May 6th, 2007: We took the babies on
a road trip today to a wine tasting event at Solis Winery. This was our
first "non-doctor" outing. We found a great out of the way spot underneath a
big shade bearing oak tree. The girls loved just sitting in their car seats
and taking in the sights, sounds and breeze on a balmy 80 degree Sunday.
Other than feeding, they pretty much didn't make a peep. We met all kinds of
really friendly folks who wanted to come over and say hi and meet the
quadruplets. Even the winery owners stopped by to say hello and offered us a
nice bottle of Cabernet to take home. The whole day was great fun, and we've
decided were going to take them on a picnic every weekend.
May 5th, 2007: As you can see by our
update frequency, things are a bit (understatement!!) more busy now that all
4 of our little girls are home. There barely is ever a minute where one baby
isn't stirring! Also, we've noticed that as they have gotten older they are
more aware of each other and if one cries, they all get started. They are
getting bigger by the day: Nina, Ally & Lauren are all about 9.5 lbs, while
Claire is about 8.5 lbs. The girls currently eat 1 can of dry NeoSure
formula (85 fluid oz.) and go through 1 bag of diapers a day. They went and
saw the Ophthalmologist for eye tests a couple weeks ago ... They all can
see! Talking about crying, that was a test they really hated. They got
dilation drops; then the doctor put this spring loaded clip device on their
top and bottom eye lids to pop them open. Finally he looked in with his
light. I think I'd cry too!! We are going to take them to an outdoor wine
tasting event tomorrow at one of our nearby wineries. It will be nice to get
out in the fresh air for a bit. Well, that's about all for now .... it is
feeding time (again!). I'll try to update more frequently.
April 3rd, 2007: Claire finally came
home yesterday. Now chaos reigns supreme at the Hudson household! And just
when we got the hang of caring for triplets... It's amazing how one
extra child makes everything that much busier. Nina and Ally started getting
fussy a couple of days ago. Sometimes there just aren't enough hands
available at one time. Feeding 4 currently takes us about 1 1/2 hours with 3
people. We have scheduled their feedings at every 4 hours. But even with 2
1/2 hours to spare, sometimes you just seem to finish and it's time to feed
again. The girls are growing like weeds already. Nina is 5 lbs 11 oz, Ally
is 5 lbs 7 oz, Lauren is 5 lbs 6 oz and Claire is 4 lbs 6 oz. It is a great
joy having them all home and count our blessings daily on how well things
have gone so far. We see the doctor again on Thursday. I'm sure another
adventure awaits... More to come.
March 28th, 2007: Claire will be
spending a bit more time in the hospital. They transferred her to a step
down, level 2 nursery. She wasn't in need of the level 3 NICU care anymore,
but the doctors want her to get to about 4 1/4 lbs before they let her come
home (she was 4lbs as of today!). It looks like she'll come home early in
the first week of April now. Yesterday's visit to the pediatrician reminded
me of Chevy Chase's European Vacation: Assembling the two twin strollers at
the last minute, struggling to get 3 squirmy girls into their car seats and
driving them to the pediatrician, dragging them through registration ....
I'm sure you get the picture! It was fun though and the quads' new doctor
was great.
March 24th, 2007: Our 2nd born quad,
Ally, was sent home from NICU today. 3 down and 1 more to go! Claire is
doing great. She just needs to catch back up on her feeding as she was on IV
nutrition for 6 days last week. Her doctor said we should expect her to come
home early to mid next week! Maybe she'll be home in time to join her
sisters at their first pediatrician appointment on Tuesday. We broke down
last weekend and bought a 2007 Toyota Sienna XLE minivan. The "Quad Car"
will be perfect for our needs: It has 4 car seat anchors and plenty of
room for the 2 twin strollers plus an extra adult.
March 20th, 2007: Our 4th born quad,
Lauren, was discharged from NICU and came home with us today. Two down and
two more to go! It looks like Ally will come home tomorrow or the next day.
Claire's PDA is finally closed as her echocardiogram came back negative
after her second round of Indocin. She can now get back to bottle feeding
after only having IV nutrition for the last 6 days. We expect her to
hopefully come home next week sometime after she builds her strength back up
a bit. Now that there are two at home, Mom and Dad are getting much more
serious about implementing a strict feeding schedule. The entire family is
overjoyed by the presence of these sweet little girls and everyone is
pitching in to clean, cook, feed, change diapers and wash bottles. A strong
support network is an absolute necessity when raising quadruplets!
March 17th, 2007: Today was a big
day as our first born quad, Nina, was discharged from the NICU and came home
with us. Lauren will come home next, probably either on March 18th or 19th.
Ally is half bottle feeding and half gavage feeding at this point but should
progress quickly. She just still gets a bit tuckered out when she bottle
feeds. Claire was diagnosed with a PDA (patent ductus arteriosus) which is
fairly common with premature babies. A PDA is a condition in which a fetal
blood vessel between the lung and heart does not close off at birth. It is
often successfully treated by a drug called Indocin, otherwise surgery may
be required to close the ductus. Claire's PDA was initially graded as large
via echocardiography but after her first round of Indocin, it is considered
small. A second round of Indocin is being given to hopefully close off the
blood vessel completely.
March 7th, 2007: The big day finally arrived! Today
the quads are 33.5 weeks old. Our scheduled C-section came off without a
hitch. Although it was quite a circus (25 medical professionals in
attendance and utilizing 2 operating rooms), the entire procedure went
smoothly. In fact the doctors were able to deliver the quads in the sequence we had
named them. Nina (baby A) came out first at 12:20 pm. Ally (baby B) was
second at 12:22 pm, followed by Claire (baby C) at 12:23 pm. Lauren (baby
D), who sat highest in the uterus, trailed the pack at 12:24 pm. Jan was
finally able to take a deep breath for the first time in many months after
Lauren came out! We were both very relieved when we heard all the babies cry
as they were pulled out. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend any time with
them as they were quickly whisked away by their individual NICU teams as soon
as they were delivered. Craig was able to visit them that night, but Jan had
to wait until the next day. The babies were all stable. In fact Nina didn't
require any supplemental oxygen or feeding tube and was taking a bottle that
first night. The other 3 required a small amount of oxygen delivered by
nasal cannula, as well as feeding tubes. We are so happy that the quads seem
to be very healthy at birth. With the potential complications that accompany
a quadruplet pregnancy, we feel very blessed that things seem to be
progressing quite well for them.
