Upstate N.Y. couple become parents times four

They found out on Mother's Day that they were pregnant. And on Saturday, Chris and Katie Muchard of Irondequoit, N.Y., became parents to three boys and a girl.

Only about 3 percent of births nationwide involve multiples. Birth rates of multiples have increased since the 1980s, most notably for twins. Rates of triplets and other multiples was increasing but has slowed since 1998, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Quads, on average, are delivered between 26 and 30 weeks, Loralei Thornburg, director of maternal fetal medicine at Strong Memorial Hospital told the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Twenty-eight weeks is considered a milestone, she said. The Muchard quads were delivered via Caesarean section at Strong Memorial at 29 weeks and five days, weighing between 2 pounds and 3 pounds, 10 ounces. All four were in the neonatal intensive care unit Sunday; the foursome should head home sometime in January.

"I have always wanted to be a dad," Chris Muchard said Sunday evening. "I've always wanted to come home to a house full of kids. Now I get to do that, all in one shot."

There remain concerns in these initial days, including the lungs, the bowels and the potential for bleeding on the brain. Babies at this stage haven't yet developed a suck and swallow reflex, and thus must be fed by a tube. They don't have any fat, so it's important to keep their temperature up.

For the Muchards, the realization they weren't having one but four babies came during their first ultrasound. The image came up and doctor quickly flipped it off, remarking, "Oh, this isn't what I expected," Chris Muchard recalled. The couple had taken extra measures to get pregnant and were aware multiples were a possibility. Told that was the case, he said his initial thought was, "Two twin boys. All right." Then the doctor showed them the image.

"She said, 'Look here. See these four dots, what looks like a four-leaf clover?"

Shock and excitement quickly turned to fear, as the Muchards learned about the dangers of a multiple births. But also, four babies? They own a three-bedroom house. Chris drives a Chevy pickup. And she drives a Mazda 3.

"We need to buy ourselves a minivan," he said.

He is 32 and works in sales at UniLink in Brighton. She is 33 and works at CGI Communications. She stopped going in at 19 weeks.

They went into the hospital on Thursday night, he said. The babies had shifted so three were on her left side, putting pressure on her leg when she sat. Then her leg started swelling. Her blood pressure was rising. She was having headaches. The doctors decided it was time. The babies were healthy enough to survive outside the womb. Initially, the thought was to act right away, but the births were delayed until Saturday morning.

Grandparents assembled in the waiting room. Chris donned a smock, shoe covers, a mask and hat and entered the operating room to find three doctors prepped for surgery and a huddle of 16 nurses and other staffers, who would divide into teams of four to receive each child. Many more medical personnel waited in the wings.

"We knew we were in good hands," he said. All the same there was fear, nervousness. He held her hand. "To see them come out, it was a wild experience."

They named the babies Brian Thomas, Lillian Amie, Owen Christopher and Mason Kenneth.

Now the new dad is taking his turn at changing diapers. Delicately, he said, as the babies aren't being picked up and handled yet, and preemie diapers "are the littlest things in the world."

Mom is doing well. Dad is looking forward to their "wolf pack" coming home.

"My wife says I'm like a kid, too," he said, later revealing that the couple told their parents the babies' genders by inviting them over, telling them to wear white T-shirts then spraying them with squirt guns — filled with either blue or pink-dyed water.

"I'm always the fun uncle, running around, playing. ... I'll probably have more fun. ... We're excited about all that, Chuck E. Cheese, all the cool stuff."