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JACKSON, Miss. — Craig and Kimberly Fugate knew they'd have their hands full when she became pregnant unexpectedly with triplets at age 41. But they were shocked when the doctor who performed the Caesarean section last week to deliver the triplets said there was one more.
"They had got the three out and they said, 'More feet,’ ” Fugate told "Good Morning America." “ ‘More feet' … that's all I heard and I said, 'Nooo!' … It was an instant shock."
The Fugates, who also have a 10-year-old daughter, Katelyn, told WAPT they were already floored when she found out she was pregnant. The next surprise was finding out there were three babies instead of one. And then the babies decided to make their big debut last week at 28 weeks at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, a bit earlier than the anticipated 32-week delivery.
"We were trying to get as long as we could — as many days in as we could with the pregnancy. They just decided that morning they were coming," Kimberly said.
The quadruplets are identical, something Dr. James Bofill, a professor of maternal fetal medicine at University of Mississippi Medical Center, said is nearly impossible.
"The odds of spontaneous quadruplets is one in every 729,000 live births," Bofill told GMA. "The chances of having identical quadruplets [are] almost incalculable."
Spontaneous conception refers to natural pregnancy following previously successful or unsuccessful pregnancies aided by infertility treatment.
The Fugates named their daughters Kenleigh Rosa, Kristen Sue, Kayleigh Pearl and the surprise baby was named Kelsey Roxanne. Each baby was named for family members, WAPT reported.
Kimberly's original due date was May 2, and she said she expects the girls to be home by that time. She is staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Jackson to be near the girls while they are in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Their lungs weren't fully developed before they were born and some of the babies have had to go on and off a ventilator.
"I haven't been able to hold them yet," Fugate said. "It will be very exciting to get to take them home and love them."
The Fugates started a Facebook page to update friends and family on their progress and it has already garnered more than 40,000 likes. For more information on the girls' progress, visit the Fugate Quadruplets Facebook page.
In December, a woman from California gave birth to naturally-conceived identical triplets. Dr. William Gilbert said the odds of producing identical triplets without fertility drugs range from 1-in-1-million to 1-in-100-million.
