Four siblings delivered 115 days early make history as most premature quadruplets

The Bryant family in Alabama hosted a very special first birthday party this 31 May, to celebrate their four children who just made history as the most premature quadruplets. 

Lainey, Kali, Lennon, and Koen – or the “Quads of Aubs”, as they’ve affectionately been dubbed – were delivered to Rebecca “Becca” and Lavareis Bryant (all USA) at a gestational age of 23 weeks 4 days at the University of Alabama at Birmingham hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, on 31 May 2024. 

These incredible babies arrived 115 days earlier than their expected due date of 23 September – breaking a record nearly 30 years old, held since 1997 by the Tepper family (Australia) for their 104-day premature quadruplets.

However, the happy, healthy, and boisterous quadruplets the Bryant family are now celebrating look remarkably different from the tiny, fragile bodies that emerged into the world last May.

At birth, the quads weighed as follows: Lainey (577 g; 1 lb 4.4 oz), Kali (597 g; 1 lb 5 oz), Lennon (647 g; 1 lb 6.8 oz) and Koen (611 g; 1 lb 5.6 oz). Becca’s pregnancy was extremely rare, and the babies were alarmingly sick after delivery. But after receiving several months of specialist care in the Level IV RNICU (Regional Newborn Intensive Care Unit) at the hospital, all the quadruplets had miraculously regained their strength and were discharged by 10 December 2024.

Now, the four siblings are an adorable and personable bunch, still getting accustomed to life in a house with nine people – the Bryants had three children before the quads, and their family has expanded to the size of a baseball team! 

And their proud parents are relieved to be free from the terrifying and emotional ordeal of the delivery, with all their little birds back in one nest.

Becca and Lavareis were living with their three children in a bright and beautiful home in Auburn, Alabama, when they decided to try for one more kid to round out their happy family. But the experience ended up being much more tumultuous – yet fulfilling – than they ever expected. After suffering a miscarriage early into the process, Becca decided to take a pregnancy test six weeks later and discovered that she was pregnant. 

“And it’s positive! And I’m like – oop! We’re pregnant again!” she said, sharing a big smile with her husband Lavareis. 

“I just really didn’t want to get super excited, but I also didn’t want to let that miscarriage steal the excitement from what could be a healthy baby,” she explained.

But what the couple never expected was that they would get four!

At their first ultrasound appointment, Becca remembers lying on the flatbed with the tech on her right, Lavareis on her left. Although she couldn’t see the screen, her eyes kept flickering between her husband and the examiner, watching their faces as they examined what was in her belly. At first, she thought something was wrong, when their expressions suddenly changed.

“There’s this one big spot, then there’s a little spot, and a little spot. And I was like, 'oh crap, that’s three!'” said Lavareis. “But then the big one was split down in the middle-wise, and she [ultrasound tech] was like there’s one, two, three, four!”

Further examination revealed that Becca was carrying two identical twin girls who shared a placenta (the “one big spot”), while the two boys are fraternal twins with separate placentas (the two little spots).

“I mean it was exciting and terrifying, and all we could think about all day was: we need four of this, and four of this, and four of that!” said Becca. “But then it’s also like, but wait – this is really high-risk. I was like, oh my gosh!”

The chance of having quadruplets is extremely rare, with doctors estimating the odds at about one in 700,000 births. Furthermore, the Bryants didn’t use IVF – making this birth even more of a miracle.

But Lavareis, a police officer, is a twin himself – and his sister has also had twins, so multiple births clearly run in the family genes. Becca, who is a cardiovascular ICU nurse, thought twins could be a possibility, but both parents were taken aback to realize there were four.

“Rebecca’s pregnancy was especially unique because in addition to having four babies in there, one of the sets also shared a placenta – which comes with its own additional risk of complications,” said Dr Ayodeji Sanusi, the man in charge of Bryant's delivery.

The Bryants were referred to Dr Sanusi, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, about 13 weeks into the pregnancy. Every other week, the family made the two-hour drive to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital every for additional appointments and scans, their care team also informing them about all the potential risks. 

“Every appointment I was excited to see the babies, but I was also scared that something was going to be wrong with somebody,” said Becca.

Everything really accelerated for the family around 20 weeks into the pregnancy, when her cervix started to shorten. Becca was whisked into the hospital to the high-risk ward, where she was monitored until her delivery.

“Of course, with any pregnancy, you want to get as far as you can,” she said. “But our big goal was like 30, 32 weeks.” 

“I was 23 weeks and 3 days, and I’m literally laying in the bed, and my water just breaks. So from that moment until delivery, things moved very fast.”

However, medical staff knew that just because Becca’s water broke, she didn’t necessarily have to deliver the babies that day. One or two of the quads might stay in the womb for longer while the others were welcomed into the world. But then mom started feeling feverish, and doctors determined that she had developed an infection in utero and needed to have an emergency C-section as soon as possible.

“A 2 a.m. cesarean section is never fun, but this is why we train for this moment – so that we’re ready at all hours of the day,” said Dr Sanusi. 

Dr Travers was the neonatologist on call the night the babies were delivered, and remembers the sense of urgency – and all the fighting spirit – in the room that night.

“This is an extremely rare situation, to have quadruplets,” he said. “We had a separate team for each baby, so we had about 30 team members in the delivery room waiting for the Bryant quads to arrive.” 

And before Becca knew it... the babies were here!

“Things just moved really really fast, and all of a sudden you look over and they’re walking by with Baby A at 2:15 a.m., and then they just keep coming,” she said. The quads were all born within five minutes of each other – at 2:15, 2:16, 2:17, and 2:20 a.m. 

“Once each of them got delivered, I was able to see each of them going out,” said the thrilled dad. 

Sadly, the quads weren’t out of the woods just yet.

“When babies are born extremely preterm, there are a lot of complications that can potentially arise,” explained Dr Travers. “Their lungs are going to be very immature and very stiff, so all the Bryant quads ended up being intubated and put on a ventilator, and they had 24/7 around-the-clock care.”

All the babies were admitted into the NICU – their tiny bodies full of tubes to administer medicine and nutrients, monitor their blood, and help their breathing and digestion. Drs Travers, Wally Carlo, Viral Jain, and Amelia Schuyler worked alongside an interdisciplinary team of neonatal nurses and respiratory therapists to keep the babies alive.

“I just remember walking in, and they’ve got so much going on in this room for this little tiny person,” said Becca. “It was really hard to come to terms with, like, they’re on the outside and all this stuff is fighting for them, and I don’t get to do that anymore.”

“At one point, each of them ended up being quite unwell and needing really intensive care,” said Dr Travers. “It must’ve been a really difficult time for the parents to watch them be so sick.”

Initially, Kali ended up very ill after developing a spontaneous hole in her intestines, and she needed to have surgery. Luckily, she rebounded around three weeks old  –  and when her breathing tube was removed her mother said she “never looked back.”

Lainey then developed a serious viral infection, which caused her to swell up into a “completely different baby”, according to Becca. The family tried an experimental medicine for adults to cure their sick infant – and whether it was time, love, or the medicine that did it, she miraculously got better.

Unfortunately, according to Dr Travers, boys can sometimes have a harder time than girls when they are born extremely premature.

“Lennon and Koen, overall, were sicker than their sisters,” he explained.

Lennon was diagnosed with Patent Ductus Arteriosus, a congenital heart defect, and required extra ventilator support.

And Koen’s weak health had his mother scared to leave the NICU or to go to sleep, terrified that she would lose one of her children in the night.

“It definitely was really hard having four babies in the NICU. Having so many moments of being so sick, and so close to losing them,” Becca said. “But I’ve always said – we’re bringing four in here, and we’re leaving with four. Everybody has to come home.”

Coming home

Luckily, after several months in the NICU, the Quads of Aubs were starting to recover.

Lainey started drinking from her bottles and her levels were stable, so she was discharged home. Kali followed her two days later.

“They’re going to be able to see the sunshine, feel the fresh air, things that I mean, like, they’ve never done before,” gushed Becca.

The boys took a while longer. After many discussions with doctors, Koen was finally cleared for home oxygen settings, and got to join his sisters at home in November.

“That was really like – whoa. My little fragile baby that terrified me so many times is going to go to home oxygen settings so we can go home,” said Becca.

Lennon was the last to come back to Auburn. The little buddy needed help eating and had to get a gastrostomy tube installed, as well as laser eye surgery and a hernia removed.

But a week and a half after Koen returned, Lennon joined the quads – and the Bryants were finally able to have their first night at home as a big, grateful family.

“Within a month's time frame, all four babies were discharged home. Two and a half weeks later, it was Christmas,” said Becca. “We took our first insane family picture – that was a disaster – but everyone was in it! Everybody was home, nobody was in the hospital!”

And the doctors who helped deliver the babies were also thrilled to see them go home so early – a Christmas gift that they hardly anticipated.

“That’s a really rare outcome at that gestational age, for all four of them to be doing really exceptionally well,” explained Dr Sanusi. “That was really very personally and professionally fulfilling for me.”

Dr Travers agreed: “It was such an incredible celebration to be able to send all four of the Bryants home. When they were born, we estimated that they had about a 1 in 10 chance of bringing all four of their babies home. 

“So to be able to see them all go home with their family is a real blessing, and it was so exciting for our whole team.”

A 'normal' life

Now, the Bryants are trying to become accustomed to ‘normal’ life – as normal as life can be, with four one-year-olds!

“It’s just something different everyday,” said Lavareis. 

“We try to do as much baby, almost-one-year-old, stuff as we can,” said Becca. The couple shared photos of the babies dressed as superheroes, happily playing with their siblings, and giggling with their parents.

“They’re great babies, they’re silly, and they’re funny, and they like to play and do stuff.”

And when the family invited all their loved ones over for the quads’ first birthday party, everything felt so different from all the drama in the hospital they had experienced less than a year prior.

They placed four baby smash cakes in front of their beloved quads, and laughed as they tried to fit all four names into the rhythm of the Birthday Song. 

“Thinking about, like, going to the ultrasound and there's four babies, and then they’re high risk, and then we get admitted to OB, and then my water breaks, and then we have these babies way too early, all those terrifying thoughts…” said Becca. 

“To see them go through all the stuff and struggle so hard and try to fight so hard… but now they’re home, and now we get to do their first birthday and think about outfits and smash cakes and fun just one year-old stuff.”

With their entire family finally home, the Bryants hearts are full, and they are eternally grateful for all the help from the medical team at University of Alabama Birmingham for delivering their quadruplets safely into the world. 

And growing up in such a loving home, with four built-in best friends, we’re sure the Officially Amazing Bryant quadruplets will go on to have many more exciting adventures.