She could fit all four of them into her arms five years ago. Christine Clark’s hands appear to be fuller than ever today, with two squirming, giggling girls on her lap and another two sneaking up behind her. Her quadruplets made history when they were born because they were ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇd from a single ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏ, with a 70 million-to-one probability of survival. And now the Fab Four — Alexis, Elisha, Darcy, and Caroline – are five years old and happy, though frenetic.
According to their father Justin, they have recently celebrated their birthday and are already “little ladies.” He remarked, ‘At one point, I could hold all four girls at the same time.’ ‘Now I’m wondering, ‘Where have they gone?’ They’ve grown up and are now little ladies.” After five years, the parents have honed their skills in the practicalities of raising four daughters, such as how to organize their clothing. They each got their own pair of onesies when they were born, weighing a little over 9 pounds apiece. They were various colors so Mr. and Mrs. Clark could identify them apart.
However, the girls now have to decide what they wish to wear each day from a shared wardrobe. Mr. Clark, 48, stated, ‘It would be too much work to mark all of their items separately so they could all share.’ ‘They have a few quarrels, but they generally work things out peacefully.’ Mrs. Clark, a nurse, continued, ‘We’ve never dressed them same, and we promote their own hobbies and independence from one another.’ The couple had been trying for children for over a decade and had almost given up hope when the girls arrived.
However, their first round of .I.V.F was a resounding success. The quadruplets are the outcome of a single ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏ splitting into three ᴇᴍʙʀʏᴏs, one of which then dividing again. ‘We would have to wait several lives to experience something like this again,’ said Professor Simon Fishel of the CARE Fertility Group. Mr. Clark quit his work as a long-distance lorry driver to assist in care for the girls after they were born. The Rotherham couple felt that the only way to raise the quadruplets was to follow a rigorous regimen.
The sisters get ready for school and assist in the household. Mr. Clark, who is now working as a telecommunications field engineer, said, “They will use the vacuum, the steam mop, and the polish as well as straighten up their room.” The quartet, like many teenagers, does play up now and then. ‘Something needs to go wrong every now and again,’ their father continued, citing their activities as including writing on their parents’ bed with pink lipstick and ᴅᴇsᴛʀᴏʏɪɴɢ a television while playing with a broomstick. Mr. Clark has made one thing plain in the future: ‘I’ve already informed them — they’ll have to pay for their own weddings.’
