FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Quadruplets Bring Identity Crisis Home

Life can get pretty confusing when there are four tiny quadruplets to take care of--and three of them are genetically identical girls.

Asked at a press conference Friday to identify the four 7-week-olds lying quietly in two matching strollers made for twins, Consolacion (Solly) Amante, 28, the quadruplets’ mother, wasn’t sure who was who, without undressing them. “They have birthmarks in different places,” she explained.

Jeremy was easy to identify--he was the one in blue. But throughout the picture-taking session, the parents had problems telling Jacqueline, Jessamine and Jeraldine apart.

“Last night, I put them in the wrong cribs,” confessed their mother.

The reason for Friday’s press conference was the quadruplets’ first well-baby checkup at FHP medical offices in Fountain Valley. Although the babies were born at UCI Medical Center in Orange, the premature quads were transferred several days later to the neonatal intensive care unit at FHP Hospital in Fountain Valley, where the parents are members of a health plan.

Jeremy, the first to be born on Sept. 12, also was the first to go home to San Bernardino. He was discharged Oct. 22, while sisters Jacqueline and Jessamine went home last Saturday and Jeraldine completed the set at home on Tuesday.

The infants’ pediatrician, Dr. Naomi Uchiyama, proclaimed the four to be “doing wonderfully.”

All four have gained weight--Jacqueline and Jeraldine weighed 5 pounds Friday; Jeremy 4 pounds, 14 ounces; and Jessamine 4 pounds, 12 ounces. Their weights at birth ranged from 3 pounds, 9 1/2 ounces (Jeremy) to 2 pounds, 12 ounces (Jacqueline). The quadruplets were conceived without fertility treatment, which, according to doctors, occurs only about once in every 512,000 births.

The pediatrician also diagnosed the parents as “managing well,” although Uchiyama said she counseled them to set aside time for themselves, as well as pay special attention to their other children, 4-year-old Jonathan and 1 1/2-year-old Jane. While Jonathan wants to help and is especially thrilled by his baby brother, Jane is reluctant to give up her position as the baby of the family, said father Oscar Amante, 30.

Life is hectic with six small children under the roof, especially when four of them want to be fed every two to four hours, the parents said. They go through 32 bottles every day.

Helping the parents are Solly Amante’s mother and grandmother, who live just a short distance away.

“I thought I’d never have time to eat and that I’d never get any sleep,” Solly Amante said. “But I’m getting six hours of sleep a day.”