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Alabama Family Readies Home for Quadruplets

Quadruplets
Quadruplets Evelyn, David, Daniel and Adeline. | Image by Hannah Carmack, Facebook

An Alabama couple is making plans to bring home the newest additions to the family after the wife gave birth to a rare set of quadruplets in March.

Michael and Hannah Carmack discovered they were expecting quadruplets on October 31, 2022, during a medical visit for a pregnancy ultrasound. Michael told FOX that all he could do at the time was laugh in disbelief. The couple already had an 8-year-old daughter named Emily.

“I had to convince Hannah it was a good idea to have a second child. Imagine how she reacted when she found out we were having four!” Michael told Today.com.

The couple later found out that the babies were two sets of identical twins, which is exceedingly rare. The odds of having quadruplets is about one in every 700,000 naturally occurring pregnancies, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Having two embryos that split to produce two sets of identical twins in the same pregnancy is even rarer.

The Carmacks said they were not aware of any history of twins or quadruplets on either side of the family.

Doctors warned the couple that it was unlikely all of the children would survive the pregnancy, and they might be forced to choose which set of twins to save or possibly face losing one of the children if complications occurred.

“We were having to choose between all or three,” said Michael, according to Fox 4. “Adeline, our smallest baby, really struggled in the womb and had low fluid and had some problems with the flow through her umbilical cord,” he continued.

Hannah had regular medical appointments twice weekly to monitor the development and health of the babies.

On March 14, Hannah had a C-section at the UAB Women and Infants Center in Birmingham, Alabama, at about 27 weeks along in her pregnancy. All four babies were born alive and relatively healthy, despite being premature.

The new arrivals included identical twin boys David and Daniel and identical twin girls Evelyn and Grace.

The largest baby was Evelyn, who weighed in at two pounds, nine ounces, and the smallest was Adeline, who weighed one pound, 10.5 ounces. All four babies have remained in the neonatal unit since birth, but Michael told Today.com that they were breathing on their own and “doing great.”

Michael praised his wife’s handling of the pregnancy both before and after the children were born, calling her a “rockstar.”

“Hannah persuades the nurses to let her hold more than one baby at a time because she knows how important it is for them to hear and feel her,” said Michael, according to Today. “She has a connection with these babies like no one else,” he continued.

The family anticipates that they can bring the babies home in June. In the meantime, the Carmacks have begun remodeling their home, enlarging it from 1,200 sq. ft to 3,000 sq. ft., in preparation for the arrival of their newly-expanded family.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help raise money for the renovations.

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