Practice Run

Did I mention that my parents are adopting two little girls from CPS? The girls actually came to live with them in late July and the process will be complete in February. They are sisters, ages 5 and 7. They had a pretty rough life prior to this, but they are definitely in the right place now! The reason I mention this now is that my parents came to town this weekend with the girls for a visit. We hadn't seen them since they first came to live with my parents back in July. It was great to see how things have progressed with the new family dynamics in just a few short months.

Anyway, my two new sisters plus Eliot's best friend spent the weekend with us and along with Eliot gave us a good dose of what the future has in store for the Jones family. The weekend was filled with princess movies, pumpkin carving, ice cream, jungle gyms, drama, hurt feelings, and tears, puzzles, games, tattling, and more princess movies. Seriously, I think they watched Cinderella 14 times...I don't know how that's possible in 36 hours with everything else that we crammed into the weekend, but I swear it's true! After experiencing all of the giddiness, giggles, and excitement of a weekend spent entertaining (and being entertained by) four little girls, I'd have to say our future is looking really, really good...

~Ethan

Baby Names

We started our baby name list shortly after finding out we were expecting quintuplets. We figured since we needed 10 names we better get started early! It is funny how things worked out because we decided right away on 1 boy name and had several girl names we both really liked. Everyone asks how we decided so quickly on so many names, but it was actually pretty easy!!! :-)

Here is the final list...

1. Jack William a.k.a. "Big Bad Jack"
2. Ryan Elizabeth
3. Britton Grace
4. Lila Addison
5. Brooklyn Faith

Surprise Baby Shower

Today Westlake Dermatology gave me a surprise baby shower!!!! I was completely shocked!!!! In an office full of women there aren't many secrets and everyone did a fantastic job at keeping this one! :-) I enjoyed a great lunch with cake, flowers, balloons, and diapers. Westlake Dermatology and the staff all went in to give us a generous donation that will really help us out in preparing for our 5 bundles of joy! My last day is November 3, and I am going to miss everyone so much!!!!

Emergency Room

Here was another unexpected day in the life of the Jones'!

9.22.08

Hey guys!

Whew!! What a wild day! First of all, thank you all so much, especially Dean Superstar Yeck, for all of your thoughts, prayers, and support today! Casey has had a wild ride today, but she is feeling much better now. This was déjà vu from 2003 with Casey’s first pregnancy. She called me this morning at about 8:00 to say that she was turning around and coming home because her lower left side (kidney area) was in incredible pain. From our experience in ’03 and from the sonograms we’ve been doing with this pregnancy, we knew that her ovary had twisted and we would likely be in surgery today. I went home, grabbed Casey and we rushed to the ER. To give you an idea of the pain she was in, they shot her up four different times with escalating volumes of morphine and one other pain med, but her pain was still off the charts! They did a sonogram and determined that the ovary was not getting blood flow (meaning it had twisted) and that surgery would be necessary to untwist and drain it. If it was not untwisted, it would die and would get gang green and we would have all kinds of problems. There was also concern that it could rupture which would also cause a multitude of problems. As we were in pre-op, they did a sonogram and came up with a different plan that would keep us from having surgery if it worked. They decided to drain the cysts by poking a needle in her side instead of operating. The hope was that by draining the cysts, the ovary would have room to move again and would untwist on its own. As it stands now, the cysts have been drained, but they are not showing good blood flow to the ovary. The blood flow is better and they are hopeful that it worked, but it is too early to tell. Casey says her pain level is down to a 2 if we are considering her earlier pain to be a 10 so she is feeling much better. This also gives us hope that the procedure worked. They are keeping her overnight so that the ovary can be checked several more times. If all continues to improve, we will be home tomorrow breathing a huge sigh of relief that they did not have to operate. I will update you all as soon as I can.

God bless,
Ethan

Ethan's update email....
9.23.08

Great news! The sonogram taken this morning showed healthy blood flow to the ovary, the babies are all doing great, and it appears that life can begin to return to normal. Casey had a good night sleep and will be heading home today. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers!!

God bless,
Ethan

How it all began...

We are waiting to get the final word from "A Baby Story" on the Learning Channel (TLC) about doing a 1 hour television program on our pregnancy and birth of the quints! Below are a few questions and our answers we had to submit.

1) Tell us about your pregnancy. Did you have any difficulties conceiving? Have you had any complications or unusual circumstances with this pregnancy?

We found out after trying to conceive our first child that we had a big challenge ahead of us. We were told that Ethan had severe male infertility. We met with a fertility specialist and were told there was a slight chance we could conceive a child together with in vitro. We knew that chances were slim, but felt it was something we had to try before exploring other options. After an unsuccessful try at in vitro we decided to select a sperm donor. It was a decision that a lot of men could have never made, but Ethan was unbelievable!!!! We knew the chances of us conceiving with an IUI were less than with in vitro, but I got pregnant the first try! We were so excited!!!!!! One of the possible side effects from the fertility drugs is the ovary growing so big that it actually twists (1% chance), and guess what happened to us! I was 6 weeks along in my pregnancy and was rushed to the ER in the middle of the night. The ovary had twisted 1 ½ times around itself. Dr. Kaylan Silverberg (fertility specialist) met us at the hospital and performed surgery to untwist the ovary. The pregnancy and the ovary survived! I went on to have a normal pregnancy and delivered Eliot at 36 weeks after only 4 ½ hours of labor.

After 4 years we decided to try for another baby. Eliot has brought so much joy to our lives and we wanted to have the experience of pregnancy, raising another child, and giving Eliot a sibling to grow-up with. After finding out that the donor we used with Eliot was no longer available we chose another one and started the process again. We met with the fertility specialist and began the fertility drugs again. Going into the IUI the doctor said it looked like I could have 5 follicles that might release an egg. We weren’t really concerned because with our first pregnancy we had 4 large follicles and we conceived just 1 baby. I took a pregnancy test 2 weeks later and could not have been more excited that we got positive results on the first try again!!!!! I had blood drawn every week to check my HCG levels to make sure the pregnancy was progressing like it should. Each week the HCG levels were off the charts so we knew we had a good chance of being pregnant with twins or maybe even triplets! Our first sonogram was at 6 ½ weeks and we were shocked to find 6 sacks!!!! Dr. Silverberg detected 5 heartbeats and said the 6th one could just be progressing slower. At our next sonogram there were still only 5 heartbeats so we knew at this time that baby 6 had not progressed. Each weekly sonogram appt. has shown 5 healthy babies. The doctors explained to us the seriousness and risks involved to mother and babies with high order multiples, but reducing the number of babies was not an option for us. We stand strong in our faith and believe everything will workout the way it is supposed to.

I will be going into surgery on September 30th for a cerclage to close my cervix. After the surgery I will be on bed rest for 2 weeks. Hopefully after the 2 weeks I will be able to go back to work for a month or so before bedrest again.


2. What has been the biggest surprise physically and/or emotionally of this pregnancy?
We never thought about having a large family, especially 5 at one time!!! It has been an emotional roller coaster ever since we got the news. Our daughter, Eliot is the most precious thing to us and we thought it would be great to give her a brother or sister. We never expected to give her 5!!!! The craziest thing so far with this pregnancy is how big I am getting so fast!!!

3. What sets you apart from the rest of the couples applying to be on the show? What would make you and your family members great guests and compelling to watch?

Everyone’s story is unique, but we believe our story stands out because there are so many improbable events that are happening in our lives and that had to come together to make this happen. We grew up in the same town, met in the 7th grade, and started dating in high school. We dated all through college and got married six years later. Our life together was so normal and uneventful before we decided to have a baby so you can imagine our surprise when we found out about Ethan’s infertility. Less than 1% of men have this problem and the doctors have never been able to pinpoint a reason why he has this issue. It was a very difficult decision to use a donor, but the results have been amazing! Our daughter has been the center of our world since the day we found out I was pregnant! After Eliot was born, life seemed to return to being normal and uneventful, but once we decided to have another baby, things began to turn upside down all over again. Going into the process of getting pregnant again was just as scary as the first time because there are so many unknowns and the cost is so incredibly high. We had to give it a try because we really wanted Eliot to have a brother or sister. We both had a feeling that we would have multiples for some reason. There were lots of little “events” leading up to finding out about the quints that led us to believe multiples were in our future, but we never imagined we’d have more than two! The timing of this honestly couldn’t be more improbable. Ethan just started his own construction/remodeling company in May, his parents started the process of adopting two little girls in July, his brother’s family of 5 announced they were moving to England in August, Ethan began grad school in late August, and we found out we were having quints four days before grad school began!!! Whew!! Our heads are literally spinning with all of the changes coming in our lives, but we feel amazingly blessed to be where we are in life! We know the next six months will be the greatest challenge of our lives, but we are overwhelmed by the possibilities that this blessing will bring to our lives! There will never be a normal and uneventful day in our lives again!!!

Casey's Last Hurrah

I don't know what she was thinking, but I was thrilled at the idea...Casey wanted to go camping and I wasn't going to stand in her way!! Casey isn't that big on "roughing it" under normal circumstances so imagine my surprise when she told me a couple of weeks ago that she wanted to spend a night in the great outdoors. That's right, a woman carrying five babies, at week 17 of her pregnancy (which for her is the equivalent of week 29), making plans to sleep on the ground and pee outside...AWESOME!! And so off we went to Pace Bend Park with three other couples and their kids (Dean/Emily/Hailey, Mark/Payton/Harper (Payton is 17 weeks pregnant too!), Rick/Wendi/Ty) for a night of campfires, s'mores, and bear hunts.

I'll spare you the detailed re-cap, but rest assured the excursion couldn't have gone better. Here are a few of the highlights: kids and cactus don't mix, Emily is officially a camper, no bear sightings, but we heard plenty of them rustling through the trees, burn ban...? what burn ban?, it's good to be the campers that other campers don't want to camp next to, 30 foot cliffs within 30 feet of the tent - no problem!, golf balls and speed boats don't mix, golf balls and the back of my head don't mix, either!! Dean "Lightning" Yeck has the quickness of a coiled rattler, thank God for Rick's boyscout skills, apparently camping and pregnancy mixes very, very well!!

Casey Ann did great! She spent most of the time in a lawn chair with her feet propped up, but that didn't stop her from helping out with everything and having a great time doing it! This was the last camping trip she'll be making for a long while which is kind of sad, but we'll have plenty of pictures and memories to last us until we can venture out again!

4:1

I've always heard that God has a sense of humor, but I never really put much thought into it...until today. We had our post-op follow-up today and they did a sonogram to check in on the babies. Everything with both Casey and the babies checked out as normal and healthy which of course is fantastic news. But the excitement leading up to today was that we were going to be able to determine the genders of the babies during the check-up. For those of you who know Casey, you know that she is a planner and was eager with anticipation to know what the ratio was going to be!

Of course, I got a lot of flack from my friends who were "lovingly" predicting 5 girls. Truthfully, this would have been fine with me, but I was praying that I would have at least one boy in the mix - misery loves company, right? Only kidding, but my prayer was answered today as we discovered that we are indeed having four girls and one boy!! As has been the case with all of our other sonograms, they identify the first baby as Baby A and follow in order with babies B, C, D, E. You'll notice from the picture that my boy is identified Baby E, meaning that the sonographer called out four girls before she got to Baby E! Needless to say, there was some tension as we waited to find out the fifth and final gender...not to mention the sonographer and our doctor decided to have a little fun and lead us to believe that HE was also a SHE!!! Dreamy excitement (and a little relief) was the instant response as Casey and I both immediately began to imagine life with Eliot, four precious little girls, and the luckiest (or perhaps the unluckiest) little guy ever to be conceived...

So, after giving it some thought in the last couple of hours, I'm convinced that God indeed has a sense of humor! I can't imagine being more blessed than we are now, but I have to believe that the Lord is having a lot of fun looking in as our life takes more twists and turns than a Six Flags roller coaster...and I get the feeling that He's just getting warmed up!

~Ethan

Our life used to be pretty normal. We met in 7th grade, started dating in high school, survived the college years and got married in June of '99, shortly after graduation. We had a daughter, traveled as much as we could, planned on getting a dog, went to football games on Saturday and church on Sunday, and by the time we hit our thirties, we were well on our way to having the typical American life.

Then came Mother's Day 2008 and though we weren't aware of it at the time, everything in our lives was about to change. Psalm 127:3-5 started the day off and by the time it had ended, we had decided to try for another baby. One more would have been great; twins would fulfill a dream of ours . . . but ready or not, here come the Jones QUINTUPLETS!!

We invite you to come along with us as we prepare for life with Eliot plus five! God has blessed us with six little miracles (counting Eliot, of course!!) that promise to change every aspect of our lives forever . . . Come join us for the adventure of a lifetime! Visit Our Website!