Hudson, Harrison, Henry, and Hardy were born on March 15 to Texas native Jenny Marr and her husband Chris. The pair, who now normally purchases 24 diapers each day and spends $300 (£224) per week on food, was surprised by their delivery. “Life has radically altered for us, having four children to care for at once,” the 37-year-old mother stated. Every two days, we consume 1.5 gallons of milk, and I attempt to prepare meals. I usually prepare my own, but occasionally I’m so worn out that Chris and I just reheat food from the freezer.
20-month-old Bᴏʏs are conceived naturally – this is extremely rare, as the Odds of giving birth to identical, spontaneous quadruplets are about 1 in 11 million or 1 in 15 million. At the first scan, the sonographer looked ‘at the screen’ – this worried Jenny that something was wrong.
She added: “She turned the screen away from me and told me everything was fine, but she was still staring at the screen. So I knew there was soᴍᴇᴛʜing else. I started laughing. and anxiously asked her if I was having twins, but nothing prepared me for her answer. I saw that Chris’ face was as wʜɪᴛe as a ghost, and with a strong blow, he passed out on the floor. One of the nurses lifted him up and gave him a glass of water. He was still in sʜᴏᴄᴋ until he sat on the chair.”
However, when the couple went to see a specialist a week later, they were even more surprised to learn that Jenny was actually Cᴀʀʀʏing four babies, not three – and they were identical. The doctors also stressed that their case was “extremely rare”, explaining that their identical quartet also shared a placenta. Jenny knew her pregnancy was ʀɪsᴋy, but was unaware of the chance that all of her children would survive.
She added: “Doctors told Chris the babies had less than a 0.01% chance of survival. And he kept that horrible secret to himself all the time and never told me, because he didn’t want me to panic about it. If I knew, I would be distraught.”
At 28 weeks, Jenny went into early labor and her sons were delivered by C-Section – and they were all cared for in the NICU. After the babies were sent home, the couple faced many new challenges. “It was a whirlwind of diaper changes, feeding and sleeping. But we got them into a routine where they all nap at the same time, which is great,” says Jenny. People ask how we tell them apart, and when they’re a few weeks old, I’ll put them in first-born, so I can tell them apart.”
Now that they’re a bit older, Jenny says their ‘four distinct faces’ and unique personalities make them easier to tell apart.
She added: “Harrison is the big brother and loves all the attention. Hardy is funny and laid-back, he just goes with the flow. Henry has an infectious smile and loves going out, and Hudson is The mother hen is small and is always checking that everyone is okay. Every day, I look at my 15 million to a liter and am amazed that they are here with us today. Even though life gets busier, it’s worth it. Every day we watch our children grow up, we feel like the luckiest mom and dad in the world.”
