Back in the Saddle...

It's official, folks.

Ever since being off from work I am officially the world's WORST emailer and/or computer user. I have just been SO HAPPY to take off the handcuff's from this darned thing - they've had a pretty tight grip for the past 8-12 years - and it's liberating NOT to be bound to an electronic device all day long! But weird too... it's been my lifeline (as I'm sure it is for 99% of you) for that long too. And to go from checking email 5-8 times/day (or more... cough, cough...) to checking it ONCE EVERY 5-8 DAYS?? Yeah... opps. Sorry.

Anyhow, I'm chomping at the bit to tell you all everything that's been going on over the past week, as Jeremy has done a great job of keeping you up on, so I'm going to BREEZE through the next 10 weeks here! Plus, I can't WAIT to start posting belly pics - holy moly! If I haven't warned you yet - NO SHAME for this girl!! So, for the weak of heart, I'll warn you when you are approaching one... because they are coming up quick.

So, back in time... (insert scooby doo squiggle lines and music)... After we laid out our plan/puzzle around week 10 the next couple weeks we "coasted" through feeling so good about where we were headed. We told the boys about the quads during week 10 too - that was a hoot! OK, let's be honest - Caleb PROBABLY doesn't "get" it so much... and, well, I guess Aiden REALLY either. But here's the first thing that popped out of Aiden's mouth when we told them that mommy had FOUR little babies in her belly "CALEB! You're going to be a big brother!!!" OH-MY-GOSH!! It was the CUTEST thing ever!! And now, these little dudes of ours, they just melt our hearts daily. Caleb is my big belly kisser. He wants to "kiss babies" at least 2-3 times/day. And it can NOT be with my shirt down - HAS to be pulled up for full effect. This doesn't come in handy so much, as cute as it is to US, when we are places, like, oh, say CHURCH. Yeah, NO ONE WANTS TO SEE MOMMY'S BELLY, Caleb!!!

~Week 10 is when I found out from my doc that there was a very real chance I would be on bedrest around week 20. He also indicated that I would be "big and uncomfortable enough" that it would not only be unsafe for me to be behind the wheel at that point, but perhaps I wouldn't fit?? OK, maybe I sorta' read between my own lines with that last little bit - but that was sort of what Jeremy and I came away with. And so I needed to quit work NO LATER than 20 weeks - no questions asked - because it is over an hour commute for me each way. He talked about the concerns with blood clotting because of the enormous blood flow associated with this high level of multiples (I was instructed to start taking baby aspirin every day at week 12); again, the belly size thingy (ahhhhhh!!!!); and most importantly the "Is it worth it?" comment regarding a potential accident and air bag release while I am behind the wheel at that stage of pregnancy. There is NO arguing with that logic, because a job nor anything else is "worth it". So, 20 weeks it was.

Now, again, for those of you who know me this won't come as a big shock, but for those of you who don't so much... well... this "quitting work" thing wasn't as easy as it may have sounded. I have always had that PULL to be home with my children and my work. Yet Gosling Czubak allowed me to work from home 2 days/week once we had kids. THIS WAS UNHEARD OF AT OUR COMPANY. As my little mind justified it (because we all do in some way shape or form... that working vs. non-working mommy issue) I needed to "be a full time mother to my children more days of the week than not." Period. I was so set on this fact and how it made our lives a bit more balanced. And to do this, my boss stuck his neck so far out on that chopping block for me and never failed to stand by my side over the next 4 years of pressure from every which way on this matter. We are a smaller (50+ employees) engineering consulting firm in Northern Michigan. I am the ONLY female engineer who works (oh, worked) there at the time. You can be sure that there was a WHOLE HECK OF A LOT of resistance to the idea of me staying home 2 days to "work". Suuuuuuure she's working, right?

Anyhow, I'm not going to go on for days about this (like I could and normally would) - but I hold my former employer and boss in the highest regard. I recognize the opportunities they gave me and what they allowed me try out on them (working from home being an enormous part of that). Yes, I know this is fairly commonplace in enormous cities and large corporations. But, give us a break. We're Northern Michigan. So I knew that I wanted to tell my boss as soon as possible to give him ample time to shed my work load onto other people and wean me out of the picture. So, yes, my boss actually knew about us being pregnant with quads about 2 days before our family and all our friends. UGH! But, again - the SOLE reason we waited that last couple weeks to tell them is because we wanted to do it in PERSON!!

Anyhow, work knew, and then we traveled downstate to head to Disney (our last vaca out of state, or out of our backyard for that matter, for the next 20 years, right?) and saw all our family the day before we left. Here's the board we made so the boys could break the news to them all:

I don't know how much of that you can make out, but it was pretty darned cute (says me)! And yes, those are just four TOTALLY random baby pics around our quad ultrasound... it took them a while to catch onto what was going on... but once they did - HOLY FUN! We have the best families in the world and they were, and still are, SO suportive and so excited for us!!

Then we were off to Disney with the boys and my parents met us down there - it was a BLAST! Jeremy and I both cried putting the boys to bed on our last night... we just knew that so much was going to change for us, for them, and that, honestly, who knows if we'll ever get back to Disney again? It was bittersweet... but a fab way to spend our last family of 4 vacation (and you too Grammie and Papa!).

Here's an adorable pic of the boys at one of the little play areas/water spots at Disney... they were "cooling down" - ummmm... to say the least. (yes, this is the infamous SHOE INCIDENT for those of you who have seen their ultra-cool Disney crocs and heard the story...)

A couple of weeks after Disney World we were back downstate for my sister-in-law Jessica's baby shower (modified, since the poor thing was on bedrest and had JUST gotten out of the hospital... we love you Jess!!) and we always did the "tour de Michigan" traveling back and forth to see a TON of our friends to share the news about the quads as well!! It was a fabulous weekend and, really, the weekend that I went from being able to "hide" my belly to - oh - NOT AT ALL!!!

Here's a pic of me from that weekend, Saturday night, at the Nemecek's house playing on the foor with out lil Caleb and Will Stopyak... things had definitely started to POP by Sat. night! I was 15 weeks along... whoa.

The babies were each measuring ~4.75" - 5" long at this point! But this weekend was amazing for us... we were SO HAPPY to tell all our friends and they were all SO crazy supportive and encouraging. I don't believe we had a SINGLE "Wow. I'm so glad it's YOU and not ME." or "QUADS? What are you going to DO? That's going to be INSANE." comments... just goes to show those who know and love you know what to say in crazy times =) Thank you to everyone for the outpouring of love and support over the month or so it took us to see each of you and share our news... we love you.