After Wait, a Family in Quadruple Time

Laura McCarthy is just glad it didn’t take her 10 years to give birth for the first time.

Unsuccessful in their efforts to have a child after four years, Kevin and Laura McCarthy of Rancho Santa Margarita had quadruplets at Saddleback Women’s Hospital in Laguna Hills on Tuesday--one for each year of trying.

Kayla, Karli, Cooper and Kyle McCarthy are all in fair condition after being born about three weeks premature; doctors say the prognosis is excellent for the quadruplets.

“It was the best Christmas present I could have,” Laura McCarthy, 29, said. “I’m glad it happened around Christmastime, with all the family around.”

It had been a race against time for the past seven weeks since Laura was checked into the women’s hospital at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center.

Each day the babies stayed in the womb was another day closer to their being born full term, with less chance of the medical problems often afflicting premature infants.

Each date was marked off on the calendar. “We’d start every day by saying, ‘Not today,’ ” said Kevin McCarthy, 41, an investment manager. “We just tried to eke out every day we could.”

The infants, who were delivered by caesarean section, weighed between 3 pounds, 12 ounces and 4 pounds, 3 ounces.

It was the first set of quadruplets born at Saddleback women’s hospital after 10 years and some 24,000 births.

Normally, the odds on quadruplets are about 512,000 to 1. McCarthy had taken fertility drugs in a final attempt to have a child, a move that increases the chances of a multiple birth to between 5% and 10%, said her physician, Dr. David Lagrew.

With the babies successfully delivered and growing stronger, the McCarthys are busy planning for the future.

“My home office is now in the garage,” the new father said with a smile. “We’ll be ready.”