Sick Babies….

So it’s been a couple days but trust me those couple of days were not taken lightly and if I could have had a free moment to write I would have.

Let’s bring everyone up to speed shall we. As most of you know we left Alabama on Sunday afternoon and that trip went far smoother than the initial trip. Took us exactly 6 hours to make the journey and that’s stopping at a rest stop to feed and change the girls plus us running through a drive through to eat as well so all in all great time!

Once we got home is when everything went south! The girls ended up coming down with Thrush which sucks, I’m not going to lie and on top of that we flipped their whole environment again. Getting them readjusted to life at home is a pretty rough task in itself, it’s almost like reconditioning an animal that has been beaten for years. Screaming, I can’t express enough of how emotionally painful it is to hear all 4 of your babies screaming at the top of their lungs and know you can’t help them all at once because they jus want to be held and as humans we don’t come equipped with 2 sets of arms 😦

All that previous paragraph means is that I got no sleep between Saturday night through Monday night and Heather got maybe an hour or 2 sporadically during that same time span… It was bad… very very bad… Good news though we ended up taking the girls to the doctor yesterday and got something for their mouths which seems like it may be working, we at least got some sleep last night which is a win in my book!

So now we are simply trying to get the girls back into the habit of self soothing like they did when we first brought them home. It’s hard just getting them to know their is only 1 mommy and 1 daddy to all 4 of them so they need to learn to wait their turn lol.

It’s all good though, one day at a time and I think everything will work out just fine, we love them and they love us and we will all make it through this rough patch!

ROAD TRIP Part Deuce!!

So that time is upon us again…

The Greene Family will once again embark on a perilous journey back to their homeland! Their adventure will be packed full or excitement, despair, tragedy, evil weather, and sick babies! Only thing missing will be claymation skeletons and medusa!

I really hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend and are ready to kick it back into the work week!

As always I thank everyone of you who take the time to read my stories. Hopefully you comment and click all the share buttons below and harass all your friends to follow and share my blog as well!!

Darkness….

It’s one of those mornings were you dive into complete darkness and attempt to make no noise in fear of disturbing one of your babies…

Piggy Paint…. Beauty Parlor…. Pretty Toes….

Piggy Paint, the first time I had ever heard of this was when we had just found out Heather was having girls. She had mentioned one night while we sat on the couch watching some random TV show then showed it to me while we walked through WalMart one day. At that time I honestly didn’t pay it much attention mainly because I’m daddy and painting toes is not in my job description and secondly did my really tiny girls really need really tiny painted toes? Well turns out the answer to that question was a resounding yes since last night Heather came home from the store with this so called Piggy Paint. My first reaction was look how tiny that bottle is! Then look how tiny that brush is!

See that photo! Blew my mind! 

So now that we have all the ingredients for disaster which includes; babies, and paint we decided to give the girls a bath first and let the painting party begin!

As I finished drying and dressing Arianna, Heather had already grabbed up Aurora I had to stop her because I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything and I really wanted some photos. So what you will see next will be a before, during and after photo showcasing this event!

I have to admit though after seeing their tiny toes painted i got a little giddy, they are super cute and I really couldn’t believe you could paint something so small and not make a mess, I mean I have tried painting a grownups toes and let me tell you if it was like a game of operation you would have heard nothing but the alarm going off. (Don’t believe me ask Heather, I am not even allowed to attempt to paint them now).

All in all I am very pleased with the outcome and it further impacts in my mind that I have 4 little girls that may or may not want this done more often then not so it seems I may have to start practicing so I don’t make a complete full out of myself in the future. Will probably wind up being a future post showing my attempts at painting toes, though once I get that down I should move on to doing girls hair because at this moment they will get styles from me, nappy or ponytail.

**I wanted to add a link to Piggy Paint for any of those moms or dads that wanted to give it a look if they had not heard about it yet, it’s 100% safe which is a bonus for me. Like their slogan “As natural as mud” really does hold true. http://www.piggypaint.com/

Daddy Day Care Tip #5 As a father don’t be afraid of jumping into new things and giving them a try. I know Piggy Paint is not camouflage or black eye paint but you shouldn’t hold that against them. It’s an exciting thing and I would hate for any father to miss out on even the smallest moment with their babies simply because “painting nails” is not a guy thing. I can promise you from one dad to another that before it’s all said and done I will be the best nail painter, make-up applier, hair doer in the whole world if it gives me even 10 more minutes with each one of my angels!

The Graveyard Shift

Hello everyone, it’s me again. I found myself sitting at work with nothing important to do so I figured why not write a little bit. Write about what you ask? I was thinking why not what goes on when I wake up to feed the girls at 3 AM in the morning, I’ll give a short playwrite in the perpective of myself. Hope you all enjoy

**BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP**

As the alarm goes off and my mind realizes I literally just laid down 4 hours ago I throw my legs over the side of the bed and let my eyes adjust, at that time I also think it’s about time to change my contacts because they no longer feel like contacts yet small pieces of sandpaper. After getting dressed I stumble out to the livingroom where Heather is doing an amazing job with the girls. Bottles are made, babies are slowly starting to stir because it’s time for food and here she is a modern day super hero!

We talk for a little as I ask how the girls were, any issues, you now the standard questions you ask when your about to take over the care of 4 little girls. I give her a kiss and a hug as she usually departs for the bedroom if not just grabbing a pillow and laying down on the couch. At that time I usually wander into the kitchen to grab the bottles and make sure everything is good, though I tell myself that’s what I am doing I can’t help but grab one of those brownies Heather made, or a thing of yogurt real quick because I feel I haven’t eaten in ages.

Bottles in hand I make my back into the livingroom scooping up one of the girls as I find a comfortable spot on the couch, turning on the TV I scan through until something looks good, which usually winds up being SyFy, Disney or Cartoon Network right now. Regardless I find something and begin feeding the girls and wouldn’t you know it, it never fails what I was watching goes off and someone opens the flood gates for the infomercials!

OMG! Did you know that for 79.95 I can buy the initial set of the Presidents Quarters! The man literally just told me that I’m really only paying for the awesome cherry oak chest they come in, how can I resist such an offer! I mean then it’s only another 50.00 dollars a month for each subsequent set of quarters!

“Channel Change”

Aurora is about finished, I make sure I burp her, change her and lay her back down. Picking up Bristol I begin to hear another sales pitch start up… Though this one yells at me telling me I need to focus on the future and “Buy in Belize”, I hear this phrase atleast 15 more times in the 15 minutes the commercial is on, it lets me know how great my life and retirement will be if I “Buy in Belize”. At this point I am frustrated becauses I want to know how quickly I could get a real estate agent on the phone and then realize it’s only 3:30 in the morning…

“Channel Change”

Finishing up Bristol I find myself back in the kitchen getting the next set of bottles ready and again stealing another brownie..(Might be why I find myself getting a little round around the waist). Bottles in hand I move back into the living room grabbing up another baby and nestle back down into the hole I am creating in the couch cusion. She latches on to the bottle and I begin to zone in on the TV again wondering what is next….

As you can see this pattern continued until around 4:30 when I was finished fedding all the girls, the things I saw and was propositioned to purchase just blows my mind. There are so many weird things out there that people will try and sell you. Flat hoses, a weird hair curler thing, the famous snuggie. I mean the list really goes on and on and on….

Daddy Day Care Tip #3 If you are going to pull the late shift to feed the girls refrain from having your credit card and or a phone near you, when your half asleep god knows what you’ll end up buying and not remember until you open the door one day and sign for a package which just so happens to contain the first set of Presidential Quarters!!

The Evil Pediatrician!

Yesterday marked one of the bigger milestones in our babies life, it was their first real doctors appointment. Their 2 month checkup to be exact. So please sit back and grab a snack while I share with you what was The Greene Quads first doctors visit.

As one would expect from parents of quads it’s 12:30 and we need to be at the doctor by 1:00 so both of us are trying to finish up feeding babies, dress babies and put babies in carseats without the adding benifits of spitting up. Then the real fun starts when you watch me try and fit all the carseats into the van…. Needless to say if I thought of gaining 5 pounds there is noway 2 of our children will be able to go in the back. Well all I can say to that was mission accomlished! We were able to make it there with plenty of time to spare.

Once we got to the doctors things got kinda weird since this was also the very first time we have taken all 4 babies out in public, which let me tell you turns into a small circus attraction which at first really got under my skin but eventually wore off though the questions started coming and it seems to be the same questions over and over again…

Are they identical? No they are not identical…

What fertility drugs did you use? None, I know it’s hard to believe but 4 babies can come natural.

Are they boys? Are you serious, did the all pink carseat covers not give it away.

So it was just a parade of random people wanting to come over and see the girls, ask questions, bless us and offer their support and wishes. Even one lady saying she would love to be their godmother…. who even says that in a doctors office….

After that we finally got to go in and see the doctor. Our first stop was vitals.

Aurora – 6 pounds 4 ounces, vitals great.

Bristol – 5 pounds 15 ounces, vitals great

Ryleigh – 5 pounds 14 ounces, vitals great

Arianna – 5 pounds 11 ounces, vitals great

It was great news to find out that the girls are not in the 50% nationally for their weight which is awesome since they have been staying in the 10% while they were in the NICU.

So after vitals we got to see the doctor which was reativiley painless and quick, we were told they are strong for their age and that they are doing great, which for us is great news! The next person for us to see was not the bearer of good news, it was the immunizations lady which for the girls… and mommy was not a good thing. The shots themselves were nothing out of the ordinary, they cried and screamed but it lasted just a few seconds after they were done with the shots. The fun started when we got home…

The girls had a long day so we expected nothing different when we got them home and they were very fussy and not interested in eating. We did everything we could to ease them through the night and I am happy to announce that when I fed them this morning they all appeared to be back to normal. They ate very well and were pretty joyful and playful while they were eating. So I know for myself this was a new expiernce but atleast I now know what to expect when doctor days come around.

Daddy Day Care Tip #2 Make sure that you are prepared for the aftermath of the visit. Your baby may be fussy, run a low grade fever, and have knots at the injection site. These things are all normal and should not be a cause for concern, simply comfort them and let them recover in their own way. Work with them, even though it may be time for them to eat don’t get frusturated if they are not overly hungry give them a little and if they start fighting you try again a little later. Try not to use medical intervention if you can avoid it. If it’s needed please consult your physician first to make sure they agree and can inform you of the best course of action.

Rub a Dub Dub 4 Babies in a Tub

Even though this will pertain to yesterday I find myself writing it today. The last 24 hours have been mighty crazy so hopefully I can remember all the small details that I had wanted to mention last night.

So last night Heather and I decided that it would be a great time to give the girls a legit bath since they had to go for their 2 month check up today, one thing I really want to mention is that this was really my first time giving them a bath since their nanna went back home so I was already a little worried. Heather on the other hand didn’t seem to worried about the situation (Go figure the moms never worry)…

Once we got everything ready and situated I learned a few things that I would love to pass on to future fathers of multiples…

1. Make sure you have EVERYTHING within arms reach, you don’t want to have a baby laying on a towel and the water works to start flowing.

2. Check your water temperature, your not boiling potatoes your giving a frail child a bath.

3. Quickness, quickness, quickness. I can’t stress that enough, the last thing you would want is a wet, cold, screaming child.

4. Have a system, we like to use a conveyor belt system. I undressed them, passed them off to Heather who washed them then passed them back to me to dry and redress. It worked flawlessly though timely.

Back to the bath scenario. So we started with Aurora and worked our way down the line, another thing I learned was 3 of our girls don’t really mind the bath but Arianna has absolutely nothing but hatred towards the flow of warm water and we also learned that Ryleigh does not much care for clean clothes because you will find that shortly after dressing her she likes to spit/drool down the front of her clothes.

After it was all said and done the living room was trashed but we had 4 amazing smelling babies! That really is what matters the most important thing, I mean I would like to chalk it up as a win if everyone smells and looks clean!

So I thought I would take off now, jotting down my ideas and thoughts for tomorrows blog which will cover out first real doctors visit with all 4 babies at once. Wanted to leave you with a photo of our smiling little girl as we finished up the final bath!

A Little Late…

So after much deliberation I have decided to jot down my new life as a father of quadruplet girls. I have seen and read numerous blogs and sites written from the views of the mom’s but nothing from the dads so I just thought why the heck not lol.

So a little back story to bring everyone up to date…

Our girls were born April 17th at 4:08, 4:09, 4:10 and 4:11. Aurora, Bristol, Ryleigh, Arianna were healthy and screaming from the start even though they ranged in weight from 2 pounds 7 ounces up to 2 pounds 15 ounces. We spent roughly 6 weeks in the NICU when all the girls were released. I won’t really go into the story of my wife’s hospital stay because that is her story to tell, this will simply be a place to chronicle my personal journey with these girls and my family.

I plan on adding tons of photos, videos and just random things I find amusing.