Christmas Card and Letter 2008

Our Christmas Card & Letter for 2008, it was mailed to family and friends. :)





Dear Family and Friends,

This year, 2008, has been filled with great joy and tremendous grief.

On September 5th we welcomed 4 beautiful babies into our family. They are Samantha, Bridgette, Theodore and Madeline, sadly our little Madeline was called home to Heaven 9 days later, she passed away peacefully in my arms. We are forever thankful and blessed to have been chosen to be Madelines’ parents.

Our year started off with a trip to Disney World in February. Alexis and Olivia had a blast, We had breakfast with Cinderella, met many characters. This was a very fun vacation for us, once the little ones get older we will be going again!!!

Luckily we took the trip in February because in March I became very tired only to find out in April that I was carrying 4 babies, yes quadruplets. The pregnancy was quite a challenge I ended up spending the last 8 weeks of it on bed rest, 5 weeks in the hospital. The babies arrived 13 weeks early; they were due December 5th.

Don did a fabulous job taking care of the big girls. He even became sort of good at ponytails. The barn has been put on hold; maybe we will wait for Teddy to be big enough to help.

Alexis finished up dance in the spring and is taking a year off while we adjust to the babies. Also she is staying home from preschool this year, we are trying to keep colds at a minimum. Alexis enjoys dancing, singing, talking, Scooby Doo and amazing us with starting to sound out words. She will start Kindergarten next fall.

Olivia is a smart little toddler. I swear she grew up overnight. She loves big sister Alexis, and does whatever Alexis does. Olivia loves princesses, helping mom with everything and doing everything for herself. Yes she is a big girl!!

Samantha, Bridgette & Teddy continue to grow and thrive. They spent 74 days in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) at the hospital and came home November 18.

Madeline continues to inspire us to take nothing for granted. She had a spunky personality. God let her have 8 great days and 1 day that was really bad, God brought her home quickly.

We are thankful for family, friends, our church and the many volunteers helping us since the babies came home.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous 2009!!

Love,
Don, Mary, Alexis, Olivia, Samantha, Bridgette & Theodore Riepe

WELCOME HOME SAMANTHA, BRIDGETTE & TEDDY!!!

We have a house full and are in heaven hearing the 3 babies cry. It is AWESOME to have the whole family home. Today is theirr new birthday, so to speak.

T​hey are all about 18.5 inches and the weights as of Monday were:

Sa​mantha - 6 pounds 8 ounces

B​ridgette - 5 pounds 10 ounces

T​eddy - 5 pounds 8 ounces

C​rying babies got to run. Please Pray!!

"​Keep The Faith"

we are more knowledgeab​le

Well we are more knowledgeab​le about what happened with Samantha & Teddy.

S​amantha - She is now 6 lbs 6 ounces. Her "Spell" was reflux and choking on it. Probably not as bad as we thought, now that we have had reflux training and she will come home with reflux precautions. Meaning that her bed will positioned at a 30 degree angle and she will sleep in what is called a Danny Sling to keep her from sliding down. Babies usually outgrow this by the time they can sit up unassisted. Very common in preemies. All 3 will come home on reflux precautions.​

Teddy - He is in at 5 pounds 5 ounces. His was more of an apnea episode where he just forgot to breathe. His is definately scarier. He did have low hemoglobin and dropped his body temperature with forgetting to breath. He has benifited greatly from the transfusion. Apnea of prematurity is normal, most babies outgrow it by 42 weeks gestation (he is 37 weeks). We will be coming home with monitors for all the babies that will sound off when they stop breathing for more than 20 seconds, and/or have a high or low heart rate. Most parents keep these between 4-8 weeks.

Bridget​te - Is in at 5 pounds 7 ounces. She has done fantastic at maintaining her oxygen levels. Looks like she will come home without it! :) They did a 12 hour test and her average saturation was 95%. She has reflux like Samantha.
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As For Me- They tell us that Tuesday morning will be the coming home day for all 3 babies. Tonight I am going to spend the night at the hospital to get a taste of what the over night thing will be like at home. When we are at the hospital they are to use the home monitors. One of the nurses said to pretend we are at home and that the nurse is my volunteer, and I give the nurse instruction​s on what to do, so I can get a true taste. And of course we are at the hospital and there are hundreds of professiona​ls able to assist if needed. Thanks for the suggestion Kate & Linda I hope it boosts my confidence and gets me ready.

S​o Tuesday November 18th will be like a new Birthday for them. They will be coming home like a newborn (even thought they are 2.5 months old.) Preemies growth and development go off of a corrected age chart meaning you subtract how many weeks early they were from the actual age to see what skills they should have. Somewhere between 2 - 2.5 years old they move to the regular chart.

T​his time they will be ready to come home and we will be to. Thank-You GOD!!!

"​Keep The Faith"

Both Samantha & Teddy are comfortable

Both Samantha & Teddy are comfortable and feisty back in their old room in the NICU. Both of them ended up needing blood transfusion​s due to very low hemoglobin. Now when they come home they will be sent home on monitors. The medical staff have reassured us that the lack of oxygen they both had will not cause any brain development problems.
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Bridgette is doing great!! She is working very hard at growing the new lung tissue. Still she is doing it without oxygen assistance.​

They are talking about next week sending everyone home. I am terrified to have the same thing happen again. I am hoping for the week after that. I have so many unanswered questions as to why this happened and how these things got missed.


I still can't get the "What If" out of my head. If I had fallen asleep at any time I could have lost either one or both of them.

Th​ank-You, Thank-You Dear God for the strength you gave me. Please let them be ready when they come home next time, let Samantha, Bridgette and Teddy grow strong and healthy and live to be 100 years old.

"Ke​ep The Faith"