Danielle Thrasher and her partner found out they were pregnant with their first child through a home pregnancy test.
Little did the couple know, though, that before they got married they would become a family of six.
A pain in the 32-year-old’s abdomen sent her to the emergency room over a month later to do an ultrasound.
The scan showed that Danielle and her partner Joseph Odom were pregnant with not one baby, but two, which didn’t surprise her because her older brothers were twins.
But then a new ultrasound a week later showed another baby hiding with the twins. The couple was having triplets.
At 13 weeks pregnant, the third ultrasound revealed the final count and doctors informed them they were actually having quadruplets.
The fourth baby was hiding by her belly button.
Danielle gave birth to naturally conceived quadruplets on August 17, a feat that is only done in one and 700,000 women who are pregnant with four children.
Her doctor explained that they didn’t have any reason to check and see if she was having more than three babies.
‘Because of the placement of the babies, they didn’t go searching around for four,’ Danielle said.
The quadruplets were naturally conceived from four individual eggs that were fertilized by four separate sperm.
There is only a one in 700,000 chance of someone pregnant with quadruplets to naturally conceive them.
On that same day of seeing their fourth baby, doctors brought up a potential plan to reduce the pregnancy down to twins.
The chances of her having a miscarriage had significantly increased with having all four babies.
Also, there was a higher risk of her going into preterm labor where the babies could be born with developmental problems.
The couple decided together that giving up one or two of their children wasn’t an option.
‘We really felt in our hearts that if God wanted to give us four, we would have four,’ Danielle said.
‘We couldn’t live with ourselves knowing we had to pick two.’
This decision brought them down a harder road with the knowledge that the births would cause extra stress on both Danielle and her babies as well as a larger financial burden.
The average mother carrying quadruplets goes into preterm labor at 24 to 26 weeks.
Danielle was able to make it to 27 weeks and five days before having each child by a cesarean section birth.
She wanted to make it longer, but her waist at the time measured at the size of a 53-week pregnancy and her blood pressure was high.
Baby D, who is now called Arya, was also getting a lower blood chord flow than the other babies.
This provides oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the baby, so it was imperative to deliver to make sure all the children remained healthy.
Baby A, named Zoey Cheyenne was born at 2lbs and 2oz as the smallest of her siblings.
The hiding baby was Baby B and the couple named her Lyla Mae.
She weighed 2lbs and 6.5oz.
Baby C was named Maya Jo was born weighing 2bs and 4oz.
The final baby was Baby D, named Arya Grace. She weighed in at 2lbs and 2.9oz.
The doctors were all pleased that the babies all weighed so much considering they were born premature. Their actual due date was supposed to be November 11.
But with this birth has come complications for the quadruplets.
