**The following entries are taken
with permission from www.4tunate.net. Please visit that blog for updates
on the family as well as frugal living, faith journey, family-friendly foods,
and finding joy in the every day!***
On February 2, 2007, we became parents to quadruplet boys: Henry, Brooks,
Clark, and Isaac. Originally, this blog started as a way to keep family and
friends on board with updates and prayer requests during our extreme high-risk
pregnancy. Since then, it has “multiplied” into a collection of our family adventures, frugal living on a
“quad budget”, our faith
journey, family-friendly
foods, and finding joy in the every day.
We thank God for His immeasurable
blessings and hope that our blog can be a source of encouragement to your faith
as well!
From http://www.4tunate.net/2009/03/keepin-it-real-rewinds-10/
I don’t know if I’ll get through
this post without fighting back tears, but I’ll give it my best shot…
Two weeks after the shock of our
lives, (finding
out we were expecting triplets), I found myself back on that same cold
table, staring blankly at the black and white screen. I immediately saw
the three oval-shaped sacs, and watched breathlessly as she examined each one
closely for a heartbeat. Tiny little blips flashed on the screen proving
life still existed. We knew that during the first trimester, there were
certainly no guaranties. As she scanned the final sack, something caught my
eye. Before a word was spoken, I saw it. I knew with certainty that
this sac was not like the other two. Time stood still in that defining moment.
There were two flashing heartbeats in one sack.
History was written in a
conversation that went down something like this:
Me:
"There’s two in there, aren’t there?"
Nurse Lisa: "What?"
Brad: "Huh? What? Are there? Are we talking four
babies?"
*Blurry screen*
Our Doctor took over the ultrasound
from there…
He examined it closely in what
appeared to be disbelief. He confirmed soberly there were indeed four and
waited for me to get dressed to meet with him in the conference
room.
I remember looking at Brad who was
standing behind me, making sure he wasn’t going to pass out. He looked so
dismayed and distraught. I was instantly flooded with emotions and ten thousand
questions. I felt overcome with guilt, fear, panic, grief, pain,
disappointment, and disbelief; Yet I remained emotionally unresponsive in
appearance. I couldn’t cry… I couldn’t laugh a nervous laugh… I couldn’t
scream… I just wanted to pull the white sheet over my head, and disappear from
this new reality.
Instead, the nightmare worsened. We
learned that not only did we have an even higher risk pregnancy by the
increased number, but we were facing, (I quote), "Pretty much the
worse case scenario". Our worst case scenario involved a rare form
of twinning, called mono-amniotic twins. Monoamniotic twins are rare identical
twins that occur in approximately 1 in 35,000 to 1 in 60,000 pregnancies, but
had not been documented to exist within a quadruplet pregnancy.
A complicated pregnancy lends itself
to a complicated explanation. (For the record the incidence of mono-mono
twins or even having identical twins for that matter were unrelated to the mild
fertility treatments we underwent.) Without getting too ridiculously
medical, let me try my best to explain monoamniotic twins through a compiling
of these resources, for
those of you who may not be familiar with this terminology. (Illustrations
can be found here.)
Monoamniotic twins are identical
twins that develop inside the same amniotic sac. They share a placenta within
their mother’s uterus, but have two separate umbilical cords for nourishment.
This means that both babies share the same living space. They don’t just share
their house, they share a bedroom, bathroom, and playroom! Where as other
identical twins share an outer sac, but not an inner sac. They are
separated by an important membrane. Unfortunately, monoamniotic twins are at
great risk for health complications due to the close proximity of the two
umbilical cords in the amniotic sac. This makes it particularly easy for the
twins to become entangled in each other’s cords, or to compress one another’s
cords, endangering their oxygen and food supply. The survival rate for
monoamniotic twins is approximately 50%, but incalculably less within a quad
pregnancy scenario.
We walked out of our 8 week
appointment in anguish, after what seemed to be a death sentence for our four
little heartbeats…
But God had other plans.
From http://www.4tunate.net/2007/02/page/6/
Hello everyone,
Our boys are here and doing really well. The birth went very well and Jen is
recovering in our room again now. They all came out crying and breathing room
air on their own.
One of the boys is now on ventilation as he was not able to continue to
breath without assistance. The other three have continued to breath without a
vent, but they all have a long way to go before we can breath a sigh of relief.
But, God has given us five hours of life with our little boys already, and we are
thankful to finally get to meet them.
Okay, here are the names and weights that you all have been waiting for in
the order in which they entered the world:
Henry Samuel Murray
Born at 12:33pm
2lbs. 12oz.
Brooks Layton Murray
Born at 12:34pm
3lbs. 0oz.
Clark Thomas Murray
Born at 12:34pm
3lbs. 7oz.
Isaac Edward Murray
Born at 12:35pm
4lbs. 0oz.
Here is a picture of the boys just minutes after they were born, right
before being hurried off to the NICU.
Left to right: Henry, Brooks, Clark, Isaac
(Post copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)
From http://www.4tunate.net/2007/03/page/2/
Friends and Family,
Wednesday evening we finally went up and got Clark and brought him home! We
are so excited to finally have our family at home complete. After over two
months in the hospital, we finally have no reason to go to
St. Vincent Women’s Hospital
anymore. We want to thank everyone at the hospital for the amazing care that
Jen and the boys received.
We took our first trip out with all four boys yesterday since Clark got
home. The boys went to the pediatrician for a check-up and weight check. Our
boys are thriving and continuing to gain weight.
Updated Weights:
Isaac: 6lbs. 13oz.
Brooks: 5lbs. 11oz.
Clark: 5lbs. 1oz.
Henry: 5lbs. 3oz.
This will be the final post for this blog. We are so thankful for everyone
who has followed our progress here for the past 7 months. God is so gracious
and continues to provide in amazing ways for our family. If you would like to
continue to follow our family, please check out our new blogspot, I will be
posting pictures there in the near future.
(Post Copied from www.triplet-update.blogspot.com)
