Due to the £200 weekly expense of our priceless infants, we were terrified and in financial devastation. IVF was not utilized by Katalina Davies, 31, to conceive the four children, but it continued to worry her throughout her pregnancy. Both Matt Davies and Katalina Martin decided they wanted another kid when they first started dating in 2012.
Both of them separately had their own children, Faith, now 11, and Callum, now 10, but they were keen on a child together. Sadly it wasn’t easy and pregnancy test after pregnancy test showed negative results. Until one day in 2014 when two blue lines showed up revealing that Katalina, 31, happily, was pregnant. But – amazingly – it wasn’t one baby… it was FOUR.
Beating 700,000 to one ᴏᴅᴅs to conceive quads without IVF, in a case that’s thought to be unique in the UK, Katalina’s ᴇɢɢs Fᴇʀᴛɪʟɪsᴇᴅ separately at the same time – creating four non-identical quads. I was lying on the scanning table, wondering whether the sonographer would hear a heartbeat.
I’d been so thrilled when I fell pregnant as doctors had told me that they thought I had polycystic ovaries, which would make it difficult for me to get pregnant. They’d put me on a low dose of medication to try and make things easier for me to conceive, but the months had gone by and each time I was disappointed. I thought I would never be a mum – that it would never happen for me, as each month left me ᴄʀᴜsʜᴇᴅ.
But then finally I had a positive pregnancy test. I couldn’t believe it as I looked at the test stick in my hand. When I saw the two little blue lines telling me I was finally pregnant at last, I was thrilled. But I had a lot oꜰ ᴀɢᴏɴɪsɪɴɢ sᴛᴏᴍᴀᴄʜ ᴘᴀɪɴ, so it was really worrying. Then a Few days later , The doctors rang me when I got back with the results oꜰ my ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ test. They told me I had to come in quick – my ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ test had shown something ᴜɴᴜsᴜᴀʟ. Lying on the bed where they scan you, thoughts were racing through my mind.
I was ᴡᴏʀʀɪᴇᴅ in case the pregnancy was ᴇᴄᴛᴏᴘɪᴄ and I’ᴅ have to have my ꜰᴀʟʟᴏᴘɪᴀɴ ᴛᴜʙᴇs ʀᴇᴍᴏᴠᴇᴅ. I’d never be a mum again. The sonographer peered at the screen ꜰor what seemed like an eternity. I knew there was something wrong. Was she going to tell me it was ᴇᴄᴛᴏᴘɪᴄ? Or that there was no heartbeat? But nothing could have prepared me ꜰor what I was about to hear.
She turned to me. ‘I’ve seen three ɢᴇsᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ sᴀᴄs, possibly four,’ she said. I just ʙᴜʀsᴛ into tears. It was such a sʜᴏᴄᴋ, I couldn’t take it in. While I was thrilled to be pregnant and that it wasn’t ᴇᴄᴛᴏᴘɪᴄ.
The doctors offered to ᴛᴇʀᴍɪɴᴀᴛᴇ one or two oꜰ the babies. It was risky ꜰor all oꜰ them and it was risky ꜰor me too. But I couldn’t consider ɢᴇᴛᴛɪɴɢ ʀɪᴅ oꜰ any oꜰ them. It was nature’s way, and I wanted to see what happened, to take a chance. It was so rare that I’d ꜰᴀʟʟᴇɴ pregnant with four sᴇᴘᴀʀᴀᴛᴇ ꜰᴇʀᴛɪʟɪsᴇᴅ ᴇɢɢs. Usually naturally conceived quads happen when one or more embryos split, but experts had never heard oꜰ it happening like this before. I was unique, and so were my babies. There was no way I could ᴛᴇʀᴍɪɴᴀᴛᴇ any oꜰ them. They all had to be given a chance. I had morning sɪᴄᴋɴᴇss until I was 12 weeks pregnant, and then luckily everything went smoothly until I was 30 weeks. My belly was absolutely enormous. I kept saying to Matt I couldn’t believe it was going to get any bigger, but it just kept growing and growing.
I was admitted to St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester in early 2015 when I was 27 weeks pregnant and put on bed rest to try and prevent the ǫᴜᴀᴅʀᴜᴘʟᴇᴛs being born early. The quads were born by caesarean section in february when I was 30 weeks pregnant. Their delivery had been scheduled ꜰor 32 weeks, but it had to be done two weeks early after I started to develop the life threatening condition pre-eclampsia (high ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ pressure).
Sofia weighed 3Ib 11oz, Roman 2Ib 13oz, Aston 3Ib 2oz and Amelia 3Ib 7oz. I was overwhelmed by relief when they were all born safe and well. We were able to bring them home after a ꜰew days and found they all had different personalities. They all came ꜰrom a different egg, with different sacs and placenta. Aston is always happy and smiling, Sofia loves her food and is so placid, Roman may be the smallest but he’s the loudest one and everyone falls in love with Amelia. It is hard work and cost us £200 a week on ᴇssᴇɴᴛɪᴀʟs when they were babies, but I wouldn’t change it ꜰor anything in the world.
They had to be bottle-fed as I couldn’t produce enough milk to satisfy them all. Often there were two crying when the first two were being fed. I got through 20 nappies a day and each baby guzzled six bottles of milk each day. Matt and I wanted to have another baby, but we had never imagined having another ꜰour. Our family is definitely complete now. We won’t be trying again ꜰor another baby. ꜰour is more than enough to cope with.
