Quads Turn 1 : This Family Isn’t Down for the Count

Bridget Lach was so shocked when the doctor told her she was going to have triplets, she left his office and drove for 15 minutes, crying, before she realized she had headed in the direction opposite from home.

Her husband, Bill, was equally shocked.

A few weeks later, the doctor told the Lachs they were going to have four babies, not three. But by then, Bridget recalled: “It was no big deal. If you’ve got that many, what’s one more?”

Monday, the quadruplets will celebrate their first birthday, and although the Lachs wouldn’t recommend quadruplets, they wouldn’t trade them in.

“How can you look at these four kids and say that you’re unhappy? They’re a lot of fun. It has not been tough at all,” said Bridget, 32, smiling at Rachel, Matthew, Kathryn and Kenny on Saturday as they sat in four high chairs lined up in the kitchen of the Lach family’s two-bedroom Van Nuys home.

Feeding Time

It was feeding time. Bridget and nurse Loretta Douglas sat, spoons poised, over eight jars of strained peas, vegetables, turkey and rice. Quickly, they began shoveling spoonfuls of green and gold mush into the waiting, impatient mouths.

Exuberantly, the babies bounced, smiled and cooed between mouthfuls.

“See Katie, now you’ve got it up your nose,” Bridget said as Katie moved. “Ga-ga-ga-ga-ga,” Katie replied.

The couple’s life has changed irreversibly since the quadruplets were delivered 10 1/2 weeks prematurely by Caesarean section Feb. 24, 1985, at Northridge Hospital Medical Center. The Lachs, who had been planning to have two children, wound up with four.

Every day, the babies go through seven dozen diapers--they use double diapers--and consume 24 jars of baby food and a dozen bottles of baby formula, the Lachs said. The Lachs had to purchase a new station wagon before they could fit the whole family into one car.

Life Style Changed

“The good thing about this is you get rid of all the bottles and diapers at one time. You don’t spread it out over 10 years, said Bill, 37, a property coordinator for Hughes Aircraft.

He said the babies have definitely changed his life style.

“I can’t stop at the local tavern any more on the way home. I’ve got to come home and entertain them,” he said. “But I look forward to coming home and seeing them. They’ve all got separate personalities.”

Rachel smiles all the time. Kenny is docile and has the longest attention span. Matthew is always moving, bouncing up and down. Although he required cardiac surgery and was the last to come home from the hospital, he has been the first to crawl, pull himself up and attempt other things. Katie, the first-born, looks angelic but is full of mischief. She has done such things as eat a lamp shade and, recently, she managed to answer a telephone ringing near her crib, the Lachs said.

At birth, the four babies together weighed less than 12 pounds. Now, Kenny, the biggest, weighs just under 20 pounds. Katie, the smallest at birth, now weighs 17.3 pounds--up from 2 pounds, 5 1/2 ounces. Rachel and Matthew still require medication for lung problems but they are expected to outgrow them within a few years.

The babies are otherwise healthy. They have never been sick. Only two have even had diaper rash. They are nearly as large as normal babies their age, and they should have no lasting disability, the Lachs said.

The Lachs said they have grown accustomed to the stares that come from going to a grocery store and buying 200 jars of baby food at once. They are used to gasps from people who see the babies in public. Most people can’t seem to grasp the concept of quadruplets and remark instead on the “two sets of twins” or “the triplets,” said Bridget, who works full time as a General Telephone customer-service representative.

Although it might look like trouble-times-four to have quads, Bridget said it actually has been easier on the couple than having one baby.

That is because, since birth, the babies have had around-the-clock care from a series of nurses. The care is needed because infants born prematurely are especially susceptible to “crib death,” or sudden infant death syndrome, in which they inexplicably stop breathing. The nurses take the babies’ temperatures, check their pulse rates and blood pressure and monitor sensors taped to the chests of the infants while they sleep to measure their heart rate and respiration.

Mother Sleeps Through Night

But the nurses also serve as nursemaids and baby sitters, changing and washing diapers, feeding the babies and performing other chores. Consequently, the Lachs have been able to go out to dinner, and take a weeklong vacation, as they did two weeks ago in Arizona and New Mexico.

“I’ve never had to get up with them in the middle of the night,” Bridget said. The Lachs help the nurses with the children on weekends and before and after work.

“We’ve got a stinking child,” Bridget said, handing Matthew to the nurse, who changed his diaper and handed him back.

Married since November, 1982, the Lachs tried for a year to conceive a baby, then consulted a fertility specialist, who said that Bridget was ovulating irregularly and prescribed a fertility drug. “The doctor assured me that I would not have a litter,” Bridget said, grinning, as Rachel grabbed Kenny’s bottle and began drinking and Matthew grinned and cooed.

$750,000 in Medical Bills

The couple was thrilled when Bridget learned she was pregnant in September, 1984, but then ultrasound tests disclosed the presence of three, and then four, babies.

The couple’s medical bills have so far totaled $750,000, plus uncounted thousands more for nursing care. For the first six months, two nurses were on duty at all times at a cost of $10,000 a week. All the expenses have been covered by insurance and the couple received added help from baby-food and diaper-service companies. Because they both work, they are managing financially without problems but they are warily looking to the future.

“It costs an estimated $250,000 to raise a child through college age. With four of them, we’re looking at a million dollars,” said Bridget.