Four treasures arrive in time for Christmas
Healthy quadruplets born to couple after 291¼2 weeks in womb
BY JESSICA SMITH
Staff Writer

SCOTT PILLING staff Kristin and Anthony Liamero pose with the four storks on their front yard that represent the quadruplets Kristin gave birth to last week. The healthy babies are still being cared for at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick.

OLD BRIDGE — Kristin and Anthony Liamero got their Christmas presents early this year.

At 2:30 p.m. Dec. 21, Kristin gave birth to quadruplets — Natalie Kate, 3.1 pounds, Anthony Peter Jr., 3.8 pounds, Melanie Patricia, 2.15 pounds, and Corinne Lillian, 2.10 pounds.

The healthy foursome is recuperating at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

“Our Christmas miracle came a couple of days early,” Kristin said.

The couple had been trying to conceive a child for a year with the help of a fertility specialist when they found out in July that they had hit the jackpot, said Kristin, 30. After finding out about the quads during a sonogram, Kristin called her husband Anthony, 32, a steel worker in Manhattan.

“I just remember telling him to move in from the edge of the building,” Kristin said.

At first, the couple kept their extraordinary news to themselves. The night they found out, they waited until their daughters, Taylor, 9, and Ryley, 4, were tucked away in bed to express their shock and joy.

“We just kept laughing and smiling,” Kristin said.

Doctors suggested what they refer to as selective reduction, which can reduce the risks involved with a multiple pregnancy.

“We said no,” Kristin said. “Whatever God gives us is what he’s going to give us.”

As Kristin’s midsection grew to 64 inches, everyday tasks became much harder to perform. Caring for her two daughters was difficult, she said, but Taylor pitched in to help with her little sister. In November, Kristin was admitted to the hospital for pregnancy-related pain, and spent the entire month there.

Anthony and the girls visited as often as they could, as he performed a balancing act between work and his daughters’ various extracurricular activities. Kristin was unable to make it to her sister’s wedding, where she was going to serve as the maid of honor. Her disappointment was somewhat quelled with the help of a parent from her nephew’s school, who videotaped the wedding ceremony and rushed it over to Kristin to watch.

The couple’s family members also pooled their efforts to help wherever they could.

“Without family, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Kristin said.

Perhaps the biggest lifesaver to the Liameros was moving in with Kristin’s parents, Concepta and Dan Palomo, in Parlin. Kristin and Anthony were in the process of selling their house when they found out about the four newcomers, and they quickly realized they would have to come up with a plan. Moving to Pennsylvania seemed the only viable option at the time, because of the lower cost of living there, Kristin said. Concepta would not hear of it.

Though Kristin was reluctant to move in with her parents because she said they should have time to enjoy their lives after raising five children of their own, her mother said having her grandchildren there would be a big part of that enjoyment. Since the babies’ arrival, the proud grandparents have been bending the ears of anyone who will listen to their news.

The Palomos attended church three times over the weekend of Christmas, not only to thank God, but also to spread the word of their bundles of joy, Kristin said. Concepta whispered the news to fellow church-goers as they were on their way back to their seats from receiving communion. The buzz from talk of the quads caused a traffic jam in the communion line, Kristin said.

The babies were the first quadruplets to be born at Robert Wood Johnson, the family learned. Although she was initially nervous about having to use a new doctor because of the multiple births, both she and Anthony were impressed with the expertise of the entire medical staff that helped with the birthing. The delivery room was a packed house, with four to seven people per baby.

“It was controlled, but it was mayhem,” Kristin said. “Everyone knew where to go, what to do, and how to do it. I think my husband and I are just in shock, because everything went so smoothly.”

Both sides of the family crowded the waiting room in anticipation of the newborns, who were whisked away from the ecstatic parents after their birth by cesarean section. Corinne was the only one Kristin has been able to hold so far, she said, and she kissed her new daughter on the head before she was taken with the others to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where they will stay for six to eight weeks before coming home.

The quadruplets were exceptionally large considering the circumstances, Kristin said. Born after 291¼2 weeks in the womb, the babies’ size surprised doctors, who said single babies born at that time are often smaller.

“People keep saying they’re the biggest quads they ever heard of,” Kristin said.

Although Kristin had to wait almost 12 hours before seeing her babies through the glass wall of the NICU, Anthony and other family members were able to admire the new arrivals soon after they were born.

“People ask my husband how it feels having a boy, and he says, ‘I wouldn’t care if they were puppies, as long as they came out healthy,’” Kristin said.

Kristin was happy to make it back home for Christmas Eve, but she misses her babies, she said. She and Anthony, along with other family members, visit the hospital daily. The couple struggles to give equal time and attention to the babies, who are in two different areas of the unit for now.

Family, friends and neighbors are already rallying around to give aid to the enlarged family. Word is spreading quickly, thanks to everyone’s excitement, and the four storks set up on the lawn by the same friend who taped Kristin’s sister’s wedding.

As Kristin sits recuperating at home, she said she gets a laugh out of passers-by who back up in their cars to do a double-take at the lawn decorations that outdo every holiday display in town.