MINNEAPOLIS – An Iron Range couple is introducing their miracle babies to Minnesota, quadruplets – all girls – born on the Fourth of July, and born within four minutes of each other.
“My favorite number is 7, but now we might have to change it,” said Allyson Ponto, mother. “I couldn’t be happier, they are healthy and they didn’t stay long in the NICU.”
Allyson and Tony Ponto, of Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota invited KARE 11 to meet their babies, who are now a little more than two weeks old.
“Olivia came out first and I just started crying. I was just bawling because they were healthy and alive,” said Allyson Ponto.
Olivia, Anna, Morgan, and Carolyn, born at 32 weeks’ gestation, are now all at the Children’s Minnesota special care nursery in Minneapolis. The babies are thriving and are expected to go home in a few weeks.
“I expect sheer chaos,” said Dr. Jeanne Mrozek, Children’s Minnesota neonatologist and medical director of Neonatal Services. “Right now, there is a nurse for every two babies, almost a man to man situation, but when you take four babies home, that’s a lot of mouths to feed at the same time.”
Dr. Mrozek said the babies are doing remarkably well after only needing some breathing support at birth.
“I know they waited a long time to have these babies and we like say when a baby sings, singing from the choir is what parents love to hear, a crying baby, it’s music,” said Dr. Mrozek.
The couple says they have lots of support waiting for them when they return to their hometown. They plan to continue to document their journey on their Facebook page “Four Peas in a Ponto.”
The Ponto family said they struggled with infertility for 11 years and were completely shocked to find out they were expecting quadruplets -- including identical twins – after losing four pregnancies.
Ponto had four ectopic pregnancies and subsequent miscarriages before visiting a Twin Cities fertility clinic and undergoing IVF treatment last year.
Tony Ponto, a former Marine, will now have four more reasons to celebrate his favorite holiday.
“I missed all the fireworks, but got to watch this happen, and we’ve got four fireworks now,” he said.
There were just 228 quadruplets among the nearly 4 million infants born in the U.S. last year. That's a rate of about 6 for every 100,000 births, per CDC birth statistics.
A fundraising page has been created to help the family with the quadruplets’ expenses.
Here is a fun fact to consider from the multiples website, RaisingMultiplies.org, quadruplets will go through about 9,000 diapers in their first year.