Bryan’s Only Set of Quadruplets

At a routine ultrasound, Ashley and Brian Meyers were looking for a healthy report card for their new baby. Turns out, they needed to quadruple their expectations.

“They looked at the ultrasound and said ‘OK, let’s start counting,’” Ashley said.

The couple were having quadruplets. What they didn’t know at the time was that their kids – Aubrey, Sam Cole and Macie – would be the first set of quads born at Bryan. Almost 12 years later, as the kids start middle school this week, they remain the only set of quadruplets born at Bryan.

A Growing Family

Ashley and her husband were set up by their moms, who worked together in the radiology department at Bryan. Ashley’s mother, Peggy Schroder, still works at Bryan.

The couple moved to Alaska after they were married, where Ashley gave birth to their oldest child, Lauren. When she was around a year old, they moved back to Lincoln to be closer to family.

Once they knew they were having quadruplets, the couple went to work preparing for their household to more than double in size, building cribs and collecting hundreds of diapers. Ashley said her solo pregnancy wasn’t much different than her pregnancy with quadruplets, one difference being she had access to better healthcare in Lincoln versus when she was in Alaska. She stayed in self-imposed home rest for the last trimester with the quads, taking care of her daughter and relaxing as much as possible.

Despite the quads arriving early – at 31 weeks – they didn’t have any serious health problems. The plan was always to take them to the NICU right away; in fact, Ashley recalls a NICU visit early in her pregnancy where the staff showed her the exact incubators they would use for her babies.

Communication and Teamwork

Neonatologist Albert Owusu-Ansah, MD, remembers the extensive preparation by the NICU team before the quads arrived. On top of ensuring the proper equipment and supplies were in place, multiple units met to discuss their care, from the nursing staff to respiratory therapists to pharmacists to pastoral care. Communication and teamwork were key to getting ready for a Bryan first.

“It was a period of excitement and some anxiety,” Dr. Ansah said. “Excitement because of the history to be made and to showcase the growth of the unit and demonstrate that we were up to the task. Anxiety because of the perennial question of ‘what if’, but that helped us to dot all the i’s and cross the t’s.”

The Meyers were grateful to have a NICU close by, even though it was hard to leave their children there for six weeks.

“I knew they were safer where they were and that they were being taken care of,” she said. “It would’ve been worse if they were home with us and we were dealing with all four newborns. Having that time allowed us to gradually get used to everything that comes with quadruplets.”

Managing the Chaos

From the beginning, the Meyers would discover having quadruplets came with extra attention. Soon after their birth, the family was featured in local news stories. Even now, Ashley said people are very surprised to see quadruplets at school or in the grocery store.

The kids also have a knack for attracting crowds. Several times, the Meyers have gone camping, and suddenly a whole group of other kids are playing with them. They often have many kids gathered in their driveway, too, playing games on the neighborhood streets.

“I feel like these kids must look at them and think that there’s already a group of kids playing together, and they want to join,” she said. “But they don’t know we’re actually a family.”

One common misconception, Ashley said, is that quadruplets are hard to tell apart. This isn’t true for the Meyers, for the obvious reason that the kids don’t look identical. Further, their mom said telling them apart is easy once you know them.

The Meyers used a color-coded system to make sure every baby was getting fed, changed and cared for evenly and correctly. Elements of this system have stuck around as the kids got into sports and other activities. This is another way for the family to “manage the chaos” of having five kids, Ashley said.

Early on, the couple joined a private Facebook page for parents of four children or more.

“The group has been a tremendous source of community and support, a place where I can ask specific questions for which only certain people would have the answers,” Ashley said.

The quads are starting sixth grade this week at Mickle Middle School, which will bring new adventures, hardships and triumphs for the Meyers family. The siblings are close, but they also want to chart their separate paths, their mom said.

Ashley said that people often ask how the family gets through the daily grind of school and work and activities, especially with five growing kids who have unique personalities, interests and challenges.

“We still get people who are surprised we have quads,” she said. “You have to just figure out your normal, and our normal is not like other families’ normal. We just try to manage the chaos.”

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