Pictured above left, Lavarius and Becca Bryant pose at Christmas with all seven of their children. Pictured above right, Becca Bryant has her hands full with a three-year-old and four new babies.
BY MALLORIE MCCOY FOR THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY — Becca and Lavarius Bryant of Auburn were expecting to bring their fourth child into the world to complete a family of six. Then, nine weeks into the pregnancy, the Bryants found out Becca was carrying not one, but FOUR babies.
“Neither of us knew what to do… we were both shocked,” said Becca, who at the time was working as a cardiovascular intensive care unit nurse at East Alabama Medical Center. Lavarious is an Auburn police officer.
“My husband is a twin and has twins in his family,” Becca said. “I have no history of multiples in mine.”
After revealing to family and friends they were expecting quadruplets, Becca’s hairstylist and friend, Staycee Turner, came up with the idea to nickname the babies “Quads of Aubs,” short for quadruplets of Auburn. Becca chronicled the milestones of her pregnancy on social media. Another close friend, Hannah Caypless, designed and printed “#quadsofaubs” t-shirts, which are sold to help raise funds for expenses.
On April 7, 2024, the couple hosted a gender reveal party at which they popped four balloons — two that held pink confetti and two containing blue confetti, representing two girls and two boys who would join big sister Kendall, 12, and brothers Laiken, 7, and Kainen, 3.
The babies’ due date was set for Sept. 23, 2024, and Becca continued working at the hospital until 20 weeks into her pregnancy. Soon after, she was put on bed rest due to high risk of an early delivery.
“It was absolutely terrifying,” said Becca. “Being a nurse and knowing the ICU life of having them super early was scary.”
On May 31, only 23 weeks and four days into her pregnancy, Becca had an emergency c-section and delivered her first quadruplet, Lainey, who weighed in at 1 lb. 3 oz and was the smallest of the four. Her identical twin sister, Kali, came next, followed by fraternal twin boys Lennon and Koen.
The tiny babies were all immediately rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where they were placed on ventilators while their lungs continued to develop. Being born prematurely, their hospital stay was much longer than that of most newborns. One baby ended up needing eye surgery, and all were on life-fighting medications for months.
“One thing that was hard for me is that I didn’t get to touch them for week after birth,” said Becca. “At first I was really nervous to have all of this knowledge [as an ICU nurse] going into this, but then when were actually in it, I felt like I was able to advocate more for them.”
All four babies were discharged from the hospital in early December and the family was together for the holidays.
