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My name is Megan Creed. I am writing you today on behalf of my sister,
Ali Reichert, her husband, and my four future nieces or nephews. She and
her husband, Adam, recently found out they are pregnant with quadruplets and
due October 4, 2009. This pregnancy has come as a blessing, but also a
shock.
Ali and I come from a family of three daughters very close in age. We
grew up in a small rural community where daycare services were limited. Many
families relied on responsible teenage girls for child care, and with
there being three in our household we constantly had children at our house.
Ali easily won the hearts of every child we cared for. There has never been
any doubt in Ali's or anyone else's mind, she would one day be a wonderful
mother and have a houseful of kids. We just never expected it to happen
all at the same time!
Adam and Ali have known each other since elementary school, and began
dating when Ali was in high school. At that point Adam had some experience
with school aged children, through being the local swimming pool lifeguard,
and volunteering as a basketball coach for the elementary students, but was
still timid around younger children. Ali's natural gift with children
and encouragement eased Adam's fears and he soon was helping her babysit.
Adam and Ali got married August 4, 2007.
Ali and Adam have faced many challenges throughout their relationship,
from Ali going through nursing school to buying their first house to planning
a wedding, but their most difficult challenge thus far has been achieving
their dream of having children. After they were married, Adam and Ali,
couldn't wait to start building a family. After repeated months of
trying with no success and Ali being unable to ovulate, she began taking
Clomid, a medicine used to increase ovulation. Month after month, Ali's heart
broke hearing that she still wasn't ovulating, even after being on four times
the normal dose of Clomid. Ali's biggest fear in life was slapping her
right in the face. She spent many days crying, thinking she would never have a
family of her own, while many of her friends and family members were
getting pregnant with no problems. Ali and Adam were then referred to an
infertility specialist.
After many tests and much evaluation, Ali was diagnosed with Polycystic
Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), which was not allowing her body to ovulate.
After serious consultation the infertility specialist recommended a special
diet and more medications in attempts to get Ali to ovulate, which month
after month was still unsuccessful. The hardest part was the waiting each and
every month to see if she might have ovulated. If not, they had to wait
another month, trying variations of treatment each time. After a year
and a half of unsuccessfully attempting to conceive, their doctor decided the
next step was injections of ovulation medications. By this time their health
insurance had been maxed out for infertility treatment, so when the
doctor's office tried to get her injection covered by insurance it was denied.
Each vial of medication cost over $450 and she would need two or three vials
per month, and it would be all out of pocket.
After careful consideration Adam and Ali decided to continue with the
treatment. There are many risks with taking the injections and it must
be monitored very closely, so Ali and Adam made many trips to the doctor's
office for blood testing and ultrasounds. After the first month of
injections we all finally had some good news. Ali had started to
produce a follicle of adequate size and another smaller one. The chances weren't
great that she would ovulate, but were starting to look brighter. There
was a high possibility that the one follicle would release an egg, allowing
Ali to ovulate in hopes of getting pregnant. She then had to take another
injection to make her body release the egg, so it could become
fertilized to make her pregnant. Shortly thereafter, she began to have horrible
abdominal pain. Ali tried to ignore it and hoped it was just side effects that
were normal from the medicines.
The pain continued to get worse, so again came more tests. Then Adam
and Ali's minds were finally put at ease when they discovered they were
pregnant! The next few days were very exciting but scary at the same
time. The abdominal pain Ali had been experiencing was her ovaries
hyper-stimulating, a side effect of the injections, which can be very
serious. Ali was put on bed rest for a few weeks because her ovaries,
which are usually very small, had expanded with fluid to such a large size it
looked as if they were kissing inside her abdomen.
When Ali and Adam went for their first ultrasound after discovering they
were pregnant they got a little unexpected surprise. They were
expecting twins. Everyone was excited and so happy for them. If anyone couple
could handle twins, it would be them. Ali's pain slowly subsided and she was
then able to return to work. At her next scheduled ultrasound to everyone's
surprise, including the doctor's, they learned the twins had multiplied.
Ali was now carrying quadruplets, four babies! Immediately the doctor
recommended selective reduction, but Ali and Adam would not even
contemplate that. They had worked too hard to get pregnant and would not even
consider getting rid of any of the babies. It took several days, even weeks for
some, for everyone to wrap their minds around the thought of having four
children at the same time.
At this time Ali is continuing to work her full time job as an LPN. She
works 12 hour shifts at a local hospital. Ali and her doctors are
already anticipating she will be put on bed rest around 20 weeks gestation. At
that time Adam and Ali will be down to one paycheck, making income scarce.
Ali plans to return to work as soon as physically possible after the babies
are born. They also foresee the babies having to be kept in the hospital
following delivery for some time. In addition to medical bills and
living expenses, Ali and Adam are going to have to buy a different vehicle
since they will soon be a family of six. Needless to say of course, Ali and
Adam will need as much support physical, emotionally, and financially as they
can get.
Brunswick, their hometown and where they are going to be raising their
family, is a small tight knit rural town. The news of the expected
quadruplets is quickly spreading through the town. As a community,
members are coming together to help make the financial hardship a little lighter
for the future new parents. We are having a community wide baby shower on
June 13 in Brunswick for anyone wanting to help to bring donations or gifts
and visit with Adam and Ali. In attempts to make this the least stressful a
situation as possible I am contacting you to request any coverage that
could be done for Ali, Adam, their new expected family and/or the baby shower.
All donations would be deeply appreciated.
Thank you,
Megan Creed |
