9NEWS Reporter Amanda Martin with the Selby family on delivery day, Aug. 25, 2003.
"It's amazing, the relief, they're all OK. They're perfect! So proud of you girls, and your Mommy. She's awesome," said father, Brian Selby, right after the caesarian delivery at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center.
The Selbys had been expecting quintuplets, but doctors realized a few weeks ago that one of the babies had disappeared. That baby died and was at least partially reabsorbed into her mother's body. Bonnie and Brian were saddened by her loss.
"Who knows, she may have lost her life for the sake of her sisters. We don't know, we may never know the answers," said Bonnie.
"There's a little girl that may have looked just like Brooke and I'm not going to know her little spirit and her little personality, and that's painful. That's hard," said Brian.
Brooke is Brian and Bonnie's first child, who is now 2-years-old. Like her quadruplet siblings, Brooke was conceived through in-vitro fertilization at the Colorado Center for Reproductive Health.
Bonnie spent the past eight weeks on bed rest at the hospital. Besides walking from her bed to the bathroom, she sat in bed with her feet at the same level as her body, and used a wheelchair to move around the hospital.
The regimen was designed to keep the babies growing inside her for as long as possible. Doctors say for each day a baby remains in the womb, it saves three days of intensive care in the hospital. Bonnie made it to 34 weeks.
The night before a planned caesarian section, her water broke. While Brian figured out how to use his new video camera, telling his wife that this was the last time she'd fit in the same bed as her youngest daughters, sister Brooke spent her last few minutes as an only child dancing around the room.
A short time later, labor pains she had never expected to experience had Bonnie sobbing a bit, and admitting she was frightened.
With more than a dozen staffers in the delivery room, teams waited with blankets as Dr. Richard Porreco began the delivery.
"Here's number one, the fun has just begun!" Porreco said. "It's a little girl - what a shock!"
In less than two minutes, the Selby family more than doubled in size.
"God, I love you, are you doing OK?" asked Brian. "Hearing them cry makes me feel good, said Bonnie.
The babies range in size from four pounds to four pounds, seven ounces. Dr. Jeff Hanson said, altogether, Bonnie delivered almost 19.5 pounds of babies.
Hanson, who is a neonatologist, said they were the largest he'd seen for quadruplets, and anticipated they would not be in the hospital for more than several weeks, if that long.
As of Tuesday, two of the babies were on supplemental oxygen, and each was in separate incubators, to keep them warm.
"This is an A-plus outcome, we've very pleased," said Porreco. He said that delivering the quadruplets was nothing compared to raising them.
"This family is going to need a lot of help caring for these little girls. Not just casual help, programmed help for the first year. It's a big effort for everybody."
He said he knew the Selbys had a lot of support from family, from their church, and from the community in Superior.
Bonnie and Brian said they are sorting through about a dozen names, before deciding what Babies A, B, C and D will be called in the future.
9News will air a special one-hour report on the issues surrounding infertility, treatment, ethics and outcomes. The special, titled, "Expecting Miracles" will air on Friday, Sept. 12 at 9 p.m.
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