Jenny defied incredible odds to have her babies...
Jostling to the front of the heaving bar, my boyfriend Chris placed our order.
‘Two margaritas, please,’ he said to the barman.
‘Here’s to a fun night!’ I smiled, as we clinked cocktail glasses.
We’d met two years ago and were blissfully happy.
Both of us had been married before, so we felt lucky to have found love again.
As I took a sip, Chris turned to me.
‘Would you marry me?’ he asked.
It wasn’t extravagant and he didn’t get down on bended knee, but it was the perfect proposal.
‘Yes!’ I squealed.
We weren’t in a rush to book a wedding date.
Besides, there was something more pressing on our minds.
At 33, I was keen to start a family.
‘Wouldn’t it be great if we had twins?’ I smiled one day as we snuggled up on the sofa.
Both of us were only children and I often thought about how nice it would be to have an instant family.
‘The odds are probably low considering there’s no history of multiples in either of our families,’ I laughed.
‘As long as we have one healthy child, that’s the main thing,’ Chris said as I nodded in agreement.
Days later, I had my contraceptive device removed.
‘Let’s see what happens now,’ I said.
I downloaded an app to keep track of when I was ovulating and marked it on the calendar.
Around nine months passed, then one morning I checked the app and realised I was five days late.
I had a pregnancy test at home and decided to try it.
As I stared at the stick, I shrieked in surprise.
It was positive!
Running into the bedroom, I shoved it in front of Chris’s face.
‘Wake up!’ I screamed.
Bleary-eyed, Chris took a few moments to grasp what I was saying. When it had clicked, he threw his arms around me.
Our families were thrilled for us.
Approaching 11 weeks, Chris and I arrived for our first scan.
Lying on the table, my doctor and I chatted.
Suddenly, she peered at the screen with a funny look on her face.
'We've joked about having twins'
‘Is something wrong?’ I said, my mind racing. ‘Is there no heartbeat?’
‘No, there’s definitely a heartbeat,’ she replied, as she studied the image.
‘We’re having twins, aren’t we?’ I said. ‘We’ve joked about that.’
The doctor smiled.
‘No, there are three babies in there,’ she said, showing us the little blinking dots.
Chris went pale and passed out in his chair, while I was so stunned, I turned the air blue!
‘This is the first time I’ve seen a couple with triplets without IVF,’ the doctor said.
She made another appointment for me to see a specialist, because I was classed as high-risk.
That night, Chris and I had a little cry.
We were amazed by the prospect of having three babies, but it was also overwhelming.
‘How will we manage?’ I said.
‘I just want to make sure you’ll be OK,’ Chris said, as we tucked into our favourite takeaway.
I wasn’t the biggest woman and wondered if my body could cope.
It took us days to get used to the idea, but once we had, we started preparing, buying everything in triplicate.
My dad Brad was the first person I told.
‘Triplets!’ he exclaimed. ‘Is this a joke?’
‘No, Dad,’ I laughed. ‘It’s really happening.’
A month later, I had a more detailed ultrasound.
After the sonographer scanned me and looked at the screen, her expression changed.
‘Has one of the babies not made it?’ I asked in a panic.
I thought I’d prepared myself for losing one, but my heart was beating like crazy.
Now I knew I was having three, I wanted them all to hang on.
‘There’s a fourth one…’ she said, breaking me out of my thoughts.
‘What?’ I cried.
I was carrying quadruplets!
The odds were a staggering one in 15 million.
When I came back down to earth, I was surprisingly calm about it.
It sounded crazy, but because we’d adjusted to the idea of having three, a fourth one didn’t take as much getting used to.
‘What’s one more?’ Chris joked when I broke the news.
‘Exactly, and I like an even number,’ I giggled.
Only, as we went for more scans, we realised I was having the riskiest pregnancy possible.
‘They’re identical, which means they all share a placenta,’ the doctor explained.
He told us that there could be a chance of twin-to-twin transfusion.
‘As there’s only one food source and blood supply, one or more of the babies could take it away from the others.’
‘What does that mean?’ I asked.
‘There’s a possibility you might lose all of them,’ he said gently.
The chance of them all surviving was just 0.1 per cent if they developed the condition.
I didn’t want to hear any more and purposely decided not to dwell on the negatives.
‘I’m going to have four babies,’ I resolved.
In time, we found out they were all boys.
‘My own football team!’ Chris whooped.
Thankfully, my pregnancy went like a dream and I loved watching my bump blossom.
But I couldn’t understand why it was so small.
‘Where are they hiding?’ I said to Chris.
I kept active by walking our dog Zeke every day, and ate healthily — apart from my craving for a few sneaky Skittles.
One day, at 20 weeks pregnant, I woke up and decided that I wanted to get married.
‘Let’s do it!’ Chris said.
I called three of our friends.
‘Wear your Sunday best, because Chris and I are getting married this weekend!’ I said.
I wore a simple white dress, and Chris opted for jeans and a shirt, as we said our vows at the register office.
Afterwards we sat on picnic benches in the park while live music played and the sun shone.
As my tummy fluttered, I felt as if our quads were celebrating with us.
By 28 weeks, my ankles were swollen and I couldn’t get around easily.
At hospital, the doctor decided to give me steroid injections to help develop the babies’ lungs.
A couple of days later, I woke up in intense pain and my contractions came thick and fast.
I called the hospital and was told to go straight in.
‘I’m in labour,’ I said, nudging Chris.
There was a mad panic before we raced to hospital.
‘Ready?’ the doctor said.
There were 25 people in the delivery suite and a nurse took pictures so we could remember the moment.
I watched in awe as my tiny boys, who looked like scrawny little see-through birds, were born via Caesarean, all within three minutes.
Harrison was first out, weighing 2lb 6oz, followed by Hardy at 2lb 10oz. Henry was the third to be born at 2lb 6.7oz, and Hudson was last at just 1lb 15oz.
Harrison, who didn’t need any oxygen, was laid on my chest.
‘Hello, darling,’ I whispered, overcome with emotion.
Incredibly, they were all healthy.
Two weeks later, I was finally able to hold them all at once.
‘My baby birds,’ I cooed.
Chris was brilliant and so hands-on.
After being discharged, I spent 10 hours a day at the hospital, bonding with my boys and feeding and changing them.
Just eight weeks after being in neonatal intensive care, they were allowed to come home.
I couldn’t thank the staff enough.
At home, we adjusted to being a family of six overnight.
The boys were fed every three hours, and nappy changing became a military operation.
We got through 32 bottles of milk a day and 1,200 nappies a month. We also had to do three laundry loads a day.
At first we struggled to tell the babies apart, but now we finally know who’s who!
Every day, I lay them on a blanket together and they grab each other and link arms — it’s adorable to watch.
Some days it’s crazy and they all start crying at once. I can’t work out why, because they’ve been fed, changed and burped.
At those times, I end up wailing with them!
But I feel like I was born to be a quad mother!
Jenny Marr, 34, address withheld