We enjoyed celebrating our anniversary today with dinner at Chili Verde and a movie. Kinda crazy to think we'll have to line up a baby-sitter (or two) if we want to go out and celebrate next year. :) Can't wait!!!
Hope that you all had wonderful weekends and that you didn't have a case of the Mondays today. ;) My husband got in his last trip to Charlotte before the baby explosion this fall - it was jam-packed with golf, cornhole, darts, their fantasy football draft, and poker! So glad he was able to have a fun guys' weekend with his Charlotte boys. Back in Ohio, I also managed to have a jam-packed weekend - visiting Libby & family, heading to Tiffin for a night with my family, and then ending the weekend with a fun dinner with some neighborhood friends.
8/23 Appointment with Dr. Lindauer: Our appointment with Dr. Lindauer went well on Friday morning. During this appointment, we had to do the glucose test to see if we have gestational diabetes. Lots of people told me how horrible the drink was going to be - but I didn't think the orange drink was that bad. ;) They gave us the juice at our last appointment so that we could drink it an hour before our appointment. They drew our blood and told us that we would get our results over the weekend. We both received phone calls on Saturday from the office saying our results were available on the patient portal. The good news is that neither of us have gestational diabetes! Yay! (We celebrated with treats all weekend long.) We also found out that our iron counts were under 11 (both of us were just over 10), so we are anemic and need to take iron supplements each morning. My sister was anemic during both of her other pregnancies - so she wasn't surprised that she was again.
Since I have A-negative blood type, I also needed to get my Rho-gam shot during this appointment. The shot is needed just in case either of the girls have a positive blood type. During delivery, if my blood comes in contact with the babies' blood (and they have a positive blood type) - my body could create an antibody that would attack the baby's blood through the placenta. So this shot is done to protect the babies - should one of them have a positive blood type and our blood comes into contact. I will receive another Rho-gam shot within 72 hours of giving birth. The nurse offered to do the shot in my hip or my arm - I opted for my arm. It was painless and so quick - seemed like forever since I'd gotten a shot. So crazy to think back to April when daily shots were part of our daily routine!
The rest of our appointment was pretty routine - we gave a urine sample, they weighed us in, and checked our blood pressure. Dr. Lindauer said that we're both looking good - no signs of swelling in our legs. She used her little tape measure to measure us and said that we were both measuring at 31 weeks. My cousin had asked me if they use a different tape measure for singleton vs. twin pregnancy - so I asked Dr. Lindauer that most excellent question. She said that they use the same tape measure - but just expect for twin pregnancies to be measuring further along than someone with just one baby. So even though we were only 29 weeks and 1 day - it wasn't surprising that we were measuring at 31 weeks. We also got to listen to each of the babies' heartbeats. Chrissy thought that Baby Boy A's heartbeat seemed lower - so we're hopeful that maybe he flipped for his aunt. We talked about how we'll just have to play the deliveries by ear and see what happens. Dr. Lindauer seems very confident that we're both going to make it to 38 weeks. I love her vote of confidence and hope that she's right. As of now, we are doing very well and things look promising - but I'm sure things can change at any moment. She did say that if we make it to 37 or 38 weeks, we could talk about planning the births. So maybe 10/17 (Grandma's birthday) is our new target! As always, it was great to see Dr. Lindauer - she is just too cute!
Up until now we've been seeing Dr. Lindauer on a monthly basis. But we are now switching to seeing her every two weeks for the next 3 appointments. Then we will switch to weekly appointments. Kinda crazy that we have the rest of our appointments scheduled with her from now until the babies arrive. We will also continue to go to Riverside for our monthly ultrasounds - so two more of those to go. Since our one little girl has the missing artery in her umbilical cord, Dr. Lindauer did say that the folks at Riverside may want to do stress-testing on me. I need to ask Carol about that when we go back for our next ultrasound. Sounds like it would be a twice a week thing once I hit the 32 week mark. Whatever they need me to do - I will do. :) Next week will be a fun week - we have our monthly ultrasound on September 4th and our next appointment with Dr. Lindauer on September 6th.
4 Baby Books.... CHECK! :)
Baby Books: Last weekend I stopped by Hallmark to get some baby books for our little ones. I've given baby books as baby gifts to others and always knew that I would want Hallmark baby books for my kids someday. Although there were some gender neutral books - I decided upon two boy baby books and two girl baby books. Of course my local Hallmark only had one of each kind - so they had to call over to the other Hallmark store to see if they had them in stock. The good news is that they did - so I drove over to pick up my other two baby books. I like how they have the customizable initial on the front - which will help us to tell them apart. So although we aren't sharing our baby names and the initials in the pictures are just the default initials that the books came with, you do know that the babies will have separate initials. You know how I love to document things - so I can't wait to start filling these out!!
Thanks & Prayers: We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers for our pregnancies and our 4 little ones. Please continue to pray for my IVF buddy and her hubby. They went through another cycle of in-vitro and she's now officially PUPO (pregnant until proven otherwise). Hoping that she's able to keep her PUPO status for the next 9 months and that they will soon have a little miracle (or two) on the way. I am so excited for them and hopeful that this is their time.
We made it to 29 Weeks! :) We were supposed to have our appointments with Dr. Lindauer today, but they got cancelled because she got called out for a delivery. So somebody got to meet their baby today - so exciting!! We got rescheduled for tomorrow morning, so no big deal. My husband left for Charlotte tonight for a guys' weekend - so he will unfortunately miss the rescheduled appointment. But I will be sure to fill him in with all the details! ;)
Cute homemade card that my husband's coworkers gave him last week!! :)
Last Sunday we fully tested out the entertainment system in our new mini-van. We headed up to Akron to meet up with some of my old friends from my Akron days. I drove and sang the whole way up and back - flipping thru the Sirius radio stations. Joby sat in one of the captain chairs in back and watched movies using the wireless headphones - Talladega Nights on the way up and Happy Gilmore on the way home. More importantly we learned that I can listen to Sirius thru the speakers while he listens to the Reds baseball games on AM radio using the headset. ;)
Everyone please say some prayers for my IVF buddy and her hubby... hoping that 2013 will bring them positive pregnancy news as well. As happy as we are about our bundles of joy, our hearts still break for those that are still struggling to start their family. We know that pain and it's something you don't forget.
Good Evening! Is it really already the middle of August? This summer is just flying by. Our local school district already went back to school this past Wednesday. Hope that Glen Oak Elementary is ready for our 4 kiddos in the fall of 2019. :) So our July was super busy and the 1st half of August has really been no different.
“4” Shower: We kicked off the month with a fun “4” themed shower in Galion – hosted by my LGQ girls from OU. They did a great job planning the shower while all being in separate cities! And their “subtle 4 theme” was so cute – they had 4 little duckies floating in the punch bowl, 4 types of fruit on the fruit-ka-bobs, petit four cakes, a huge “4” hanging up in the kitchen, and we played a couple “4” themed games. The one game was a “Final 4” bracket of 64 names – 32 boys and 32 girls. Each guest was asked to fill out the bracket and see how close they got to the bracket that Joby and I filled out together. Of course the bracket did not have our real names – just random names that the girls thought of from movies, TV shows, etc… Such a cute idea!
Our "Final Four" bracket :)
The other game was based on the board game “What Were You Thinking?” – that we played a lot in college. The goal is to come up with the same answers as everyone else. One question was, “What is the first 4 things that come to mind when you think of quadruplets?” It was entertaining to hear everyone’s answers. I had things like “fun” and “Johnstons” written down. Other ladies had things like “insomnia” and “scary.” ;) When they had to share their answers they would say it and then look at me and say, “Sorry…” I didn’t really mind – I know that I’m naively optimistic about how things are going to go when they all arrive.
After the games it was time to open presents! Although I love getting presents as much as the next girl, I was shocked at how awkward I felt opening gifts at my bridal shower back in 2005. But I think opening baby gifts are a little easier than opening wedding gifts for some reason. We received so many wonderful gifts - everyone also gave us a children’s book, which I loved! During the shower I gave my sister a new charm for her Pandora bracelet that has 4 hearts on each side – to help remind her of the 4 babies that wouldn’t be on their way without her gracious sacrifice of love. I didn’t really think it would make her cry – but Joby was right, the waterworks definitely began. ;) After all the presents were opened, I said a few words to thank everyone for coming and for all of their enthusiasm for the babies. And also thanked those that had been waiting awhile for the babies – which caused me to also shed a few tears. Happy tears, of course! Such a wonderful shower shared with a lot of OU friends, my mom, my sister, and representation from the Harbaugh, McMullen, Turner, and Arata families as well. Thanks to Sherri, Jessica, & Lauren for an awesome shower that I will never 4-get. :)
4 little duckies in a punch bowl! :)
The LGQ Girls :)
Alphabet Painting pARTy: Now that the nursery walls are all painted, we needed to figure out what to put on the walls. And by “we” – I mean Elphie, of course! She found a picture of some wooden alphabet letters hanging on a nursery wall that I loved – so we decided to make that a reality. She found a set of wooden alphabet letters that I ordered via Amazon. And so we had a painting party at her house with my Columbus girls to paint the letters. Luckily, my friends and sister are MUCH more creative with their painting style. Although I like to draw, I am not a good painter and stress myself out. I wanted to just have my letters be solid letters – but it was not allowed, so reluctantly I tried to make some designs on mine. With all of the amazing letters that everyone else painted – the set as a whole looks so great. I can’t wait to figure out how we’re going to hang them in the nursery! Thanks to Elphie for hosting the painting pARTy and to Katie, Mel, Sara, Chrissy, Davina, & Jess for coming over to paint!
8/8 Ultrasound: We had our monthly ultrasound with Carol at Riverside last Thursday. So fun to check in on the kiddos! As usual, we started off checking in on the boys. Much to their aunt’s dismay, the boys are still breach. Baby Boy A is the lower of the two – so he’s the one that we need to flip around, in order for Aunt Chrissy to avoid a C-section. Carol said that there was still time and space for Baby Boy A to flip around. Chrissy asked if she should start to get used to the idea of a C-section and Carol said that it probably wouldn’t be bad to start thinking about it. Baby Boy A is on her left and she said she had been talking to the baby on the right – so at least she knows where to focus her energy going forward. Last month the boys were facing each other, but Carol showed us that they were actually spooning each other that day - with Baby Boy B in the back of Baby Boy A. Baby Boy A must be stressed out about the pressure to flip from his aunt, because his heart rate was at 165. Baby Boy B was much more relaxed with a heart rate of 136. J After taking various measurements – Baby Boy A is estimated to weigh 2 lbs 1 oz and Baby Boy B is estimated at a 2 lbs 5 oz. Crazy to think my sister is carrying 4 lbs and 6 oz of Johnston boys in her!
Next it was my turn! First, Carol checked in my two fibroids. They just want to monitor them to make sure they don’t get too big and that they don’t get in the babies’ way. The fibroids did seem to grow a little – but since they are still on the outer wall and not in the babies’ way, it’s nothing to be concerned about. Both girls are head down and they were actually facing each other with their spines on the outside. Both girls’ heart rates were closer to Baby Boy B’s heart rate – Baby Girl A was at 138 and Baby Girl B was at 134. The girls weights were estimated for Baby Girl A to be 2 lbs 3 oz and Baby Girl B to be 2 lbs and 1 oz. As you know, Baby Girl A is the one that is missing an artery in her umbilical cord. The fact that she's slight bigger than her sister and still in the same range as her siblings is a wonderful sign.
As always, it was fun checking in on the babies and seeing them on the screen in 2-D format. Since the boys were spooning and the girls were facing each other – it was tough to get any good pictures of their faces. But Carol did show us one boy and one girl with the 3-D ultrasound. They are starting to look more like babies – but the 3-D images still look kinda scary to me. ;) We will continue to have monthly ultrasounds as long as the babies stay inside – so at least one more appointment in September and hopefully one more in October. September 4th is our next ultrasound with Carol – looking forward to seeing how big the babies are by then!
Froggy Shower & Diaper Party: Last weekend we had another shower – this one was local and thrown by my Columbus girls and my sister. This one was a froggy themed shower and probably the fanciest froggy shower you could ever imagine. Katie hosted and the girls did a great job decorating – thanks to some help from Kimmy B. Elphie made the froggy shower cake – a cake she’s been dreaming about making for YEARS. It was so amazing as you can see below. (Of course back then, she always said that they’d have to have my shower at the Nationwide arena downtown.) Sara also made these super-cute froggy cake-pops! Both the cake and cake-pops looked too cute to eat – but they were both quite yummy.
I ended up being about 25 minutes late to my own shower that morning. Luckily, my guests were understanding and they waited for me to arrive. Pretty sure it’s bad etiquette to be late for your own party – but me being late probably isn’t too shocking for those that know me. I actually showered and got ready ahead of time – but I was waiting for my mama to get into town. She had to work that morning back in Tiffin. We ate all of the delicious food that the girls had put together and just hung out for a little while. After that, it was time to play one quick shower game – which my mom did not play. She’s pretty famous among our friends for something she said at Chrissy’s baby shower years ago, “I hate stupid baby shower games.” ;) Tracy was our game host and she played songs with “baby” in them and everyone had to guess the title/artist for each song. I had actually made a similar kind of playlist for my IVF buddy – so I was familiar with most of the songs. With my love/obsession for music, it was a perfect shower game. Then it was time to open gifts! Since I had gotten some practice in at the Galion shower the weekend before, I felt more relaxed opening these gifts. Again, everyone was so generous and thoughtful with their gifts. Saying “thank you” just doesn’t seem like enough to express how much love we are feeling from everyone. Just like the Tiffin open house and the Galion shower, everyone was asked to bring a book for our kiddos. I love how our book collection continues to grow! During the shower, I got a little something for my sister again. This time I gave her some small decorate plates and a plate hanger - each of the 3 plates referenced her roles as mom, sister, and aunt. ;) The Troy/Columbus girls also went in on a gift certificate for her at a local spa - so sweet and thoughtful!
For this shower, we had my Troy girls (not sure that anyone’s husband has a more amazing set of friends from high school), my other Columbus girls, Debbie (thanks for making the trip), my sister, my mom, my aunt from Pittsburgh, friends from work, close neighbor friends, and some Troy kids’ mamas. So after all of the gifts were opened and I started to say a few words to thank everyone – the tears just started pouring out. At one point I felt like I was almost bawling– though they were happy tears. The majority of the folks at this shower have definitely been in for the long haul throughout this journey and since they are local – they’ve been a strong support system for us. I can’t even remember all that I said – but after I had managed to collect myself a little bit I do remember ending with something like, “We apologize for the delay and appreciated your patience along the way!” Thanks to Katie, Erin, Chrissy, Mel, Tracy, & Sara for such a wonderful shower!
My AMAZEBALLS froggy cake! :)
Adorable Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, & Thing 4 onesies with matching (homemade) blue hats from Kadi & Jenny!
The fun didn’t stop with the froggy baby shower that day – we moved the party to the other side of Hard Road for the diaper party honoring everyone’s favorite daddy-to-be. J I know that diaper parties are typically guys only – but this one was co-ed. As soon as we found out that we were pregnant, Brenda has insisted on hosting the diaper party and she definitely did not disappoint. At first, everyone was just hanging out on the back patio and seemed like it was going to be a chill kinda night. But the party definitely got kicked up a notch after someone suggested that they play “flip cup” sometime around 6 o’clock. Although we do hang out with this group of friends quite a bit – I can’t remember the last time any drinking games were played. But since it was a diaper party and most people had baby-sitters lined up for their kids – it was a great reason for them to cut wild and celebrate with Joby. Luckily, I don’t really mind being sober and hanging out with drunk people – they really are quite entertaining. I was happy to document the night with my camera and make a couple beer runs and take some of our friends home at the end of the night. Although we did get a TON of diapers from the party – the best part really was all of the priceless memories made at the “diaper party of the century.” Thanks to the Gerschutz for hosting and for everyone that was able to attend! Although our best man made the trip up from Charlotte to celebrate with us - the Braby family beat him out for the “traveled the furthest” award – all the way from California! ;)
Diaper Party + Flip Cup = Priceless Memories
28 Weeks & Counting…. It is crazy to think our little quadruplets have made it 28 weeks already. Sometimes I feel like they’re going to just stay in their wombs forever – but I love knowing that we’re going to meet them in 10 weeks or LESS. Although I’m anxious to meet them – I’m hoping we meet them closer to 38 weeks. As you may recall, our friends the Robbins’ had their twin girls this past February at 28 weeks. And their advice to us this week was to NOT have our babies at 28 weeks. ;)
Overall, we are both still feeling pretty good! The third trimester is pretty young, so I’m sure the larger we get – the more uncomfortable we may get as well. Chrissy has been getting charlie horses at night for quite some time. After telling my OU girls that I haven’t gotten any charlie horses, I got my first one that night in my calf. I wasn’t sure what to do – tried to point my toe, but that made it MUCH worse. So I did what any pregnant girl would do – woke up my husband! ;) He helped me to flex my foot and it went away. The next morning when I told my friends, they asked if I got up and walked around. Apparently, that’s what you’re supposed to do. My sister couldn’t believe that I had woken up Joby for my charlie horse. That was back in the beginning of August and I got my 2nd charlie horse last night. My husband is traveling for work this week – so I didn’t have the opportunity to wake him up! I did get out of bed and walked it off – it was painful, but eventually went away. For the first time in my life, I am experiencing some heartburn – at least that’s what I think it must be. Although I get it from time-to-time – I haven’t really put much effort into figuring out what foods are causing it to happen. Friends have asked if I’ve taken any Tums – but I haven’t yet. It doesn’t really bother me that much when it’s happening and I never think of it when I’m at the store. My sister hasn’t been having any heartburn – so maybe it is just when you’re carrying girls (this must be how these old wive’s tales get started). ;)
Other than my two charlie horses and occasional heartburn, I am noticing that things that wouldn’t normally wear me out are starting to wear me out sooner than I expect. Sometimes just walking down the street to my sister’s house will get me out of breath a little. And walking up the stairs will also do it. One day I went grocery shopping during my lunch break and realized half-way through the grocery store that I was going to have to carry my cold items into the building to be refrigerated for the afternoon. I managed to carry my one bag of cold groceries, a gallon of milk, and my purse into the buildling and get it into the fridge. When I was leaving – I also had my laptop bag on top of everything else. I would’ve asked for help – but most folks had already left or were in meetings. So I tried to carry it all and ended up leaving my groceries/milk in the grass on my walk to my mini-van. Then I just drove the mini-van up to pick up my groceries/milke. Seemed pretty pathetic at the time, but I figured taking it easy was best for the babies. All in all, really nothing to complain about – so far this pregnancy has been so good to us!
Both the boys and girls are moving around like crazy inside our bellies. Although I’ve been feeling the girls for a while, their movements definitely feel stronger these days. I can feel more movements rather than just a little flutter. As I was blogging tonight, I swear the girls were having a dance party inside my belly. I lifted up my shirt and was able to actually see them moving around on the outside, too. They must like the songs being played on my Pandora station! Alrighty - it's waaaay to late, this mama-to-be has GOT to go to bed. :)
Today would've been Casey's 34th birthday - so hard to believe she was taken from this world at the young age of 18. Although we all miss her down here, I'm sure she's doing amazing things up in heaven and watching over us all. I'm thankful for the years I had with her and so grateful to still be in touch with her wonderfully strong and beautiful family! So great seeing her parents and two of her little sisters at our shower in Tiffin. Looking forward to having Casey's little sister, Taylor, take some newborn photos of our babies this fall.
Earlier this summer I was looking for my Casey necklace (pictured below), but couldn't find it. Tonight as we were cleaning out our guest room for my OU girls, I found it in a little heart-shaped jewelry box. When I told my hubby he said, "How fitting that you found it today on her birthday." :) Good night!!
My husband and I got married in 2005 and tried to start our family back in January 2008. We started our 1st round of in-vitro in December 2010 - which is when this blog was started. Despite a near perfect cycle, it resulted in a negative pregnancy test in February 2011. We were fortunate to get 6 extra embryos from that cycle that were frozen. In March 2011 we started a Frozen Embryo Transfer cycle. Despite another great cycle (on paper), all 6 of our frozen embryos had to be thawed to get 2 good ones for transfer - which failed to result in a pregnancy. In 2012, we took the first half of the year off and then tried a couple rounds of IUI with and without fertility shots - still no baby. In 2013, we did our 2nd round of in-vitro with my sister offering to be our gestational carrier. We ended up transferring 2 embryos into each of us and were blessed to welcome 4 babies in October 2013.