Sabrina Negus of Tilden, Neb., gave birth to four healthy baby boys earlier this year. But although Logan, Mason, Porter and Connor were born on the same day and from the same mom, they're not your usual quadruplets.
Instead, the boys are what you might call "triplets, plus one."
"This is two eggs, four babies," Negus told KTIV of her unusual pregnancy.
In a typical quadruplet pregnancy, there are four eggs, one for each baby. But in the case of the Negus brothers, three of the boys -- identical triplets who shared one placenta -- developed from one egg, while the fourth boy, Connor, developed separately.
"Sabrina's pregnancy was one in a million," Negus' perinatologist Dr. Todd Lovgren told the Omaha World-Herald in January after the foursome's birth. "In fact, there have been fewer than 100 pregnancies of this type reported in the United States."
Negus says her ultra-rare pregnancy came as quite a surprise to her and her husband, Lucas. They had initially expected twins but discovered the foursome during an ultrasound.
“I was a little shocked," Negus, who had undergone fertility treatments after several years of trying for a baby, told the World-Herald. “Lucas couldn't believe it. I just laughed.”
From that point on, Negus' pregnancy became high-risk. She was hospitalized for 11 weeks before doctors decided to deliver the foursome early out of concern for the babies' health. With the help of 33 members of medical staff in two operating rooms, the four boys were born on Jan. 8 by cesarean section at 31 1/2 weeks. To Negus' delight, her sons were screaming when they emerged.
"It's nice to have healthy babies," Negus said, according to a hospital media release detailing the birth. "It was a scary and stressful pregnancy. It was one that had its ups and downs, but when we heard them crying at the delivery -- it was a very good sound."
Today, Negus and her husband are watching in amazement as their four boys grow and change.
"Everybody with kids always says they grow fast and enjoy it. And, man!" Lucas Negus told KTIV of his sons.
Having four growing infants in their lives can be challenge, the couple admits, but they say they're taking the endless diaper-changing, baby-feeding and entertaining in stride.
"We're incredibly real blessed. I mean, there's not a thing wrong with these guys. They are absolutely healthy and you could not ask for anything more than that," Negus said.
Clarification: An earlier version of this post implied that the Negus babies were not quadruplets. However, as Dr. Todd Lovgren of Methodist Women's Hospital in Omaha, Neb., explained to The Huffington Post Thursday, the Negus brothers are indeed quadruplets, albeit extraordinary ones. (Four babies born at the same birth are considered quadruplets, he said.)
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