Newborn quintuplets get first Santa visit
As Santa left the room, Clara began crying under her pink blanket, her wails audible even through the incubator. Almost instantly, her mother, Margaret, quickly sanitized her hands and slipped them in to comfort her.
Clara’s four siblings laid in their incubators next to her in a private room in the nursery intensive care unit, each wrapped in a different-colored blanket under a stocking bearing their name.
The five babies are the Baudinet quintuplets, and for their parents and the hospital, they are a Christmas miracle.
Margaret and Michael Baudinet struggled for years to conceive and experienced two miscarriages before the quints came along.
After moving across the country from their home in Charlottesville, Va. to work with Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, they welcomed Ava, Clara, Camille, Luke and Isabelle into the world Dec. 4.
It was the first time in St. Joseph’s 121-year history that staff have delivered quintuplets. To celebrate their remarkable arrival, the hospital organized a special visit from Santa.
He looked over the babies, smiling at them and wishing them well.
When Margaret, 31, found out she was pregnant with five after hormone therapy, she said she tamped down on her excitement.
“After you suffer two miscarriages — and I think women who have been through that understand — it’s really hard to get excited about a pregnancy, because as soon as I would get excited, something like that would happen,” she said.
Michael, 34, said he “was stunned, and I don’t think I talked for about four weeks.”
A team of 24 people were involved in the delivery process. They were born at 32 weeks and 1 day, far past the national average of 26 to 27 weeks for quintuplets.
They weighed between 3 pounds 6 ounces and 3 pounds 14 ounces. All of the children are now off ventilators, progressing well and considered healthy.