Hinsdale Hospital's first surviving set of quads settle into family life

On Feb. 13, four troops were mobilized after months of drills. It was go time. But the battle wasn’t military — it was maternity.

Adventist Hinsdale Hospital Neonatal Training Camp kicked off as soon as four heartbeats were detected during Kimberly Vervack’s ultrasound — and the dry runs paid off tremendously.

But because Randi Marie, Ryne Lynn, Jason James and Jacklyn Ann were born premature at 30 weeks gestation, the infants were kept in the neonatal intensive care unit for an extended recuperation stay while doctors closely monitored the progress made by the hospital’s first surviving set of quads. Ryne, the last homeward-bound baby, was just released the evening of May 1, and new parents Kimberly and James Vervack were faced with their first weekend alone with their bundles of joy.

“We’re ecstatic our little ones are healthy enough to be home, and we can’t wait to settle into that family-life routine and develop our own dynamic,” Kimberly Vervack said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how the babies interact with each other, what they’ll do with each other.

“Because they spent so much time together in such close proximity (in the womb), they were just miserable when they sensed they were separated,” she added. “When Jackie came home first, she didn’t stop crying until we went back to NICU to visit her brother and sisters, and she immediately fell asleep.”

As much as the couple wanted their family reunited immediately, they appreciated the reprieve because it gave them time to finish the nursery and sort through baby-shower gifts — to-do items that were left unfinished when Kimberly Vervack was put on bed rest and later hospitalized. And she and her husband haven’t been as overwhelmed with a gradual build-up of their household occupancy.

“At least it wasn’t ‘Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Vervack, here are your four babies. Have fun with that!’ Thankfully, we’ve been able to transition in before plunging into the pandemonium,” Kimberly Vervack said. “Jackie loved the one-on-one attention when she came home; the parent-child ratio was still even when Jason arrived; Randi was a little harder to juggle; and now with all four, I’m sure I’ll lose my mind in no time.”

Despite several nights of zero sleep and more exhaustion to follow, the Vervacks are thrilled to be in the thick of it after some scary close calls. Kimberly Vervack developed pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy-induced hypertension that can be fatal if left untreated.

The high blood pressure doesn’t have a chance to lower until delivery is completed, so a cesarean section was scheduled even though doctors prefer to maximize the gestation period. After hitting the 30-week mark, doctors assured her that the danger for most prematurity complications was over. Even so, Kimberly Vervack received a last-minute round of steroids to help the quads’ lung development before heading into the OR.

“I couldn’t see the babies for 24 hours because I needed to be on an IV with magnesium,” she said. “But James was able to go to NICU, and he brought me pictures. That’s definitely not what you want your first encounter to be as a mother, but I was just glad that it seemed like we were out of the woods.”

Dr. Anthony Bell, the quads’ neonatologist, said the delivery was one of the smoothest multiple births he’s witnessed, and that the Vervacks were fortunate to have avoided any severe or life-threatening complications. After some blood transfusions, ventilator weaning and weight gain, the newborns were making impressive strides.

“The quads are right on target developmentally,” he said. “Before they could go home, we had to resolve some apnea and bradycardia (or slow heartbeat rate) episodes, and that has to come with temperature stabilization when they’re in an open crib. We’re extremely excited that the family is moving on and can finally immerse themselves in the chaos of home life.”

For now, Kimberly Vervack’s counting down the days until June 12, when her husband finishes teaching physical education at Edison and Jefferson elementary schools in Elmhurst and will be able to dote on his children full time. In the meantime, she’s had lots of help from her mother- and sister-in-law. Her own mom will retire in a couple of months so that Kimberly Vervack can go back to teaching first-grade at Troy Craughwell Elementary School in Joliet in the fall without worrying about daycare.

After trying unsuccessfully for 18 months to get pregnant and turning to fertility treatments, the Vervacks were hoping for twins. But they consider this quadruple surprise a blessing.

“I said I was done after this pregnancy, but I still feel too young to get my tubes tied. We haven’t closed the door to having more children,” Kimberly Vervack said.