Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Are They Septuplets?

We had another full weekend of Christmas festivities. This past Sunday we met some friends at Stone Mountain Park with all of our kids. They are almost a mirror family to us. Actually, they are a mirror plus one.

On the night our triplets were born Clif met another couple who had given birth to quadruplets 3 days prior. Barb tells the story best as I was in post c-section recovery mode in my room and in no shape to be socializing (thank you to the pain management people at the hospital...what would I have done without you?) This is the quick pre-blog story version:

Clif, poor guy, was exhausted. I had been in the hospital for a couple of weeks and I had a little bit of a rough time during delivery (bp and heart rate tanked). We had just delivered 3 very tiny 29 week preemie babies. Reality was months away from setting in for both of us. Since I couldn't visit the NICU until the next day he was under strict orders to be there as much as humanly possible that evening. He was also required to report back with pictures frequently.

As he left the NICU to return to my room to give me a report, he met another couple. Clif's chest was poked out and his shirt was covered in "It's a Boy", "It's a Girl", "It's a Boy", "I'm a Dad", etc. Barb asked him about the pins. He poked his chest out further and said "I just had triplets." Her husband poked out his chest and replied, "That's nothin'! I just had quads!"

Of course all of the other petrified dads in the NICU were feeling a little inferior (and truth be told, feeling more than a little relieved). There was one dad in particular gazing into the NICU and said, "Wow, I only had twins."

It was instant friendship and kinship. They also have an older son who is 4 days younger than our oldest, Austin. Over the next 10 weeks we visited in the NICU and our older boys occasionally played in the waiting rooms. As it turns out the big difference between our family and theirs is 1 additional boy (they have 4 boys and 1 girl) who happens to be an identical twin to one of the other quads. This always makes Clif and I wonder, "Wow...we could have 2 Tyler's or 2 John's." Hats off to them.

We've kept in touch and attended birthday parties over the past two years. We decided to meet during the Christmas season at Stone Mountain to take the kids on the train, see Santa, and let the older boys play miniature golf with their dads. Clif's mom joined us and we all had a great time.

Around every corner we got lots of stares, gasps, and questions. The most commonly asked question was, "Are they septuplets?" I was actually impressed that several people knew that 7 would we septuplets. The one that got me was, "um...are they all one?" I replied, "No, they are 7 different people."

Complete strangers commented on the typical things. Here's what the strangers "taught" us this weekend:
  • We have our hands full,
  • all seven kind of look alike and could be related, (are we sure they're not cousins?)
  • they are so adorable,
  • we have our hands full,
  • two have red hair and the rest are blonde,
  • people are glad it is us and not them,
  • we have cool strollers and wagons,
  • lots of other people have 3 or 4 children of varying ages,
  • oh...and we have our hands full!

Here are some pictures of the fun.


Grandma being stopped at the train station. "Are they triplets?"



The 7 little ones awaiting Santa's parade. The older 2 are playing golf.



Isn't this a great Santa? I also got a really good Santa picture last year.

2006 Santa with a little photoshop magic.




Mrs. Claus after story time with 4 of the 7 boys.

Next stop on the And Babies Make Six Christmas celebration tour...The Pink Pig!

4 comments:

Our Home Schooler and Jen said...

how special re your friends
Im sori but I have to say it again I do like your strollers
Jen at http://my3boysandi.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

opps that was me above
Jen at http://my3boysandi.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

Just make sure you take a wagon so that Neal Boortz can blog about you too. LOL!

Kimberly and the GA Guinn Trips
www.guinnfamilyhome.com

PS: I think Barb is great too. She is alway so nice at CPOMC meetings.

Lora Lynn @ Vitafamiliae said...

We have four under four, too. But we did it with twins and then two really close together. It's a small but special club. Cute kids!