keep our 4 precious babies all in your thoughts and prayers – and pray that God would bless them all with good health and that God would guide the doctors and nurses who are so highly skilled to care for them. Please keep us and Luke in your prayers also as we spend lots of time feeling as if we’re riding a roller coaster of emotion and stress. Luke is finally starting to feel more comfortable in our new home and we’re working hard to show him the same love and attention as always, in spite of the craziness.

Goodnight from the Lemonovich’s.

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-29T09:50:00.002-04:00

I don't know where to start. The past week has been one that I'm not sure I can do justice with words, but I'll sure give it a try over the next few days.

I'm going to post something short and sweet for now as I just arrived home from the hospital yesterday. The short summary for right now is that I am doing well (sore - but well!)and on the road to recovery. All four babies are stable for now with commonly seen premature babies issues. There is no mistake however that they have a very long road ahead of them. Claire and Kate are currently at Children's Hospital and John and Elizabeth at AGH. I'll give you much more detail in my coming posts, but that at least gives you the bottom line.

I want to tell you quickly how proud I am of the post John wrote just after the quads were born. It was perfectly written and I couldn't have done a better job myself. This man has been to hell and back this week and to write something so eloquent at a time when the health of his wife and children were in jeopardy is truly amazing.

I wanted to post this quickly and let you know how much we appreciate the outpouring of love, generosity and concern that has been shown to us. Y ou have no idea how much this has meant to us.

We're headed out to see the babies hopefully sometime today so I'll post again with much more detail just as soon as I can! We'll also hopefully try to post some pictures if we can.

Thank you all!
God bless,
Carrie, John, Luke, John, Elizabeth, Claire and Kate

Update - The Quads are here!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-24T19:05:00.003-04:00

I am working on a couple hours of sleep in the last 36 hours so I’ll start by saying that I hope this all makes sense. I wanted to give an update since Carrie has been in the hospital since Friday night June 20th and has not had Internet access and it’s been crazy and absolute chaos for our whole family since that night. Rest assured that Carrie will give a further description of everything from her perspective once she is up on her feet again and has time. The following is my account!

It all started Friday night when Carrie was rushed to the hospital via ambulance due to what seemed like significant bleeding. At the time this happened, Carrie was feeding Luke a bottle at bed time and just lying down. She was taken to AGH where they concluded that baby boy A’s placenta previa tore some blood vessels when the uterus contracted (from ordinary Braxton-hicks contractions all women have at this point in the pregnancy) and this also caused his sac to rupture. They were able to stop the bleeding and at that time gave her a couple steroid shots to promote the lung development of the babies in the event they were forced to deliver. At this time she had become very anemic and the doctors started blood transfusions. Her blood cell count was so low that they could not have delivered then even if they had to due to the risk to Carrie, plus they needed to get the pregnancy at least 48 hours further for the steroid to work.

So over the weekend Carrie became stabilized and we were informed that it was really day to day at that point. We were told the pregnancy could go on this way for weeks (which would be best case) but a number of different complications would force a decision to deliver – one of which was infection from the ruptured sac. Monday afternoon Carrie began feeling short of breath. As the day went on the shortness of breath worsened. The doctors were looking for signs of pre-eclampsia or high blood pressure but they could not find out why her breathing was becoming very labored. Dr. Celebreeze then came in from home and she had Carrie call me and her parents to have us come to the hospital in case she found something she didn’t like and had to deliver the babies. She insisted that the last thing she wanted to do was deliver them last night. So we call pastor Matzat and he follows me and Dick to the hospital. Dr. Celebreeze really got us through the next couple hours talking to us almost constantly while watching Carrie very meticulously. The doc at this point was planning to check Carrie in the morning and see how she was responding to the Lasix and she was hoping that much of the breathing problem was caused by the fact that she’s pregnant with Quads, in the last 36 hours had several units of blood transfused, had steroid shots, antibiotics, etc… But then the fever started indicating an infection was setting in. Just at the moment pastor Matzat was walking out – Dr. Celebreeze asked him to turn around. She told us the fever was going up rapidly and that she had to deliver.

I can not explain the fear and nerves that Carrie and I went through while they organized a small army of doctors, neonatologists, anesthesiologists, nurses, PAs, etc… Carrie was just devastated that she couldn’t carry the pregnancy any further. We knew that at 26 weeks 6 days that maybe the 2 girls (baby B and baby C), and the boy (baby A – who was now at risk for, or already had an infection) may have a fighting chance, but there was baby D (Kate)– the one who was always much behind in development. We thought it was just terrible news for her. At this point Carrie is really having a hard time breathing while they prepare her for the cesarean section and I was in such shock that I thought I was going to pass out or be sick.

Since Carrie already had an infection she could not get a spinal anesthetic and was under general anesthesia and was asleep for the operation. I was to wait outside the room right next door and they would call me in after the babies were delivered. I heard them one by one - a cry from each. That was the best thing ever. I knew that was at least some good sign and I thought “thank you God”. They had me step in and I found myself in a room not knowing where to look first or who to talk to or what to say. It was completely overwhelming. I froze completely. Then I looked around one by one at the little babies and I remembered from touring the NICU weeks past how small these babies are and so you would think I would be prepared for the sight of such small babies. I really noticed and paid close attention to baby D (Kate). She just looked so extremely, extremely, tiny. She made the 2 pound babies look huge. We then had to wait it our until they got them under control in the NICU room. There must have been 15 people in there helping and I was thanking God for each and every one of them let me tell you. I was also increasingly worried about baby A (boy) who one PA told me, looks like he had an infection and is pretty sick.

Next they let me and pastor come around to each one while pastor Matzat baptized each one with me there taking a picture of each (sorry I don’t have them ready yet – but soon!). After this pastor and I walked out of the NICU and just looked at each other … and we both had the same look. It was a look of awe on our faces. Things started to seem a little more calm and I was just waiting to find out how they were actually doing. Dr. Barbara Clouser came in and informed us that all babies were stable and breathing well and the weights were as follows:

Baby A – boy John Quentin 1lb 14 oz.
Baby B – girl Elizabeth Avery 2lb 1 oz.
Baby C – girl Claire Renee 2lb 0 oz.
Baby D (our trooper) – girl Kate Mackenzie 1lb 5 oz.

Dr. Clouser then when on to explain that tiny little baby D had an issue with her umbilical cord attachment area. They went to cut through it and they noticed some unusual dark color. They speculated it was a piece of intestine and that it may need surgery in which case they have to transport her to Children’s Hospital (thank God again for all the awesome medical facilities in downtown Pittsburgh) so that a team of Pediatric Surgeons could look at it. They assured us that there was no way they would have known that would happen when they started to cut.

So my sister and I head to Children’s Hospital in Oakland. There it was very tough to see little Kate in there knowing that a dangerous surgery could soon follow. There were very many nice nurses there who were answering lots of questions. The first surgeon came over and stated that they will be observing her and talking it over between the surgeons but he said that a surgery would be “very risky” given her tiny size. Later we talked with this same surgeon but this time with another, Dr. Kane. Dr. Kane was very nice and thought her condition was manageable and wouldn’t require surgery, at least not immediately, and may not need it ever. He wrote down the name of this condition that he said was very rare and had nothing to do with the fact that it was a quad pregnancy:
omphalomesenteric duct remnant

Dr. Kane was optimistic and said they’ll keep watching it and hopefully she can return soon to her siblings over at AGH!! As you could imagine at this point I’m going back and forth between the two hospitals checking on my babies and I can’t believe it’s all happening so fast and several weeks before we expected. Let me tell you it’s the most surreal numbing feeling ever.

Dr. Gothrie came in later in the afternoon to update us. He said they are all doing “very well” especially considering their prematurity. Things can still change on a dime as they are so vulnerable right now but Carrie and I breathed a monstrous sigh of relief and knew this was a miracle. Dr. Gothrie told us he had worked intimately with 15,000 premature babies over 40 years (he’s retiring in about one month!) and had never had a case of what Kate has with this umbilical cord – that’s just how rare it was.

Meanwhile up to this moment (where I finally came home to sleep for an hour or two but instead have been typing this) Carrie has yet to be able to see any of them. They’re hoping to get her into a wheelchair or something to go see them soon. Carrie is recovering very nicely she’s just sore and very tired. Her breathing is substantially better than before delivery and she’s improving all the time. She did so wonderful the whole pregnancy and I’m so proud of her. So all-in-all we thank God for Carrie’s health and our 4 precious babies and we pray they continue to grow and breathe better and better. Thanks for the many prayers from all of you (including all the people we’ve met on our journey), and please keep them coming. I’ll try to update with other blogs when I can but hopefully Carrie can soon resume the blogging since number one she loves it, and two, she’s much better at writing than me!

I"m finally starting to feel pregnant with quads....

2008-06-15T22:12:00.007-04:00

It sounds strange, but although I'm pregnant with quads, I really haven't felt pregnant with quads. It's felt about the same as my first pregnancy with Luke - a period of about 10 weeks(that seemed a heck of a lot longer than that!) of horrifically bad nausea, vomiting, dehydration, etc., followed by a period of relatively good health where I feel pretty upbeat and energetic and then the final trimester where the heartburn, shortness of breath, lower back pain and other joys of pregnancy rear their ugly heads again. I've always been so jealous of the women who have these beautiful pregnancies where they actually do have that Mom-to-be "glow"! It's just not me!

However, as I get closer to the 26th week, this quad pregnancy is really starting to feel different to me. The lower back pain is much worse than the first time, the shortness of breath comes from just climbing two or three steps, my ankles are starting to swell sometimes, and I honestly can't believe that my skin can stretch any further than it already has ( although I've seen the pictures to know that it is possible and WILL happen!) I miss picking Luke up and giving him big hugs. It's hard to even have him sit on my lap these days as he's constantly wiggling around and bumps my belly! There's just no room for him left on my lap! When people find out that he's only 17 months and I'm expecting quads, the first reaction is always "Oh my gosh! You're going to have your hands full!" DUH!!!!!!!!! I know this is true, yet in a way, I'm glad that he won't remember most of this incredibly crazy time we're going through right now. I'm also glad that the kids will all be so close in age. I've worried about him being the "outsider" while everyone gawks at the quads, but I think being close in age will actually be a good thing. And, he'll have his little brother to help him fend off all of those sisters!

Dr. Thomas' office suggested that I buy a support garment called a prenatal cradle to help with my lower back/tailbone pain and the heaviness in my stomach from carrying quads. So, I went online and bought one. Wait until you see this contraption!

It appears to be to more like an instrument of torture as opposed to a support garment! I read about it online and got a good laugh when the ad said "so comfortable, you won't even know you're wearing it!" Yeah - right! Have they seen this thing?!?!?! My initial thought was - only a man could have looked at this thing and used the word "comfortable" knowing confidently that he would never have to wear one! However, I finally received it in the mail yesterday and I have to admit, it's pretty comfortable and it does provide good support to my stomach and back so far, so I'm eating my words! Finally - something I've purchased that actually proves to be just as advertised!!! Ahhhh....what we women go through just for a little bit of comfort and relief!

My official last day of work at State Farm will be this Friday, the 20th. I've got a few vacation days to take after that and then I'll officially be on medical leave. I've always dreading leaving my job because I enjoy the work & it's just the perfect situation. State Farm has allowed me to job share for the past15 months since Luke was born. I share my job with a good friend in my office - Gina. Between the two of us, we split up the work days of the week so that we both work part time and get to spend half of the week with our little boys at home. Talk about lucky! I've been very fortunate to work for such a great company for the past 6 years. I'll really miss my friends there and have been dreading the last day, but I honestly feel like I'm at the point now where it's time to quit and take it easy. Getting up in the mornings to get there early are really tough on me. Although, getting up to do anything these days is pretty tough! Finishing work will give me a chance to focus on a few of the bigger issues ahead that I need to tackle - like finding a nanny to work with me to take care of Luke and the quads. So far, this has been anything but an easy task so I'll have some more time now to dig into that. Finding someone reasonably priced who isn't afraid to watch 4 newborns and a 17 month old isn't easy!

All of you who have been cautioning me to slow down and take it easy will be glad to know that I did quite well this weekend while my Mom, sister Susie and friend Barb came out to the house and packed up most of our closets and shelves. They got a lot of work done and we moved a bunch of stuff to the new house. I'm so appreciative for they're help! There's no way we could be doing this without the help of our family and friends. My parents and my sister Susie and brother in law Bill have been absolutely wonderful and as usual, have gone above and beyond. My sister in law Holly and brother in law Joe have also been amazing. Holly made the most beautiful curtains for my kitchen and has watched Luke for us and Joe has helped John paint, remodel our bathroom before putting our house on the market, etc. I've said it before but I'll say it again - God has blessed us so greatly with such loving and supportive family and friends!

In closing, I just want to say Happy Fathers Day to all of you Dads out there! Of course, I want to send a special message to my Dad, Richard, who is absolutely the best Dad to me and Poppy to my little one Luke! He drops everything in heartbeat to help us with whatever we need, when we need it and we love him to death! I also want to say Happy Fathers Day to my husband, John. I've written about him a few times before here on our blog and I won't go on bragging about him again, but he truly is a gift from God. He has been a rock to me throughout this whole journey and I know that there is no more perfect person for me in the world than this wonderfully loving, caring, strong man. Our children are blessed to have him as their father and I am blessed to have him as my husband.

Good night all!
Peace,
Carrie

25 weeks and counting....Thank you God!

2008-06-10T22:15:00.005-04:00

As of today, I reached my 25th week of pregnancy. I have to say that I'm pretty proud to have reached this milestone. When John and I had first begun to meet with the millions of specialists - geneticists, perinatologists, neonatalogists, etc - they had warned us that the baby being born anywhere near 24 weeks or so was extremely dangerous and that the outcome could be bad for our little ones. By reaching the 25th week, by no means do I feel confident that we're even close to being out of the woods or anything. I know the risks of giving birth anytime before my doctor's 31 week goal for us could be dangerous with serious consequences to their health. I just expected from all of the bad news that we heard initially that I would already be on bedrest, if not already living in the hospital by now hooked up to IV's and totally incapable of being involved in the day to day care of my little man Luke. As I sit here typing today, I'm still working part time (although read on to find out more about this), I'm still living at home, not on bedrest and still able to partake in some small ways in the care of Luke and our home. So, all in all, I count reaching this milestone as a real accomplishment and I thank God for the strength he has given me to be able to make it this far.

I had my latest appointment with Dr. Thomas today. We had a "growth and measurement" ultrasound which is the more indepth study where they not only review bladders, stomachs, etc. of each baby but they also measure and compare the growth of the various anatomical parts of each baby such as the humerus, the skull, etc. and they also assess their weights and age appropriateness in terms of their size in comparison to where I am in my pregnancy.

So.....without further ado....here's the tale of the tape for our munchkins...

Baby Boy A weighs in at 1 lb, 9 oz. and measures 24 weeks, 5 days
Baby Girl B tips the scales at 1 lb., 13 oz and measures 25 weeks, 2 days (what a chub-a-lub!)
Baby Girl C checks in at 1 lb., 11 oz. and measures 24 weeks, 6 days
Baby Girl D pulls up the rear at 1 lb, 5 oz. and measures 23 weeks even.

All babies looked good in terms of their analysis and in regards to Baby D, Dr. Thomas said "well, she's not lighting the world on fire, but she's hanging in there". She is still measuring behind her brother and sisters but has progressed, just at a slower rate. So, keep those prayers coming that all of my little peanuts would continue to grow and move forward and that especially Baby D would continue to get the nutrition she needs to thrive.

After the ultrasound, we met with Dr. Thomas. They measured my stomach and I measure just over 36 weeks pregnant (if I were carrying a single baby). Over the weekend, I overdid it a bit by working on packing up some boxes with John around the house as we begin to prepare for the big move on June 21st. I started to "spot" a little on Saturday and when I called into the answering service to speak to the doctor on call, Dr. Golde scolded me for not sticking to the "princess mentality" and sitting my butt on a nice cushy couch and letting everyone else do the work! As nice as this sounds, it's just not my nature to sit and let other people do everything in my house! I'm a little fanatical when it comes to have things "just so". I'm one of those crazy nuts who likes to vaccum because I like the lines in the carpet to all go the same direction - any of you know out there know what I mean?!?!?!? Anyways, Dr. Thomas again cautioned me on the dangers of not being careful with my activities, especially with the crazy heat wave that we've been having here in Pittsburgh for the past 5 days. I have known for sometime that I have a partial placenta previa (Baby Boy A's placenta is partially covering a portion of the opening of my cervix) and this condition can be serious if it doesn't resolve itself and pull back away from the opening. So, I need to be especially carefully with what I do. He also said that if it doesn't resolve itself, I could experience some bleeding because of this condition and as a result, I would need to move into the hospital full time immediately. I REALLY don't want this, so I'm going to give my best "Queen of the Couch" impersonation when it comes to our upcoming move and all of the other things that go along with it! Dr. Thomas also told me that it's time to stop working in about 2 weeks. I'm especially sad about this because I really like my job and the people I work with at State Farm. They are THE BEST! They had this beautiful baby shower/birthday party for me last week where they gave us gift cards for Target and Wal-Mart to use for things for the babies. And then of course, true to State Farm tradition, they had the best darn food day ever in our honor! Everyone brought in their favorite dish and we literally had a smorgasbord of yummy treats to indulge in all day long. I think I tried everything twice! It was so incredibly sweet and I am going to miss them terribly. However, Dr. Thomas said that I'm getting to the point where I should slow down and spend much more time lounging on the couch than at a desk so he gave me two weeks until I need to stop. I'll truly miss my buddies there.

I'll be going for my next basic ultrasound in 2 weeks on 6/24 and then again on 7/1 for a full blown detailed ultrasound.

It's amazing how quickly time is moving these days. It seems like just yesterday that I was only 12 weeks along. We've come a long way, we've got a long way to go, but we're doing well. Thanks to everyone for their phone calls, emails, blog comments, etc. They really keep me going!

God bless, everyone!
Carrie, John, Luke and the Lemonovich Quads

WE'RE MOVING!!!!! And other misc. ramblings......

2008-06-05T22:37:00.003-04:00

So many people have asked us since finding out that we are pregnant with quads – are you going to move? Where will you live? How many bedrooms will you need? Is your current house big enough?

Well, after months and months of considering whether or not to stay in our current house (which is big enough for all 7 of us but not the best location for family/friends to reach us) , buy a new house or build a new house, we’ve finally decided that we’re going to sell our house and move. However, instead of buying a new existing home or building, we’re going to rent a house in South Fayette for the next year or two. It’s the perfect situation for us – the yard is huge with a playground right beside it for Luke, it’s the perfect location for all of our family and friends who will be helping us out once the quads arrive and the rental rate is great and will hopefully give us a chance to save up and build our own place in a year or two that perfectly fits our needs. John and I are very excited about the opportunity, but it’s so hard to leave our home. We (mostly John) have put a lot of hard work into our current home and we just love it. It’s finally to the point where it’s just where we want it – just in time to move :( If only we could pick it up and move it to South Fayette, I’d do it in a heartbeat. We put the house on the market last Wednesday night with the help of our realtor, Kathy Pfister of Coldwell Banker (who has been great by the way!) and we've already had a ton of showings and very well attended open house so we're excited about the prospects of it not being on the market too long.

Anyways, we’re going to be moving on Saturday, June 21st, 2008. I’m not able to do a whole lot in terms of picking things up or packing, so I suppose I’ll be "The Field General" for the day telling people where to put this and that. The Gielarowski family from our church has been kind enough to let us borrow their moving truck that they use for their business so we’ll load up the trucks on that day and move everything to our new place. Many of you have asked how you can help. We can definitely use help on the 6/21/08. We’ll start that day at our house in Coraopolis around 9:00 am. We’re hoping to have enough help so that it goes pretty quickly. If you are able to help on the 21st, please email me at carrielw33@hotmail.com so that I can get an accurate count of how many people we have. I can also email you directions to our house if needed. Food and drinks will be provided by us to thank everyone for their help!

As for me, I’m still feeling pretty good these days although the recent heat wave has really gotten to me. I get so out of breath just walking short distances. Dr. Thomas did say that I am highly susceptible to dehydration, heat exhaustion and sun poisoning so that I should definitely stay out of the sun and heat. It’s so hard though because throughout the winter, Luke and I would stare out the window at that snow and I’d say "just wait until Spring, Lukie! There’s so many fun things we’ll do once the weather gets better!" I’m just dying to take him to the pool, the zoo, the park, Kennywood, etc. My cousin Lindsay is coming over on the days I’m off work and taking care of Luke so hopefully, he’ll still be able to go to a few of these places over the next few months with her. I’m just sad that I probably won’t be able to go too.

Our next appointment with Dr. Thomas is just a few days away – June 10th. They’ll be doing another ultrasound at this point to measure and weigh the babies and they’ll be able to give us an update on their progress. We’re praying that our little fighter, Baby Girl D, has caught up again to her brother and sisters. She sure has been kicking a lot lately – I think it’s her way of telling me not to worry . John and I are HUGE ice cream fanatics. Everytime I eat ice cream - which is nightly! - I swear they kick! Especially Baby D! Luke loves ice cream too so I think our kids will be just like us in that way!

Finally, I want to give a big shout out to all of the current and future quad families that have been leaving comments on our blog! The Murray Crew, The Steece Quads, The Burkett Quads, The Lewandowski Quads to Be and The King Quads to Be. BTW, the King Quads are also going to be 3 girls and a boy - that is SO awesome! I can't wait to find out when they are due! We absolutely love hearing from you guys and would love to email you about this amazing experience of being blessed with four babies. Feel free to email us at any time at carrielw33@hotmail.com.

Well, that’s all for now. We’ll be blogging again in the next few days about our awesome volunteer network that is forming behind the scenes and how you can help (as so many of you have wonderfully offered!) and we’ll also let you know the latest on our appointment with Dr. Thomas.

God bless and may the force of the quads be with you (hee hee)!
Carrie, John, Luke and the Lemonovich Quads

The husband finally chimes in!

2008-06-03T21:14:00.005-04:00

I’ve been meaning to make my first post for quite some time – at last here it is!! I’ll begin with my description (in summary) of the journey so far. It began on Feb. 4th which was the day we found out that our next "one" was not "one" … but four! As many of my friends and family know I had actually wanted a larger family and had hoped that our son Luke was twins and that this time it would be twins, well I got both the sets of twins at once! When the ultrasound lady told us "I see 4 gestational sacs" I can’t ever explain the feeling of shock. Yet at the same time somewhere in the back of my mind I thought…this will be great! Strangely enough I thought of practical things…what kind of vehicle can accommodate all those car seats, how many babysitters will we need, that’s a lot of poo and diapers :) , the financial impact, etc…

But then I found out the reality of the risks associated with a high order multiple pregnancy (which I really didn’t know about) and the worry and panic set in. Plus at the same time we had the doctors talking to us about reduction, and that one of the four (now baby D - girl) had incorrect proportions and may miscarry and/or maybe there would be chromosomal problems with that one?? I remember vividly the next couple days and those were the toughest days ever for Carrie and I. We spent a lot of time thinking deeply, talking about it, praying for guidance. It took a good 3 to 4 weeks to really grasp that it was really happening and looking back it’s all such a blur.

After the 12 week ultrasound and the baby D comeback we were gearing up for this and really getting behind each other. The research began, contact with other families with multiples (especially quads and yes, there are more than you may think). I remember one night when I watched the video of the murraycrew (www.murraycrew.blogspot.com) I really for some reason thought – I can do this…we can do this. We later learned that a couple from MI is in the same situation as us – almost to the week (and with a child already before the quads). BTW thanks for the thoughts and prayers we think about you guys often and wonder how it’s going. Here’s a picture that you guys can also put on your fridge for inspiration!! ;)

So the next entire phase is the "telling people phase" – man that was tough. Having to field the same questions over and over, having to watch the shock on faces over and over having to answer the "dude, what are you going to do?" questions, etc… I remember when I called the meeting at work and told like 20 people at once so as not to repeat the story over and over. There’s nothing quite like the look of total shock where everyone’s looking at you totally shocked. I remember looking at Robb Humenik who has a son Ryan, the identical age as Luke, and had just told us minutes before that Jess was expecting again. I remember the look he had…let’s just say priceless. Of course everyone was very kind and offered help and my boss Keith gave me assurance that he and my company would be behind me 100% which was much appreciated. So fast forward to today where Carrie is 24 weeks tomorrow and doing very well. I’m so proud of her. I’m constantly trying to get her to take it easy and meanwhile she was sweeping our house today and she still is working, picking Luke up, etc… Seriously, Carrie has taken this in stride and has made me a stronger person in the process. She continues to amaze me everyday with what a great mom she is, and will be, to our extra large family! My one friend said something to me that while he didn’t realize it, gave me confidence. He said "out of all my friends - you’re the one that can handle this". Carrie and I really feel lucky and blessed with this new chapter of our lives.

By the way we will be moving on the 21st of June. More details to come tomorrow or Thursday - I’m tired…triple overtime for the Pens last night (okay I fell asleep on the Pens I admit it and my wife said that I am giving up on them like Geno!!!)

Posts to come that I/we have been wanting to write:
1. The move to Bridgeville
2. Top 5 responses from people when I tell them my wife’s pregnant with quadruplets
3. A picture post with more pictures of our family(s)
4. A post about the "vehicle" possibilities

-John

Doctor's visit today...

2008-05-27T21:47:00.003-04:00

23 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow...time to go to the doctor's office again. I'm going every 2 weeks these days and I have an ultrasound at every visit as well as a quick visit with the doctor for the regular stuff (blood pressure check, weight check, "how are you doing" type stuff).

I was hoping that they were going to measure all of the babies again today to give us an update on Baby Girl D, but Bonnie, the ultrasound technician said that they will only do the growth checks once a month as any sooner than that isn't enough time to get an accurate assessment of progress and development. They did do an ultrasound, but this time they just checked the bladders and stomachs of each, the amount of amniotic fluid in the sac and the heartbeats of each baby. I'm happy to say all 4 babies looked good in each of these areas. One piece of good news is that Baby Girl D's heartbeat was 150 beats per minute - just like everyone elses. 2 weeks ago, her heartbeat was lower than everyone elses at 136 beats per minute. They got a nice profile shot of her today and as with all of my little peanuts, I was glad to see her squirming around and looking SO cute.

I met with Dr. Golde after the ultrasound and he said that I continue to look good. He cautioned that I will probably start to feel very "heavy and weighted down" over the next month. I told him that this has already started to some degree. I'm definitely starting to slow down. I get tired so easily, out of breath in a heartbeat and I have some sciatic pain in the right side that occasionally makes me catch my breath. One of the most important signs of pre-term labor is the shortening of the cervix. This is symptomatic of the body saying "Hey! There's a lot of weight in here! It must be time for this baby to come out!" Unfortunately, the body doesn't know that there are 4 babies in there so hence the term pre-term labor. They checked my cervix today and said that it looks great. No shortening has taken place.

My next appointment is June 10th and Dr. Golde said at this appointment, they'll do another ultrasound for growth assessment of all 4 babies to see how they are doing. Overall, a good appointment!

John, my husband, is going to post later on this week about some exciting news we have on the house situation and some upcoming help we're going to be needing. Check back soon!

Thanks everyone for checking in on us!
Carrie, John, Luke and the Lemonovich Quads

Doctors visit today...Baby Girl D update...

2008-05-15T20:39:00.009-04:00

As of today, I am 21 weeks, 1 day pregnant. I'm definitely beginning to feel LARGE! The low back pain is definitely increasing and I'm getting more and more out of breath when I try to expend any amount of energy. Honestly though, I really can't complain. For being as far along as I am and reading many accounts of women in my position already being on bedrest, I feel pretty good. I can still function pretty normally and I don't have any significant pain or problems, so I thank God for sustaining me.

Today was another office visit and ultrasound with Dr. Thomas. The office visit went well - I gained another 4 pounds. All of my other vitals look good and still no stretch marks as of yet - yahoo!!!! We had another ultrasound today to check the progress of the quads and to do some follow up views from our last appointment. Bonnie, our ultrasound technician, was great. Very friendly, very informative and more than happy to spend time showing us everything she saw and explaining what everything meant! I can honestly say everyone at AGH has been SO wonderful to us!

Bonnie did a basic review again of each baby, showing their head and abdominal circumferences, bladders, measuring their legs bones, checking their heart rates, verified appropriate amounts of fluid in each sac and analyzed their current weight. Here's how the babies measure as of today:

Baby Boy A - measures 21 weeks, 1 day and weighs approximately 15 oz.
Baby Girl B - measures 21 weeks, 3 days and weighs approximately 1 lb., 0 oz.
Baby Girl C - measures 21 weeeks, 2 days and weighs approximately 15 oz.
Baby Girl D - measures 19 weeks, 6 days and weighs approximately 12 oz.

Bonnie verified that anatomically speaking, all of the babies again look well and all necessary internal and external features were clearly visible.

We spoke to Dr. Thomas again following the ultrasound. He reviewed the photographs and expressed concern again regarding our Baby Girl D. He is concerned that she seems to again have fallen behind developmentally. He reminded us that she "lagged behind" initially around the 9th week when he was concerned that she may miscarry but instead, rebounded. His concern at this point, as he explained, is that when a woman is pregnant with a singleton, the typical placement of the placenta, which is the baby's food source, is centered directly in the front or in the back of the uterus. This positioning allows for optimal nutritional crossflow from both the left and right sides. When a woman is pregnant with higher order multiples, there is often a "runt". This would be Baby Girl D. The runt usually suffers because the placental placement is not optimal due to the sheer number of children in the womb. In her case, the placenta appears to be placed on the right hand side of my uterus which doesn't allow for good nutritional flow. He is concerned that while the others appear to be progressing nicely and right on schedule, Baby Girl D is not showing the same gradual progress. He said they will continue to monitor her closely and watch for growth. If she doesn't progress over the next few weeks, we will need to make some decisions possibly down the road as the pregnancy moves along about whether or not to birth all of the babies early in order to try and save her or allow the pregnancy to continue, realizing that she may stop progressing all together and/or could miscarry. Birthing all of the babies early however could cause a potential danger to all 4 children, not just Baby Girl D. This, of course, was very difficult news for John and I to hear, but we remain hopeful that our little girl will continue her feisty ways and keep fighting! We pray that she continues to grow just like her brother and sisters, but more importantly, we pray that God's will be done in the life of this tiny little girl. We trust that although we may not understand God's will, we can trust that he knows what is best for this small child. We talked about this in our bible study at church a few weeks ago - the hardest prayer to pray is "not my will, Lord - but THY will be done!"

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight". Proverbs 3: 5-6

So tonight, we ask:

1. that you to continue to keep our family and our quads in your prayers - especially our little Baby Girl D. We ask you to pray, that if it be God's will, that she would rebound again and continue to grow and progress.

2. that you pray for strength and courage for our family as we continue on this path God has set before us.

3. that you continue to pray for Carrie's health as we draw closer to the time when carrying out the normal functions of every day life will become more and more difficult.

4. that you pray for John who continues to take on more and more responsibilities around the house and with Luke as Carrie becomes less capable as the pregnancy moves along.

Thanks again everyone for checking in on us! We're so blessed to have you all on board! :)

Peace,
Carrie, John, Luke and The Lemonovich Quads

Welcome to our new look and...The Lemonovich Log!

2008-05-14T22:11:00.004-04:00

So, what do you think? How do you like our new look? In my travels through the net and researching various websites on having/raising multiples, I came across www.blogsbydanielle.blogspot.com. Danielle does "blog makeovers" using digital medial kits to customize your plain old boring blog sites like ours. I contacted Danielle and in just over a week, she did a complete makeover of our site! I want to give a big "thank you" to Danielle for all of her hard work - I love it!!!

I also want to give a HUGE shout out to a very talented woman who has become a dear friend to us, Natalie Popielarczyk. Natalie is the talent behind Portraits by Natalie (www.portraitsbynatalie.com) and the creator the amazing photos of our family and the individual pictures of Luke you see at the top of the our blog page. She has been kind enough to give us permission to use these photos on our page and is our official "quad photog" when the babies arrive! I cannot recommend Natalie highly enough - she has been wonderful to work with and you'll be seeing more of her amazing work displayed here on our blog over the coming months.

I've added the link to both of these ladies' websites under our "favorite links" tab. Check out their sites to see more of their portfolios.

Love,
Carrie

The Photographic Debut of the Lemonovich Quads!

2008-05-10T22:56:00.012-04:00

We finally got a chance to scan the pictures we got at the ultrasound on April 30th. Honestly, many of them aren't very recognizable, but there are a few we wanted to share with you guys just so you could see a few glimpses of them in all of their glory at this stage.

This one we like to call "family portrait"...

It's probably a little hard to see, but this picture is a head shot - top looking down - on babies A (boy), B (girl) and D (girl). Baby C (girl) is showing you a profile/bum shot! It really is an amazing picture - especially for me! When I ponder the fact that all of these children are inside of me, it sends chills up my spine!

Here is another picture of all four babies. Each of the shots is labeled baby A, baby B, etc.

Thanks for taking a peek at our pics! We'll post some more in the coming months as we have more ultrasounds and their images become a little more clear!

Blessings,

Carrie, John, Luke and the Lemonovich Quads

Reflections from Luke's Mom on Mothers Day....

2008-05-10T22:09:00.018-04:00

On this Mother’s Day Eve, I thought I’d take a few minutes to post a blog about the sweetest little boy I have ever known - my dear son, Luke. With all of the excitement over the past few months of finding out we’re pregnant with quads, trying to deal with my extreme sickness and weight loss, etc., my baby has managed to become quite the independent, adorable little boy you see here.

Luke is just turned 16 months and is every bit of what you picture a boy to be – filled with personality, loaded to the gills with energy, stubborn as can be and he has the knee scrapes, bumps and bruises to prove it! Although he’s your average “rough and tumble boy”, he loves nothing more than to cuddle up with you and read one of his favorite books – which lately is “Puppy Love”. He loves getting hugs and kisses and is good at giving them back. His latest is puckering up his lips up like he just sucked a lemon and planting a big smooch on you. It is simply adorable and makes melt. I look at him and I am in awe and so thankful for the amazing gift John and I have been given in this child.

As you can clearly see, he looks so much like me (that’s a joke, of course!) He’s the picture of his Daddy with the bright blonde hair and fair skin although the blue eyes come from me (and his Poppy!) He is very tall for his age (just over 33” already – another thing he gets from his Daddy) but he’s thinned out nicely as he’s grown. He in the midst of a hunger strike now – refusing to eat any meat or vegetables that aren’t in baby food form. I hate to say it, but he’s inherited my strange food texture obsession. He doesn’t seem to like things that are saucy or chunky. I know – weird! He also seem to like to smell things before eating them – yep, weird again! Fruit is his absolute favorite thing to eat right up there next to Goldfish crackers and raisins.

Luke is talking so much these days. He has always been a big “babbler” but lately, the words seem to be flowing out of his mouth like water. He says “Da” (which is Daddy), “hi”, "bye", “uh-oh”, “baba” (which is his bottle) and as of late, his new words are “all done”. It’s hard to believe that just a months few ago, I was concerned that he wasn’t talking more like all of the other kids his age! His personality is really starting to shine through and I’m so enthralled with being able to interact with each other instead of me talking and making silly faces and him just laying there giving me the “what the heck are you doing?” look. I give him directions and he actually understands them – hallelujah! It has a down side too because when I tell him I want him to do something and he doesn’t, I know it’s just that Wible “stubborn streak” running right through him! No doubt where he gets that from! :)

Now that the weather has broken here in Pittsburgh, Luke absolutely loves being outdoors. He loves to push his Happy Hopper and his small yellow bus all over the driveway and is fascinated by walking in the grass and feeling it on his bare feet. I’m hoping to be able to take him to the zoo, Kennywood and few other places this summer before I have to go into the hospital, but I’m not sure we’ll make it. He’s also really beginning to love playing with our dog, Sam. Sam is a big 90 lb. yellow lab who is very kind and patient with him – even when Luke gets a little rough. He loves to play with Sam’s tail and grab his dog tags to make them jingle. I have feeling these two will be great friends over the years!

Well, thanks for listening to me brag just a bit. Like so many Mom’s out there, I am just so in love with this little boy, so proud of how much he's grown and so grateful that I can call him my own.

I also want to send a special Happy Mothers Day to my amazing Mom, Carolyn. She retired a few years back but is busier than ever these days chasing around 4 grandsons – Augie, Jack, Luke and Sam – and with 3 granddaughters and another grandson on the way, she’ll be busier than ever in just a few short months! She has done so much for me, especially in the past 5 months since finding out I was pregnant with quads, and there is no way that I can ever repay her for her love, kindness and willingness to do WHATEVER needs to be done other than telling her just how much I love her and how much she means to me. Even today, on Mother’s Day, she is having a cookout out at her house despite our repeated requests to let us take her out to lunch so that she can relax a little! I give thanks to God on this special day for my Mom.

Happy Mothers Day to all of you current and future Mom’s out there!

God’s blessings on you all...Carrie

The Big Day...continued!

2008-05-02T10:54:00.006-04:00

Sorry that I zonked out on Wednesday without finishing the post about the remainder of our big day, but like I said, John and I were so physically and mentally drained, we had to get some sleep to be able to function today! We both agreed that Wednesday night was one of the best nights of sleep we’ve had in a long time! Last night, I actually fell asleep on the couch at 9:00 and didn't get up until 7:00 this morning so I think I've finally caught up!

Anyways, after lunch, we went upstairs and met Dr. Guthrie and the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) staff. We spent some time initially talking with Dr. Guthrie who told us a little bit about what we could potentially be facing in terms of NICU treatment and length of stay, all of which are very dependent on when the babies are born. If the babies are born during the 23-25 week period, they will no doubt encounter potential lung issues and for at least some period, will need the assistance of a ventilator to help them breath. The lungs are very stiff at this point due to their incomplete development so that babies have to take very deep breaths to draw in enough oxygen. This makes their chest rise and fall in a very profound way and although they aren’t experiencing any pain, it may appear that they are. At the 23-25 week range, the babies could also be faced with issues regarding brain development, the potential of some bleeding on the brain, as well as development of their retinas. In short, being born this premature can bring about quite a few additional problems then say for instance, a baby born 4-6 weeks later during the 29-32 week range. Even at this point, the lungs are typically not fully developed and the use of a ventilator could be necessary along with medications which help the lungs to mature more quickly. The goal is have the babies stay in the NICU until they reach certain physical hallmarks – which are usually achieved around the gestational age of 37 weeks or so. Dr. Guthrie said that they would need the children to weigh at least 4-5 pounds, be able to eat successfully from a nipple on their own, tolerate regular temperatures outside of their isolettes and breathe on their own before being released from the NICU.

We toured the unit with Dr. Guthrie and were given the chance to meet some of the nurses that were on duty. Everyone was so wonderfully kind to us. Dr. Guthrie told them we were having quads and they all cheered and said how excited they were to see us and the babies in the Fall. There are 5 neonatologists on staff at AGH, including Dr. Guthrie, and at least one of them is there in the NICU 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. We got the opportunity to see a set of triplets who were born there just a few weeks ago. All 3 are doing well and are continuing to progress nicely which was so wonderful to see! There were also a few sets of twins, some of which were just getting ready to go home which was also a joy. The one baby that I’ll probably remember the most was a single baby boy born prematurely at 24 weeks. He only weighed 1 lb, 2 oz. Honest to goodness, his little diaper was the size of my fist. He was so incredibly tiny and fragile yet absolutely adorable. Dr. Guthrie told us that despite his prematurity, he was doing well and growing and being fed intravenously through his stomach at this point to make sure he gets the nutrition he needs. He’ll probably be in the NICU for awhile, but his prognosis at this point is good. A bona fide miracle that little boy is!

Dr. Guthrie also pointed out to us that each of the isolettes had a handmade quilt on top of it and each baby had a tiny crocheted cap on it’s head. There is a local nursing home that has a group of grandmas that hand makes quilts and caps for each of the babies. What an incredibly sweet gesture to these tiny little souls from strangers who don’t even know them!

As Dr. Guthrie walked us to the door as we left our appointment, I felt an overwhelming peace and confidence that our children would be in very good hands under the care of Dr. Guthrie and the rest of the NICU staff. Overall, the day had been very positive, the news was encouraging and John and I both felt overjoyed with the outcome. I think we exhaled for the first time yesterday around 2:30pm!

So, that's the story of our big day. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We want to thank you all so much for being a part of this journey with us. There's lots more to come! We're going to start posting pictures on the blog here very shortly....we've got some great new pictures of Luke I'm dying to share and I warn you in advance, John has started taking some tummy pictures of me. They ain't pretty but they'll give you an idea of just how quickly I'm growing!

Take care everyone and God bless!
Carrie, John, Luke and The Lemonovich Quads (Baby Boy A, Baby Girl B, Baby Girl C and Baby Girl D! :)

The Big Day!

2008-04-30T22:01:00.001-04:00

Well, the big day had finally arrived. The day of our midterm ultrasound. Luke stayed overnight with Grammy and Poppy’s house so that we could arrive at AGH this morning, bright and early. Our sonogram was scheduled for 8:00am. We only got about 6 hours of sleep last night due to some issues with our fairly new hot water tank leaking, but I think we were running on pure adrenaline this morning anyways – lets get there, see our babies and move on! I have to admit that the anticipation leading up to this ultrasound, as I’ve mentioned before, has been quite great and scary. The potential for anatomical malformations was a very real possibility. John and I both knew this, yet knowing it didn’t make the wait for the ultrasound any easier. I just wanted it to be over with. My prayer the last few days was for that “peace that passes all understanding” mentioned in Philippians 4:7. I prayed it would rest on both John and I and our family and friends as we began to see the babies and hear the results of what we were seeing. We had a wonderful ultrasound technician named Nicole. She was very kind and did a great job of explaining everything she was doing and very informative in detailing what we were seeing. We talked a lot through the ultrasound, not only about the babies but about other things as well just to help pass the time. I was really thankful for such a kind and caring technician.

As the ultrasound began, she started by doing just a quick scan of all four babies, showing us all four and their location. She likened the uterus to an apartment – poor Baby A is the first baby and furthest down closest to the cervix – the small, cramped basement apartment building. This baby is positioned transversely at this point (that is, laying left to right). Baby B is just above Baby A and is also laying transversely. Baby C is in the upper left quadrant and is breach (laying vertically, feet first) as of now and Baby D is in the upper right quadrant (loving referred to by Nicole as the “penthouse suite”!) and was actually moving so much, I don’t even remember what position it was in! Nicole was very certain to take the time to show us each and every detail of Baby A just so that we could familiarize ourselves with what she and we would be looking for so Baby A took a little longer than the rest. Ultrasound is such a common thing today – it’s easy to forget what a miracle this tool is in allowing us to see the development of these little lives as they progress! We saw many of the anatomical parts of the baby – lenses (eyes), the heart with all four chambers, left and right arm and leg bones, the lobes of the brain, ears, feet, fingers, kidneys and many other internal and external features. At the end of the anatomical review, she asked “would you like to know the gender of the babies?” John and I both gave a resounding “yes!” Baby A is a beautiful, healthy looking little boy! Hallelujah – a playmate and boy buddy for Luke! We moved onto Baby B and Nicole did the same, meticulous review of this baby and all of the same anatomy. Again, a baby that appears to be strong and progressing nicely! Baby B is a beautiful little girl! I can almost hear the Wible/Lemonovich women giving a collective “yahoo!” from here! We took a slight break and went onto to do Baby C and Baby D. We finally get the word from Nicole that she is finished and after about 3 hours – we hear the news that we were praying for. All four babies look very good, have beautifully growing hearts and all appear to be anatomically sound! It was sheer joy and thanksgiving to God that John and I felt for this wonderful news. We learned that Baby C is also a girl as well as Baby D. So….for a recap….that’s 3 girls and 1 boy!
Although knowing the genders of the babies is so exciting, it is inconsequential to hearing that so far, they appear to be healthy and progressing nicely. The most heartwarming part of the whole morning was seeing Baby D. Nicole said she appeared to be very “feisty” and was moving around like crazy. The reason this is so incredible is because this is the baby that they initially told us they thought would naturally miscarry as she was behind significantly in her development around the 8th week or so. If she did not miscarry and if we had decided to “selectively reduce” one or two of the babies to try and guarantee health to the other two babies, Baby D is definitely one of the babies they would have suggested reducing. And now…here we are…watching this feisty little girl kick and wiggle and show what a fighter she is. I thought about her the whole rest of the day. Just proof that God keeps his promises…he will never leave or forsake us…we can take that to the bank!

Here’s the measurements as of today for all four babies:

Baby A – boy – 10 oz.
Baby B – girl – 11 oz.
Baby C – girl – 11 oz.
Baby D – girl – 10 oz.

All four babies measure, crown to rump, approximately 9-10” at this point.

Dr. Thomas came in at the end of the ultrasound to tie up a few loose ends. Baby D was hiding under my ribs and he wasn’t able to get a good picture of her spine so at my next appointment, he’s going to try again to get another snapshot. We met with Dr. Thomas for awhile after the ultrasound to do administrative things like blood pressure, weight check, etc. The good news is that I’ve gained an additional 9 pounds, so as of today, I’ve officially gained back all of the 18 pounds I’d lost from being so sick and dehydrated between weeks 5 – 14. I am officially 19 weeks pregnant as of today, but my stomach measures that of a woman at 29 weeks! I’m definitely growing! J

Dr. Thomas said that I need to keep eating as much as possible – roughly 4000 – 4500 calories per day! I need to eat lots of proteins and lots of high fat, high carbohydrate products. Great, right?!?!? This may sound funny, but I’m actually tired of eating! I feel like all I do is eat – actually, it is all I do these days! He informed us that typically, quadruplets progress at about the same rate as singletons up until around the 30th week. It is at this point that the mother is incapable of taking in enough calories to keep up the rate of growth as a singleton, so the babies growth rates tends to taper off at this point for quads. Not to mention the fact that there are four babies inhabiting that tiny space so it’s just not possible for much more growth to take place. He cautioned me strongly against lifting Luke or anything of any substantial weight from this point forward. He confirmed that weeks 18-23 weeks is the most common period for miscarriage in quads so I need to be careful with my movements and be mindful of my awkward center of balance at this point. He also cautioned me against being outside too much now that the warmer weather is approaching. I am at a high risk for dehydration and sun poisoning. So, no nice brown suntan for me this summer! Dr. Thomas did also mention that because my job doesn’t require any physical exertion and I sit all day, I can probably continue working through at least 28 weeks unless some complication would arise. I was glad to hear this – work gives me something else to think about other than myself! J

I’m scheduled to go back to see Dr. Thomas every two weeks for now. I’ll continue to have ultrasounds at each visit so that they can continue to monitor the babies progress as well as mine.

After a nice big lunch (yep, time to eat again!), we headed upstairs to the NICU for our tour and meeting with Dr. Guthrie. I’m sorry folks, but after getting up so early and having such an emotional day, John and I are physically and mentally exhausted, so we’re going to head off to bed. I’ll do another post though tomorrow about the NICU experience.

Thank you all SOOOOOOO much for your prayers and support as we approached this big day. We’re definitely not out of the woods yet by any means, but today went a long way towards increasing our confidence, easing our minds and strengthening us for the journey ahead.

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!

Peace,
Carrie, John, Luke and the Lemonovich Quads

Houston....we have a KICK!!!

2008-04-26T10:11:00.000-04:00

Mom and Dad stopped over last night to watch the Penguin game. We were sitting on the couch when all of a sudden, I felt one of my four little peanuts give me a quick kick in the tummy! I had just enjoyed some ice cream so maybe he/she was trying to tell me that they love ice cream as much as I do!

Anyways, that's the first real movement I've felt so far. How exciting to know that my little ones are growing and becoming more and more active! I say that now of course...ask me how I feel about it in a month or two when all four of them are duking it out in my tummy like the Pens vs. the Rangers!

I can't believe all of the wonderful responses we've had to our blog. I'm absolutely floored by it all. It warms my heart so much to know that there are so many friends and family (not to mention people we don't even know!) out there that are praying for our family. How truly blessed we are and how good is our God to share these blessings with us! Thank you to everyone!

Only 5 days until the big ultrasound...keep us in your prayers! :)