Michael Carmack had to convince his wife, Hannah to go for baby #2. But instead of adding one, they added four at once!
Micheal and Hannah Carmack welcomed spontaneous rare quadruplets, born at 27 weeks gestation, on 14 March 2023. The babies, two boys and two girls are doing well in the NICU and hopefully will be home with their parents and big sister, Emily, in June.
The chance of having spontaneous quadruplets is incredibly rare – around 1 in 600,000. But what makes the Carmack quadruplets’ birth even rarer is that they are two sets of identical twins. The girls are identical twins and the boys are identical twins. This basically never happens – we’re talking a 1 in 70 million chance.
Identical twins quadruplets
The phenomenon occurs when two eggs are fertilised at the same time and then each fertilised egg divides again.
Because each split egg remains encased in its own placenta — unlike traditional quadruplets, where each of the four would represent an individually fertilized egg and be encased separately — two sets of identical twins are the result.
Hannah, who happens to be a vet technician, noticed two sacs on her first ultrasound. However, she was blown away when the technician shared the news that there were four in there.
“I had to convince Hannah it was a good idea to have a second child,” Michael told TODAY. “Imagine how she reacted when she found out we were having four!”
Michael’s first reaction to the news they were expecting rare quadruplets was to laugh while Hannah burst into tears. However, after a meeting with their pastor, the couple embraced their very exciting news and prepared to add four more to their family.
Four little miracles
In March, Hannah and Michael welcomed four babies – identical twin girls Adeline and Evelyn and identical twin boys – David and Daniel. The smallest baby was Adeline, who weighed around 750 grams, while Evelyn, the largest of the bunch, weighed around 900 grams.
The babies are now nearly two months old and already starting to develop their own little personalities. Incredibly enough, Hannah is still working in between visits with the babies and renovating a house to prepare for the quad’s homecoming.
“I can’t always say that it feels real to me that I’m a mother of four quadruplet babies, but when I get to hold all of them at the same time…it becomes very real that I am not dreaming..but that this is real life and it’s simply extraordinary,” Hannah shared on her Facebook page.
Congrats to the Carmack family! We are sure these four little miracles will keep everyone on their toes!
Even more adorable multiples
We LOVE sharing baby news on Mum Central! Check out a few more extra rare birth stories we’ve featured in the past.
Twins, brothers and cousins!
Jett and Jax are brothers, cousins, and twins, even though they don’t share the same mother or father. Jett’s parents are Josh and Britney while Jax’s parents are Jeremy and Briana.
But here’s the twist.- Briana and Britney are identical twins and so are Jeremy and Josh.
Twin sisters procreating with twin brothers means their babies, born less than three months apart, are considered ‘” full genetic siblings” and “quaternary multiples”. You can read how that even works right here.
Sextuplet sweetness
The Waldrops sextuplets made headlines back in 2018 and since then their sweetness continues to shine through social media. Courtney and Eric Waldrop welcomed their six babies – three boys and three girls – at 30 weeks gestation.
The boys are Tag, Layke and Blu and the girls are Rawlings, Rivers and Rayne. Incredibly enough, Courtney and Eric also have twin boys – Wales and Bridge- as well as a singleton, Saylor. With matching blond hair and cheeky grins, these siblings are living their best life with their big family. Check out their sweetest moments here.
An update on ‘Octomom’
Of course, we can’t mention multiple birth stories without checking in on Nadia Suleman and her eight gorgeous babies who are now…TEENS!
Check out what Nadia (once known to the world as Octomom) and her tribe are up to now.
