I wasn’t expecting four of you!
All we wanted was a sibling for our little boy...
Holding my healthy newborn baby boy, I felt so happy I could burst with joy.
‘He’s perfect,’ I cried, taking in Brooklyn’s tiny features.
It was January 2015, and for me and my husband Josh, then 23, Brooklyn was a miracle.
You see, I’d been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis as a teenager.
Doctors told me I’d struggle to get pregnant.
And Brooklyn was our everything, he was such a happy baby.
Caught up in the blissful bubble of early parenthood, we decided we wanted another baby.
‘Let’s try,’ I said when Brooklyn was just 3 months.
We knew it could be a long road.
Then, just after Brooklyn’s second birthday, I suffered a miscarriage at 11 weeks.
Heartbroken, we kept on trying.
By December 2017, we saw a specialist.
I was prescribed clomiphene, a fertility drug that encourages ovulation.
In February 2018,
I started feeling sick.
‘It’s positive!’ I cried, seeing the second line appear on the pregnancy test.
After my previous miscarriage, I was anxious.
Especially when, at eight weeks, I was admitted to Timaru Hospital, where we live in New Zealand, suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum – severe morning sickness.
I was still in hospital when I had a scan at nine weeks.
And during the ultrasound, I heard the unmistakable sound of two heartbeats.
‘It’s twins!’ I cried, delighted.
Only the sonographer sent me for another scan with a specialist.
It was then that I heard them.
Three heartbeats.
Triplets?!
But I was wrongÉ ‘There are four babies,’ the specialist announced. ‘You’re having quads.’
Absolutely gobsmacked, I swore in shock!
But Josh stayed silent. Everyone in the room was stunned – doctors said quads hadn’t been born in New Zealand for more than 20 years.
Back on the ward, Josh was still speechless.
‘How will we cope with five kids?’ I panicked.
In a daze, Josh went for a walk.
When he came back soon after, he was grinning.
‘This is crazy,’ he laughed.
I knew then we’d manage. Somehow.
Soon after, we told our amazed family.
After three weeks,
I was discharged and we began to realise just how much our life was going to change. We needed a
Life was going to change... We needed a bigger house!
We go through 30 nappies and 24 bottles a day
bigger house for a start!
So we found a fivebedroom home, bought an 11-seater van.
Just think, in a few months there’ll be four extra car
seats back there, I thought. It wasn’t all exciting. Carrying quads made my pregnancy high risk, so at 24 weeks, we moved into Ronald McDonald House, a home-from-home for families, next to Christchurch Hospital.
It was likely our babies would be premature, so doctors wanted us close by.
And on 15 August 2018, at 28 weeks and four days, I went into labour.
Four hours later, our babies were born by Caesarean section.
Please be OK, I willed as they arrived, one by one.
First identical twin girls Indie and Quinn, followed by our boy Hudson, then another girl Molly.
‘They’re amazing!’ Josh told me, tears in his eyes.
Our four babies were whisked straight to the Neonatal unit.
When I got to see them, 12 hours later, I saw how small they were.
Molly was the biggest at just 2lb 8oz, Hudson weighed 2lb 6oz, and Indie and Quinn were just 2lb 4oz.
But though tiny, they were fighters, getting stronger every week.
Brooklyn, then 3, seamlessly stepped into his big-brother role, wanting to do everything for his siblings.
At 14 weeks, the quads finally came home.
That’s when chaos hit. Our lives became a cycle of nappy changing and night feeds.
It was both exhausting and exhilarating.
We were so happy to have them home.
When Josh went back to work in December, we got a night nanny. She’d look after the quads between 3am and 9am, do night feeds, soothe them back to sleep when they woke.
I know we’re lucky to have help, thanks to a scheme in place by the Government for those with triplets or more.
It meant I got six hours solid sleep, leaving me enough energy to tackle four energetic babies in the morning.
Now the quads have turned 1, and I run a tight ship. With allocated times for meals and naps.
The strict routine keeps me sane.
With each day, I see similarities and differences between them.
Indie and Quinn don’t just look the same, their personalities are identical. Chilled out, content. They’re not bothered about getting Mummy’s attention, keeping each other busy instead, playing and babbling away.
Hudson and Molly are like two little hurricanes, although Molly is the craziest of the bunch.
I call her my sassy firecracker!
Brooklyn adapted so well, he loves making them laugh and is happy to help. Being a mum of quads is no mean feat.
We go through 30 nappies and 24 bottles a day!
But we feel so lucky, because four times the work means four times the love.