Gaby and Patrick Hagler met in 2018 and got married shortly after. At the time, Gaby already had a daughter from her previous marriage, Kalleigh, and Patrick had a son, Paxton. After they got married, they had a child together, Sammy, but they wanted one more child together.
“With this, we wanted to finish having children, because I will be 40 in March and my husband will be 50 this month, and we thought it would be great if we had four children,” Gaby explained.
However, things did not turn out as expected. When Gaby got pregnant, she ʟᴏsᴛ the baby. Still, they didn’t give up, they kept trying, and she soon became pregnant again.
However, when she and her husband went for their first ᴜʟᴛʀᴀsᴏᴜɴᴅ on January 21, 2022, at 12 weeks, they were in for a huge surprise. While he was doing the test, the ᴛᴇᴄʜɴɪᴄɪᴀɴ started counting. “What is he counting? Limbs?” asked the worried mother. The ᴛᴇᴄʜɴɪᴄɪᴀɴ then smiled and said, “There are four babies.”
Gaby and Patrick were very surprised, they never dreamed that quadruplets could be born at this stage of their lives. Doctors determined it was a high-ʀɪsᴋ pregnancy, so the next few weeks were a struggle and Gaby had to undergo a ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇᴅᴜʀᴇ to prevent a ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ.
“The end of January and the beginning of February was a crazy period,” recalled Gaby.
Most quadruplets are born earlier, and Gaby and Patrick’s babies were born at 34 weeks on June 22, 2022. The boys were named Adam, Bennett, Coby and Dane. After their birth, they remained in the hospital for three weeks, and then the parents were finally able to take them home. However, since the couple’s car could only fit two child seats at a time, the trip home and subsequent ᴍᴇᴅɪᴄᴀʟ ᴇxᴀᴍɪɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴs were always a problem, and the parents always had to make two appointments for two babies each.
Barbara Garaygordobil, Gaby’s godmother, therefore created a GoFundMe page so that the family could buy a bigger car. More than $20,000 was raised, and the couple has since purchased a Ford van.
Gaby’s daughter, Kalleigh, at first had difficulty adapting to the change that the birth of the quadruplets meant, but later she was the biggest help to her mother. The biggest challenge for Gaby is feeding, as the four babies are always hungry at the same time. However, with Kalleigh’s help, she now uses a well-proven method and always expresses plenty of breast milk with a ʙʀᴇᴀsᴛ ᴘᴜᴍᴘ before feedings.
“It’s a ridiculous amount of milk and frankly, it’s exhausting,” she said.
Gaby and Patrick are happy that fate blessed them with four babies instead of one, and they feel that their nine-member family has truly been fulfilled.
