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PROVO — Ashley Gardner’s eyes shined with tears as she described what it was like to meet her four newborn babies for the first time.
“It was scary at first and then, you know, the second you see the babies' faces and hear them cry, it just is, it’s all worth it,” Gardner said.
After eight years of trying to have children, Ashley and Tyson Gardner, of Pleasant Grove, conceived two sets of identical twins in the summer with the help of infertility treatments. Theirs is a self-described "story of hope" for others who have gone through infertility, Tyson Gardner said.
The odds of conceiving two sets of identical twins are about 1 in 70 million, according to Alan Penzias, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School. After having already beaten the odds, the Gardners were hoping to make it to 24 weeks, a stage when doctors thought the babies would be viable.
Around 3 p.m. Sunday, Indie, Esme, Scarlett and Evangeline Gardner were born by Caesarean section at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, at 29 ½ weeks old. Quadruplets are generally born between 28 and 34 weeks of pregnancy.
“I’ll never forget being in the room. The girls were really doing well. Tyson turned to me, grabbed my shoulders and said, ‘I have a family.’ And did he ever have a family! Went from two to six in a very, very short period of time,” said Dr. Stephen Minton, medical director of the hospital's newborn Intensive Care Unit.
The four new Gardners arrived 12 weeks before their due date; three weighed slightly more than 2 pounds and one weighed a little less. Obstetricians were able to capture 3D images of the babies' faces before the birth, which helped Minton feel connected to the tiny girls before they were born.
“We felt we knew them. They had names. They were real people,” Minton said.
The delivery went smoothly with the aid of dozens of hospital workers.
Early in the pregnancy, one set of twins went through a laser procedure to split the fused placentas of one set of twins. This intervention spared the Gardners from having to decide how to deal with one healthy set and another struggling set of twins.
During the three days since the delivery, the Gardners had already held their babies outside of the isolette and the newborns progressed to breathing through nasal cannulas and drinking milk.
“It’s crazy to look at them and think, ‘How did you all fit in there?’” Ashley Gardner said Wednesday.
The parents held hands as they spoke to the media about their hope for their future with the girls.
“God has a plan for us and, you know, he’s trusted us with four babies. We have faith in him … and we have faith in each other. So we know we can do it,” Tyson Gardner said.
With the help of YouTube, media coverage and Facebook, the Gardners' story has traveled around the world. TLC will include the Gardners in a series about new parents and their babies that will air in late 2015. The Gardners hope their experience will bring encouragement to others who deal with infertility.
“People identify with our story. There are hundreds, thousands of people that struggle with infertility,” Tyson Gardner said. “Our story’s a story of hope.”
With her hair curled and makeup applied, Ashley Gardner's hospital-issued wheelchair was the only indication that days earlier she had given birth to four babies.
“Momma Bear’s doing extremely well. She’s a trooper. She’s had quadruplets and look how good she looks. It makes me look bad,” Tyson Gardner quipped.
Contributing: Sam Penrod
