A New Mother--Times Four--on Mother’s Day

After eight years of trying unsuccessfully to have a child, Susan and Robert Hasson reaped a Mother’s Day bonanza Sunday morning when she delivered four healthy baby girls.

The quadruplets, who are not identical, were 7 1/2 weeks premature and weighed between 2 and 3 pounds each, according to Dr. Sudeep Singh, the couple’s neonatologist at St. Joseph Hospital.

Although a bit weary, the Westminster couple was grateful and excited as she recuperated Sunday afternoon.

“I went for the gusto and they gave me the gusto,” said Susan Hasson, 37, referring to the in vitro fertilization procedure she underwent that resulted in the births of Sarah, Rachel, Amy and Catherine. “I have waited so long to be a mother.”

Susan Hasson, who had four “It’s a Girl!” buttons pinned to her white hospital bedsheet Sunday, had tried fertility procedures twice before, but both had failed.

The 10:42 a.m. delivery, which required an emergency caesarean section after her water broke at 6:15 a.m., took just minutes, physicians said. Sarah was born first, followed by Rachel a minute later. A minute after that, Amy and Catherine were delivered together.

Singh said he was impressed with the babies’ health. The infants were not receiving any special care Sunday and were expected to go home in two to four weeks.

“They are doing remarkably well,” said Singh.

The Hasson babies are the second set of quadruplets to be born at the hospital since 1993.

Despite being bedridden for the past 3 1/2 months, Susan Hasson, who worked as an insurance agent, said she had no regrets about her arduous pregnancy.

“It’s definitely worth it,” said Susan Hasson, who found out she was having quadruplets eight weeks into the pregnancy. “I’d do it all over again.

“I want to go dancing tonight. I want to go shopping instead of looking out my bedroom window all day long.”

Relatives were at the hospital to view the tiny, wrinkled newborns in the nursery.

Susan Hasson’s parents came to the hospital from their home in Camarillo Sunday afternoon. “We’re ecstatic,” said her father, Will Richards. “We are so happy the babies are in good health.”

Susan’s Hasson’s 8-year-old niece, Nicole Bell), could hardly contain her joy as she hugged her aunt, who was still in the hospital bed.

“It’s been a busy day for me here!” the new mother told her niece, who nodded enthusiastically. “You have four new cousins in one day!”

Despite their euphoria, the Hassons acknowledged that bringing up four girls at the same time will not be an easy or inexpensive task.

“I’m real excited, not nervous. I can’t wait to change [their diapers],” said Robert Hasson, 36, an accountant who has been married to Susan for eight years. But when he began to think of the cost of his daughters’ future wedding days, he laughed nervously. “I guess I am going to have to start saving now.”

Susan Hasson, who said she does not plan to return to work for a few years, is counting on help from her mother, sister and sister-in-law in caring for the four infants. She expects to leave the hospital Tuesday.

The couple has already decorated the girls’ nursery in Mickey Mouse motif and purchased four cribs, four high chairs and outfits for the children, though they did not know they would all be girls.

“I’m glad they are not identical. That way they have their own little identities,” Susan Hasson said. “I just want to hold them again.”