James Slattery, 33, and Grace Slattery, 32, With their “miracle” quadruplets this Christmas, a couple whose lives had been shattered by four terrible miscarriages will be wading through diapers. The couple had been trying to conceive for four years, but when Grace had four consecutive miscarriages, they had given up hope of ever becoming parents. After the agony of their previous pregnancies, the Irish couple from Co. Limerick was unable to endure the arduous process of IVF.
Grace said: “We call them our fantastic four. We cannot believe our babies are seven months old now- time flies and we are so looking forward to their first Christmas. “Friends and family have been showering them with presents already- they have a Christmas songs CD which they love and helps to calm them down.” “The babies are our Christmas miracles- we are blessed. “Just when we thought we couldn’t go through any more and we were ready to give up we received the best news ever. “I really want to encourage other women to keep trying because if we gave up we wouldn’t have the babies we do now.”
The couple’s daughters Amelia Helen, Mollie Rose, Lily-Grace May, and son, Lucas James will enjoy their first experience of sitting by the Christmas tree and opening presents, as their doting parents Grace and James are kept busy this Christmas.
Grace said: “We are going to my parents for Christmas dinner so we can actually all sit down and enjoy it. Otherwise, James and I would be so busy with all the babies we would probably end up having Christmas dinner really late, in front of the tv. “We want this Christmas to be magical- as we are so grateful to have all of our babies with us.”
And amazingly little Amelia is a double miracle as the couple were told once she was born she would only last a few hours due to being diagnosed with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia- which caused her organs to move into the wrong place.
Grace said: “We were told that if Amelia was born too small no surgeon would operate on her and due to her hernia, her heart was in the wrong place and lungs weren’t properly developed.”
Thankfully, at 4lbs 3oz Amelia was the biggest of the bunch and she had life-saving surgery as soon as she was born. Grace said: “We are so thankful to the Crumlin Children’s Hospital for saving our little girl’s life, she has regular check -ups but has been a little fighter from the word go- when she bit the doctor in the hospital!” Doting Grace and James had almost given up hope of having the family they always dreamed of.
Grace said: “When we went for the babies’ first scan we thought we’d lost another baby. “But we were given amazing news that we were definitely pregnant, everything was well and we were actually having quads. “We left with mixed emotions as we were essentially told not to hold our breath, as quads usually don’t survive.”
The couple were told to not get their hopes up at every appointment for the next 26 weeks, until the babies were born the day before Grace was due to have a C-section at 32 weeks and six days. Amelia Helen was the heaviest at 4lbs 3oz, and Mollie Rose was the smallest weighing 2lbs 15oz.
