4 Hour Shiftaroo

Sorry for my delay in blogging, but we are trying out the 4 hour schedule with the boys, meaning we have bumped up their feeds and their "waketime" so it's 4 hours between each feeding . It's always a challenge when you switch something in quadworld, but so far it's a go. The boys are eating between 7-8 oz a feeding now! That's almost 2 cans of formula a day! I think Brad and I calculated the other day that it cost about 7 dollars each time we feed the little birds (over 30 buckaroos a day). Isn't that incredible? There's no way we could do it without all the help we've received and we are soooooooooo thankful daily for our stockpile of diapers, along with many other blessings. We can't thank you all enough, so we will continue to thank you on this blog!

We are still thrilled that we aren't taking care of a post-surgery Brooks right now. We all celebrated Friday with a walk along the canal, downtown Indy. Perfect weather - low 80's with a breeze, not your typical July Indiana weather. We discovered that the canal is a great place to take the boys, because people are on the move. Let me explain myself.......when you have quads, like it or not, you are on constant display and interview mode. It's like we wear a t-shirt saying, "Ask us anything that comes to your head, don't worry nothing is off limits". While we love sharing the boys with everyone, and love sharing the story that the Lord has given, it definately makes you chuckle at some of the reactions and questions we get. You want examples? Oh alright....

• Are those triplets? Sextuplets? Whatever they're called
• You've got 2 sets of twins?
• Are they all yours?
• I hope you're done (having kids)
• That'll teach you what to pray for
• (In an Indiana hillbilly tone) D'jew take dem shots?
• And our personal favorite that we hear AT LEAST 10 times an outing: YOU'VE GOT YOUR HANDS FULL!

A girl even ran into a sign one day because she was walking and trying to look back at our babies at the same time. Anyway, it's a hoot, but it does get difficult at times to get from point A to point B. Needless to say, the canal was a very enjoyable walk, because we only got stopped a handful of times, since people are on paddleboats, bikes, even segways. By the time they counted all the babies in the strollers, they had already passed us!

We've been blessed this summer with visits with friends. A great suprise visit was from our friends, the Mathisons who have been in East Asia for the past few years. Amy was my Bible study leader/accountability partner during college.They are dear friends to us. It was wonderful to see their growing family and squeeze them in person.

Some other extra special guests include another set of quad parents, the Benners. We first met them at our first appointment with our high risk doctor during the pregancy. I believe I was about 10 weeks pregnant, and both Brad and I were tremendously anxious about not only having quads, but the mono-mono situation for Clark and Brooks. (If you are new to this "mono" language, Brad posted a great explanation in December on our pregancy blog.) Denise and her quad squad were getting their pictures taken for a brochure for our doctor's office, since she had such an amazing pregnancy. I tease her that she's the "postermom for quads". Just to see 4 healthy babies crawling up on her lap was a realization to us that this was truly possible. God has really used them in our lives as an encouragment and a tremendous resource to bounce questions off of sometimes weekly. It was great to have them love on our babies.

Speaking of quads, please continue to pray for Suzanne. She is hours away from 28 weeks! Remarkable! She is hangin' tough and enduring her hospital stay. Let me tell you from experience hospital bedrest is extremely difficult. Hands down the hardest thing I've had to endure. Please pray for her little ones Ben, Andrew, Savannah, and Ethan to develop and enter this world safely - specifically that their little lungs would start developing, that Suzanne could have the strength and sanity to keep pressing on, for God to give her husband Joe courage, wisdom, and strength for today and days ahead, and that their story would bring glory to God.

Friends and family are so valuable to us these days. It's been a challenge to stay "connected", but please know that we love you all!

Hope you enjoy the pictures - does that bring back any memories from the ole viewmaster days? Personally, I loved The Incredible Hulk reel. What was your favorite?

Adventures

The plan is to share this posting (this is Jen for now). Brad and I wanted to share with you one of our great outings with the boys. Who says if you have quads you have to stay cooped up forever?



Our afternoon started by making some wonderful visits with people we trusted with my life and the boys - literally. Our first stop: Dr. Sumner's office. Personally, I was thrilled to see so many of the staff that took care of these boys before birth. Their lives were valued highly and we are so appreciative and thankful for the care we received. I'm telling you, Dr. Sumner's is genious material (hopefully his head isn't getting bigger by this posting, if he happens to be reading - hahahaaaaa!). It's so strange to see this staff every week, and some of them everyday and then go 4 months without them! Introducing them to the boys was a real treat!




Dr. Sumners with our boys
I think the boys recognized Dr. Sumners from their birthday!





Since we were in the area, we decided to pop into the NICU to see if any of our nurses happened to be on shift. We saw some familiar faces there as well, including Nataline (Clark's primary nurse).


By then it was feeding time, so we headed to the lobby to feed, and there was Dr. Henry (my endocrinologist)and his wife. He happened to be there for a surgery. Very nice timing! His office is responsible for providing our stollers, which have been a huge blessing, as you can see.










Alright, I'll let Brad take it from here......


After leaving the hospital, Jen and I were trying to decide what to do. You see, our lives are now lived in 3 hour increments during the day. You plan everything you do around their feedings that begin at EXACTLY 9am,noon,3pm, 6pm, and 9pm. So, when we go out, it is usually right after a feeding and we either plan to be back by the next feeding, or we have to take one with us. What Jen wrote about above was timeframe number one. We fed the boys in the lobby of Women's hospital after coming down from the NICU. By the time they finished eating, spent some time talking with Dr. Henry, and got them loaded up, it was about 4pm.

We have two hours before we have to be home for their next feeding. One thing you do not want to do is be late for a feeding with four hungry boys in the van, that makes for a loud drive home! Since we already had the boys in the car, we wanted to try to do something else before heading home. We considered the drive thru, but as we passed Texas Roadhouse, my mouth started watering. Jen saw their sign that advertised two dinners for $13.99 before 5:30pm. In my head, I was thinking it would be nice to go out someplace and not eat in the car, but with four babies this seemed impossible. Then Jen said, "we could try it".

Thats all it took for me. I said, seriously? She nodded yes and I flipped a U-turn and went back. We then spend the next 5 minutes discussing how to get four carseats into the restaurant. We knew that the boys were sleeping, and as long as they stayed asleep, it could go really well, but we also knew that it could be a complete disaster with four little boys screaming at the top of their lungs.


Anyway, we went for it and they were angels! Isaac wasnt real happy with the country music when we first got in there, but he was back asleep in a minute or two. Jen and I ate in peace for the next 30 minutes or so, and our waiter helped us carry the boys back out to the van. It was just so great to push ourselves a little bit and get a little more confidence.

God has been so gracious to us in allowing us to figure out ways to get out and enjoy our boys. I cannot describe how much fun my life is right now. Many people comment on how difficult and hard it must be to have quads when we are out with them. But, what most people don't understand is how much fun they are missing out on. Yes, it is difficult sometimes, but I think for every difficulty that has been added to our lives, we are getting four times more joy out of too. So now, when people say that kind of stuff, I just think to myself how blessed I am to get to experience this awesome adventure that God has given us.

Murray Family Dinner

Steak Isaac?

Nuts boys? Come'on, they're free!

I told Henry he could order off the kids menu, but he fell asleep trying to decide.

Until our next adventure......(which begins at 9am sharp tomorrow morning!)

Brad, Jen, Henry, Brooks, Clark, and Isaac