First-time parents Jennifer and Nicholas Stepenosky have spent the last two months in a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, where their quadruplet daughters and son were born.
However, on Wednesday, the couple were back in the Garden State with newborns Caitlin, Addison, Emilia and Elliott.
Jennifer said she knew from the moment that she found out she was having multiple children that it would not be a “normal pregnancy.”
“After finding out we were going to have a high-order multiple pregnancy in early January, we knew this wasn’t a normal pregnancy,” Jennifer said in a statement. “It’s high risk, and there is a lot more at stake since we would need more care to make sure the babies and myself were safe.”
The children were born on June 16 at Banner - University Medical Center Phoenix at 27 weeks so they had to stay there for care for nearly two months before they were medically transported to a children’s hospital in Delaware, hospital officials said.
She was first admitted to a hospital in Pennsylvania at just 16 weeks gestation after losing one of the five babies due to an incompetent cervix, which prompted the couple to start looking for alternative options for enhanced prenatal care, the Banner medical center said in a statement.
The couple turned to Dr. John Elliott, a perinatologist at the Arizona hospital and traveled to Phoenix in March where he performed a treatment for cervical weakness where the cervix starts to shorten and open too early during pregnancy, usually causing either a late miscarriage or preterm birth, hospital officials said.
Weeks following the procedure, Jennifer was able to come back to New Jersey but had to return to Banner once she reached the 23-week mark in her pregnancy and remained there until the birth of her babies.
Caitlin, Elliott, Addison and Emilia Stepenosky are swaddled after being born at 27 weeks and three days.Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix
“We are really looking forward to being back home with our family and friends,” Jennifer said. “It’s been a long yet rewarding journey and we can’t wait for them to meet the four new little additions to our family.”
All four babies have made quick and successful progress with their development where each one has now doubled in size, the hospital said.
The Stepenosky family will continue to post updates on the progress of each baby on their Facebook and Instagram accounts - @FiveStepsForUs - for those interested in following their story as a family of high-order multiples, according to the release.
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Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com.