NBC - Valentine's day brought a very special delivery to Tressa and Manuel Montalvo of Houston: two sets of identical twins.
The
quadruplets were conceived spontaneously, without the help of any
fertility treatments or drugs – something that has a one in 70 million
chance of happening, the hospital says. They were born at 31 weeks by
Cesarean section to Tressa, who is 36, The Woman's Hospital of Texas in
Houston says.
The couple had been trying for one brother or sister
to keep their little boy Memphis, now 2 years old, company. At 10
weeks, they learned she was having twins. But when the couple went in
for Tressa's 12 week check-up, they learned she was carrying not two,
but four babies.
"If I wasn't already on the table lying down, I'm pretty sure I would have hit the floor," Tressa told TODAY.
Manuel's immediate reaction was jubilation.
"The first thing I said was ‘Home run!' and then I started jumping up and down," he said.
The Montalvo's doctor says this delivery is a very rare event.
"The
incidence of spontaneous quadruplets is somewhere of the order of 1 in
500,000," said Dr. Brian Kirshon, a specialist in maternal and fetal
medicine at Houston Perinatal Associates. "And then if you take two sets
of identical twins in the quadruplet set, the incidence must be one in
many, many millions. It's an extremely rare occurance."
The day of the delivery, Tressa was both nervous and excited.
"There
were all these thoughts coming into my head," she said. "There's four
human beings that are about to come into this world that are my
responsibility and they are going to be home with me one day. And we are
going to be a family of seven. This is amazing."
The Montalvos have always wanted to have a baby girl. And Manuel has told reporters that he'd like to keep trying even with the five boys the family has now.
Tressa
isn't ready to commit to anything. "My husband was quick to answer for
us in interviews," she said. "For myself, I thought, ‘OK, can we get
through this first before I answer that?'"
Ace and Blaine were
born at 8:51 a.m. on Feb. 14 and weighed 3 pounds, 10 ounces, and 3
pounds, 15 ounces, respectively. Cash and Dylan followed a minute later,
weighing 2 pounds, 15 ounces, and 3 pounds, 6 ounces, respectively.
