The chances were one in 15 million, but a woman in Dallas, Texas has given birth to identical quadruplet boys, and they were all delivered within three minutes. When Jenny and Chris Marr learned they would be carrying four children, they claimed to be in disbelief.
Jenny Marr was carrying a quartet of medical marvels: identical monochorionic quadruplets, of which there are only 72 cases recorded in medical literature, according to her obstetrician, Lauren Murray.
“It’s unbelievable. It’ll never happen again in my career. I said, ‘Girl, go buy a few lottery tickets because those are the kind of odds we’re dealing with,’” Murray, an OB-GYN at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas said. “What a miracle it was.”
The Marrs’ disbelief increased when they discovered that all four of the infants shared a placenta, which hampered the pregnancy. They all relied on that placenta for their nourishment, which meant if they didn’t share well, one (or more) could be in trouble.
The couple says they were never worried, despite the obvious challenges of having four babies at once, in the middle of a pandemic.
“I knew that if God was going to give us this gift that we were going to be fine,” Jenny said. “I just knew that we were going to be healthy and that everything was just going to be alright.”
First was Harrison, who was 2 pounds, 6 ounces in weight. After Hudson, who weighed 1 pound 15 ounces, came Hardy, who weighed 2 pounds 10 ounces, followed by Henry, who weighed 2 pounds 6.7 ounces.
“They were all born in three minutes. It’s incredible,” Marr said. “We called them our baby birds because they really looked like baby birds.”
All four infants spent around 10 weeks in the neonatal critical care unit because three of them need oxygen.
The Marr parents said they’re relishing every moment with their boys, watching as they grow and change every day.
“They all have such different personalities already,” said Chris Marr. “It’s incredible to watch.”
The identical boys wear different-color ankle bracelets to help distinguish them.
Even so, “we confuse them from time to time,” said Chris Marr.
“We just hope that this little story and our boys bring as much joy to everybody as they bring to us,” Marr said
