Selective Reduction - My view ( ie - aborting babies in a multiple pregnancy)

I am looking out my bedroom window in to the backyard below where my five children are whooping and hollering with joy on our much loved trampoline.  Its about 60 degrees on a sunny February afternoon.  Spring can sometimes come early in the south, really early and then slap us with a freak March snow storm. 

So I am watching them and as occasional sentimental moms sometimes do, I had a moment.  I have them more frequently as they get older because I know these elementary school years are flying by.  I will have exactly one year with all five children in the same school.  The quads will be in the fifth grade that year and the "baby" will be in kindergarten. 

I had a moment of "what if?" 
I looked at each of their laughing smiling faces and call to mind each of their personal gifts and weaknesses.  What  I love about each of them and what drives me crazy about each of them. 

I think about how nine years ago I sat in three different specialists offices hearing lectures/ recommendations on the "advantages," prudence, of selective reduction also known as abortion.  Scared, hormonal, newly pregnant with, at the time, five babies (the quads were quints until one miscarried at 8 weeks,) elated to be pregnant and afraid to breath wrong lest I have yet another miscarriage.  Feeling frail and vulnerable and listening to the experts telling me repeatedly that "it will increase the chances of survival for the remaining multiples" or "it really is expensive to raise that many babies"  Seriously?  Like I am going to weigh the pros and cons based on a cost per baby basis? Statistics of survival a slight maybe, money?  Not on your or their lives.


I respect doctors for their ability to heal and make life or death choices, for researching and developing surgeries, medicines and therapies to make peoples lives better but in this instance my fragile heart had to decide along with my husband if I should allow all the babies growing inside me to live or have a shot at it anyway.  I am Catholic by the way so it should have been an instant no to the doctors,  but it wasn't, I pondered the consequences of each choice.  I questioned the statistics. 

What were my chances of carrying four healthy babies to term with out the reduction? I asked the specialist who routinely performed these procedures. The figure I was given was 75%.  I thought that was a pretty darn good number considering there was a 100% chance of my living with guilt and regret if I had gone through with the procedure with or without babies in the end.  At the time there was a 25% chance of miscarrying one of all of the babies because of the procedure.  The reproductive specialist I was seeing informed me that, though she recommended the procedure, she did a have a quadruplet mother chose to abort two of her babies and end up losing the other two due to the procedure itself.  I still think about that mom sometimes.  I hope she ended up with a child to hold.  I can't imagine living with that guilt.

So I actually had a flash forward during one of these selective abortion lectures.  It was to a day like today, in fact let's say it actually was today - to myself at 40 years old watching my half grown beautiful, smart happy healthy annoying imperfectly perfect children and thinking which ones would it have been?  Which ones would be missing had I listened to all that advice?  I shudder each time it crosses my mind because I know which two would be missing and I will mostly likely never tell them.  I knew this day would come as it has in various forms over the last 9 years. 

All life is precious, leave it in the Father's hands.  I know there was a likely possibility that my story would not have had such a fairytale ending and let's be real, we are talking imperfect children here.  This is not one of those blogs that waxes poetic on the perfected perfection of my perfect children and my perfect husband and my perfect home.  I have various variables and complications they have each brought to my life over the years such as filthy carpets, hand print/crayon decorated walls, huge debt because those little suckers eat A LOT, IEPs for special needs to attend, various medications to purchase for them and for me, lots of tears, lots of frustration, lots of I can't stand this for one more second moments and yet here I am staring at them lovingly out my window, my heart full to bursting because I  know I made the right choice.  Maybe one of them will be the President of the United States one day or maybe a brilliant scientist who discovers a cure for all infertility thus allowing a new generation of moms to be spared from making this agonizing decision, or maybe they will just turn out to be nice good-hearted people.  The world needs those just as much as the former don't you think?

I know I can barely stand the thought of looking at them wondering how my life would be so different without the two the doctors wanted to "reduce."  I remember when my decision to forgo the procedure cemented firmly in my heart - "I worked so hard and prayed so hard to get those guys in there and you are NOT going to take them away from me.  Only God has that right."  I told my perinatologist that this is what I wanted and I wanted to make sure he was going to give his all to helping me carry the pregnancy as far as possible.  He assured me he would and he did a great job.  I still think fondly of him today. 

I made sure to take my four healthy babies back to see all the doctors who had encouraged me to reduce, when they were about 6 months old.  No longer looking tiny and fragile like preemies, they were happy and alive.  I wanted them to see that I made the right decision and to plant a seed of thought so that the next multiple mom they counseled would have the benefit of my evidence that sometimes the best decision wasn't what medical science determined but what a mom's heart tells her.

P.S. Feel free to view the evidence of my good decision by looking at the blog header above :)


*** I have a friend who made the decision to reduce her large pregnancy and my heart still aches for her.  I respect that she did what she felt was necessary at the time and should she read this I hope she knows I do not judge her or think less of her.  In fact I think she is fantastic, I just wish she had never been put in that horrible position.

Hey! I'm back!

Well I guess I took a hiatus for the end of summer/back to school season.  I really miss writing here.  I don't want to be one of those bloggers who has nothing to say but continues to post anyway :) 

Update on Pauli :  We are about to finish our last three dives in the Hyperbaric Chamber and I will give my more definitive opinion on the whole experience at that time.  And answer some questions like - would I do it again?  Did it really help?  So if you're interested look for that at the end of next week.

I am really trying to get my act in gear right now.  I have big plans to get my house cleaned and organized before Christmas (quit yawning) and I need to get on a better schedule at the gym.

I have to say, as to the rest of my kids, SECOND GRADE IS AWESOME SO FAR!  I really feel that they have teachers more suited to their personalities.  Teachers with patience, kindness and an appreciation for their differences and strengths.  This year we split the quads up a bit more. 

This is always a big questions with multiples, DO you split them up or keep them together?  Thank goodness a law was passed a few years ago to give the parents the right to choose since they know best how their kids function.  Thankfully, differentiation is becoming a common mindset among educators and lest you scratch your brain at that reference I will explain:  In the past ALL multiples were treated like they came out of the same box. "We must split all multiples apart into separate class rooms no matter what their parents say or there will be a crack in the space-time continuum!"  Now, we decide because guess what?  I know that little Johnny and Jeffy get on each others nerves but little Sissy needs Johnny to help her make friends and shield her from some cruelness directed at her due to her smallness and shy personality, etc.   (by the way, not my kids real names!)

Anyway, I have Doodle in her same class which is perfect for her with awesome Ms. Andrews for the third year!  Her two sisters wanted to stay together and so they are while their brother wanted to try out things on his own and need to be in the FOCUS class anyway so that worked out well. 

Me and the little man are to be found most days at the gym, park and or grocery store.  I have joined the crazy coupon world order now and thanks to a couple of websites such as Southern Savers we are now saving quite a bit and I have stockpiled my pantry and freezer.  I had no clue how much I was really spending and now I have no excuse!  Look into it.  If I can do the system with my crazy life then anyone can.  One day I will conquer freezer cooking.

Update on book writing:  I have written, yes written two children's stories and am waiting patiently on my dear busy brother to illustrate them before I send them off to prospective agents.  If anyone knows anyone in the business who can offer advice please send them my way.  I have a couple other ideas I am working on that have to do with my Pauli and my family in general.  Have a great day!! 

The Problem with Multiples

I read once that multiples were late at everything (in our case I think it's late TO everything, seriously, ask my friends.) Well it is a two fold problem one they are developmentally delayed due to prematurity, low birth weight, etc and two they are delayed because they don't have enough one on one to keep up with a typical singleton birth milestones. I really get this now. My quads just turned seven. They can't ride bikes yet. They can't swim yet either. Here's the real kicker - I am a certified Water Safety Instructor and taught swim lessons to babies through adults of all developmental abilities for about 8 years. I had classes of 6 or 8 (that is of course more than the number of kids I have.)

Why you are asking?

The answer I think is time. Also the fact that until this year there was no way I could keep more than two of them sitting still at a time so I would be off chasing the others or saving them from drowning one after the other. My husband refuses to pay for swim lessons since I am perfectly qualified but I just can't do it alone. It is a strange thing that kids will listen to a random person tell them how to do something but not their own loving mom.

This is causing me such anxiety as I don't want them left behind, having to wear swimmies and life jackets while all their friends are diving in the deep end and it makes me wonder - What the flit the Octo mom is going to do? And what about the Duggards with 19 offspring (and counting?) I know there is a solution out there but for now time is the enemy that and the fact that I can't clone myself!