Four special deliveries: quadruplets!

Amber at 28 weeks, in the girls' room

Amber and George Shawver tried for four years to have a child. After their fourth round of IUI (intrauterine insemination), they learned they were pregnant – with four babies!

 “Looking at my hormone levels, we thought it might be twins or triplets,” Amber said. “When we found out we were having quads, I kept saying ‘this is so surreal – we really have four babies?’”  

Amber’s maternal/fetal medicine specialist, Dr. Bannie Tabor on the medical staff at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, suggested to Amber that it might be helpful to check out blogs of other quad Moms.

“Reading other people’s blogs helped give me peace of mind,” she said. “Looking at photos helped me know what to expect. For example, it wasn’t as alarming to see the CPAP.”

Amber also joined a quadruplets facebook group where she could talk with other Moms, ask questions, and get an idea of how big her babies might be at delivery or how many weeks a quad pregnancy typically lasts.

“It normalized it for us,” Amber said.

Amber delivered at 30 weeks and 5 days to four healthy babies: girls Rylin Skye (3 lbs 7.7 ounces) and Sydney Raine (2 lbs 5.4 ounces) and boys Harper Stone (3 lbs 1.4 ounces) and Mason River (2 lbs 14.9 ounces).

“The delivery was less complicated than I thought,” Amber said. “Delivering quads is kind of scary because no one knows what’s going to happen. I was hoping for a routine C-section and that’s what it was, just with more people in the room.”

Twenty caregivers were in the operating room, including a care team of three caregivers for each baby from the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

In her personal blog, Amber mentions she started to panic when the anesthesiologist began to work on the spinal block, but one of her nurses, Mary, helped calm her.

“Mary was so compassionate with me, knowing I was terrified,” she wrote in a blog entry about the birth. “She hugged me while I got the spinal block and whispered a prayer into my ear. It made a HUGE difference for me and then I was ready. Thankfully, the spinal block worked quickly and I found my calm because it wasn’t long before the action started.” 

Amber seeing one of her babies for the fist time after delivery

 The babies are doing well, gaining weight and learning how to eat. Amber and George expect they’ll be able to bring them home on or before the time of Amber’s due date, September 23.

“Having quads is very rare and special,” Amber said. “It’s a unique adventure.”

Harper

Mason

Rylin

Sydney

 Thanks to Amber and George for sharing their photos and story with us!