{Quad Squad} Two Ambers = Eight Babies!!!

Now that I'm getting some of my independence back after my second surgery (as much independence as I can have with four babies anyway!), a play date was definitely in order. My quad momma friend, Amber, and I spent about three days planning our play date at her house yesterday and it worked out perfectly and was chaotically fun. Yes, we both have the same name, we both have quadruplets and they're less than two months apart. Crazy, huh? We even know some of the same people through six degrees of separation. Needless to say, when the husband and I made our big move from Houston to Dallas, we were excited about the possibilities of play dates, hang outs and our kids growing up together.

The night before, I laid out the babies' clothes, packed a bag with some of their favorite toys as well as restocked the diaper bag and set everything by the door. In the morning, I changed their diapers and got them dressed and had them all in their quad table ready for breakfast by 8:10am. I fed them the spoon feed, then their bottles, changed a couple diapers again and loaded them into their car seats. I had parked the suburban in the parking spot right outside the front door of our apartment and had already loaded the diaper bag, bottles and toys into the back, so I was able to put the quads quickly into the car. I can only do one at a time since I'm barely supposed to be lifting the weight of a carrier + baby, but it didn't take long.

harrison, trystan, logan and kailey...ready to roll!

Then we were off! I swung through Sonic on my way to the highway for a large coke with lime (my crutch, since I don't drink coffee) then stopped at Chick-Fil-A a little over halfway to grab lunch for me and Amber. I arrived at her house around 10:30am, I think, and she helped me get everyone unloaded and "unpacked" into the living room. The babies were so funny, all wide-eyed looking around at everything. I realized I've been crammed into a tiny apartment much too long when I walked through into her kitchen and thought, "Wow, it's so spacious!"

Logan wasn't exactly the flower of the bunch as she decided to cry nearly the entire time if I wasn't holding her. Normally she only takes a few minutes to adjust to new people or settings, but today she wasn't having it. Naturally, she warmed up to everything and was happy as a lark about 30 minutes before we left.

logan had to stay with momma or she was a lot of drama

Our crews aren't on the exact same schedule, which worked out because she fed her babies lunch in her quad table first (it's very much like ours, her husband built it, too!) and then my crew ate lunch about 40 minutes later. Amber was sweet enough to set up four pack-and-plays for us, so the babies took their naps in there after lunch.

You nearly had to be there to believe it, but all eight babies actually went to sleep! There were no babies to be found in the quad table...

...and none in the living room....

....they were all in bed and resting. We actually got to eat lunch in peace!

amber squared: me and amber s. (right)

Once they started waking up, they all came back out into the living room for some group playtime. Then the play date really started! We put on a Baby Einstein DVD (which helped distract Logan) and lined up all the kiddos for a picture and it's the cutest darn thing ever. It's also a lot of babies.

roll call! from the front left: kailey, mason, rylin, logan, harrison, harper, sydney and trystan 

They played very well—sometimes together, sometimes separately. Amber's babies loved checking out the toys I'd brought over and my babies crawled all over the place and investigated a few of their toys as well. It's so nice to go somewhere for a play date that's set up to accommodate as many babies as you have! It didn't even feel weird to have eight babies in one place, if you can believe it. And while we look forward to more flexibility in the future, multiples play dates are the way to go for us right now. It's hard to pack and load four babies for just a quick meet-up so we tend to have to stay for a feeding or two to make it worthwhile. It was awesome to have a quad table just like ours available and Amber has many of the same toys as we do. Next week, we have a play date with triplet friends and their mom has already wrangled up four space saver high chairs for us to use! And you thought you had to pack a lot of stuff for one baby... ;)

Kailey is also becoming very skilled at walking with support and I caught her on video taking some good solid steps while holding onto a rolling toy.

After a round of bottles, we packed up and said our farewells about 4pm and headed home just in time to beat traffic. I'll admit to that ol' apartment feeling more like a matchbox when I walked in and I swear my knees were actually creaking in complaint from all the activity that day. But it was so worth it and I loved getting the babies into a new environment with more space plus some new playmates. Amber and I really enjoyed our time together and getting to talk to a buddy throughout the day. At one point, I went to the changing table to swap out diapers on one of my kids and when I came back, I realized I'd left Amber in her living room with seven babies. Ha! They were all playing and were fine, but it's just funny sometimes when you pause to realize how ridiculously abnormal some of our day-to-day is. Especially when you start combining quadruplets. ;)

Once I hit the highway and put on some classical tunes, my crew was out. They slept all the way home and I treated myself to a Starbucks drive-thru before I got back to the apartment. Driving in the car was my chance to rest before arriving home, unloading four car seats and then four babies into the quad table, doling out snacks, unloading them from the table and changing all their diapers, putting them in the play pen, prepping our dinner and their dinner and getting everyone changed into pajamas and ready for their feeding and bedtime. Fortunately the husband walked in from work just as I was getting really tired and he got everyone ready to eat while I sat down for a few minutes. The babies slept hard as rocks that night and now we're at it again today! Happy Friday with a glass of wine...