In the Short Rows Now

Amazing how time flies, whether you're having fun or not. Seriously though, since the day that Jo Ann and I first saw the 4 tiny flickers on the ultrasound screen, life has been just a smidgen different. How likely can it be that anything more exciting than this will ever happen to us? Ever. We are approaching 29 weeks, and in most of the literature that we have read, the average gestation for a quadruplet pregnancy is about 30 weeks. Yikes! Could be as long as 34 or so, we'll gladly take every extra day we can get. I suppose no news is good news, as they say; really more of the same ol' waiting game for the time being. We do have an update on our babies' weights and measurements. Last Monday (Aug. 18) the girl and one of the boys weighed 2 lbs. 5 oz, another boy was 2 lbs. 6 oz. and the other one was 2 lbs. 15 oz! I mentioned in a prior post the desire to have consistent weights. According to our doctor, better to have one bigger than the rest than one lagging behind. Just figures the big boy is the one standing on his head on Jo Ann's bladder. As far as measurements, (in terms of length) Dr. Conrad says it's difficult to measure higher order multiples. Says they're different than singletons. Makes me think of the monkey on the front cover of The Screwtape Letters. I don't think he can keep up with what belongs to who to be honest. As far as length, think about something that is about 10 to 12 inches long, like a football or a 10 to 12 inch chicken, that's probably about how long they are. Alan said all he could see was onion rings on the ultrasound I posted, and when I think about it I would guess that if you were to look down into a Sonic sack with a pair of night vision goggles, that's about what it would look like. Except they're moving. As you might imagine, coming up with 8 names is quite difficult, particularly when they require approval of 2 people with different tastes. But we've finally gotten them all named. And we ain't sayin'.
Naturally, people are curious in a situation like this one. And the most obvious question is "How is Jo Ann doing?" Well I'll tell you how she's doing. Awful. She's miserable. If you lived in the house I live in you would know that. But as an incubator, she is doing very, very well! I have to give her props for handling the imprisonment and boredom as well as she does. Somehow she manages to maintain some degree of cheerfulness even though she has to lay down all day. But I still can't resist asking her what she's got planned for the day when I go to work. She can't get up quick enough to kick me so there are really no consequences.
Tomorrow we go back for another ultrasound, and hopefully we'll get results from blood work and the glucose tolerance test she took last Friday. Again we thank you all for your concern, support and prayers, God has been so immeasurably good to us with these 4 little gifts and all the people He's surrounded us with.