Awesome foursome — first in 25 years

ACanterbury family have welcomed the first Kiwi quadruplets in 25 years. The three girls and one boy were born at Christchurch Women’s Hospital on August 15 to Kendall and Joshua MacDonald, and big brother Brooklyn, 3.

Quinn, Indie, Hudson and Molly were born on August 15 at 28 weeks and four days and ranged in weight from 1120g to 1306g.

Two of them are fraternal twins and two are identical twins.

Baby photographer Cassandra English, tasked with doing a photoshoot for the babies, described it as a career-defining opportunity.

“The MacDonald babies may be the only set of quads I’ll ever get to meet in my career, so it really was an incredible experience,” she said.

“To bring my vision to life I needed four babies, four assistants, three baby shushers, 27 bunches of fresh flowers, a handmade wreath and a wooden bed made by my Dad.” The shoot spanned seven-anda-half hours and included 13 nappy changes, nine bottles and numerous “burps and farts”.

English said she managed to get vomited on only twice.

The MacDonalds created a Givealittle page to help them raise funds for their delightful surprise.

A few weeks before the couple knew about the pregnancy, they had put in an offer on a threebedroom house to upsize for their growing son and hopefully a brother or sister to come.

But with the news of their much bigger family, they let the house go and look to move into a fourbedroom home in Timaru.

“Every day is full on, it is often one step forward and two steps back for each of the babies — a real emotional rollercoaster,” said the Givealittle site.

“There are all the costs of getting ready for the babies to come home and then . . . the ongoing costs of raising [them].”