It seemed impossible. But sure enough, life can always surprise us – and incredibly, 42-year-old Kimberly Fugate had become pregnant with triplets.
She already had a 10-year-old daughter and had no intention of getting pregnant again, but the ultrasound proved her wrong. The doctor stated that the triplets were identical, which added to the surrealness.
But that was not the last surprise Kimberly and her husband Craig had in store. Nine months later came the biggest shock of all … something not even the doctor could explain.
Kimberly Fugate went into labor at 28 weeks pregnant, just before her 42nd birthday. Kimberly didn’t even discover she was pregnant until she was 13 weeks along, as if that wasn’t startling enough.
After delivering three identical girls, doctors told her there was a little more in store. But what nobody could have prepared for was that it wasn’t over just yet.
“They had gotten the three out, and they said, ‘More feet,” said Kimberly. “I said, ‘No!’ It was an instant shock.”
Kimberly and Craig had produced four identical quadruplet girls. Their names and birth order: Kenleigh Rosa, Kristen Sue, Kayleigh Pearl, and Kelsey Roxanne.
With little time to get ready for her three babies, Kimberly and her husband Craig were hardly prepared for what happened in the delivery room.
The contractions started early in the day, and after hours of work, Kimberly finally had four tiny babies in her arms. It was a real miracle!
“It’s all been rather overwhelming when you think about how many changes will have to be made,” said Kimberly. “But I am just trying to take everything one day at a time. I know it will all work out.”
Pregnancies may quickly go from ordinary to spectacular. Another couple, Sarah and Bill Imbierowicz, got two sets of triplets unexpectedly! Rather than seeing it as a burden or a stumbling block, they saw it as a gift.
She and her husband, Craig, conceived the babies without IVF. That’s almost unheard of!
The chances of naturally conceiving quadruplets are 1 in 729,000. The chances of them being identical, though, are almost unfathomable at around 13 million to one.
Their doctor, James Bofill, was baffled!
“I was very embarrassed, obviously,” James said. “The news was sent to me by one of my fellows. I thought she was kidding.”
A year after delivering the babies, Kimberly told Today that she is loving motherhood:
“Just getting up in the morning and seeing the smiles on their faces, hearing them coo at me, and listening to them babble at each other — the joy is overwhelming. I know every mom is partial to her babies, but I feel like I have the prettiest babies with the prettiest smiles. And those dimples…
“The babies were the biggest surprise of my life, and I couldn’t imagine my life without them.”
“I believed that God picked me to have these quadruplets, and I felt that He would take care of them and allow them to survive. To see how far they’ve come makes me feel very blessed,” she added.
“I feel very lucky, like the luckiest mom in the whole world. I wasn’t planning on starting over with more children, and many things have changed since I had my quadruplets, Kenleigh, Kristen, Kayleigh, and Kelsey.”
Now they’re living happily with their mom, dad and big sister!
”I can’t imagine my life without the babies. They’ve brought so much joy, not only to my life and my family’s life but to the life of the community. I think the world of them,” Kimberly says.
