Mississippi family reveals first photos of rare quintuplets: 'We've really got five kids now!'
Say hello to the Ladner quintuplets.
Months after welcoming their five babies — daughters Adalyn, Everleigh, Malley and Magnolia, and son Jake — Mississippi couple Haylee and Shawn Ladner shared the first photos of their little ones.
In the photos shared on April 12, the quintuplets are in pastel outfits as they celebrated their first Easter together in neonatal intensive care at the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower at Children’s of Mississippi hospital.
“It was really hard not to cry,” Haylee Ladner, a middle school teacher, tells TODAY.com about taking the family photo. “It was just such a beautiful moment for us.”
Seeing them all together for the first time in the crib, the new mom says, “Melted my heart,” with Shawn Ladner adding, “Seeing them all together, I was, we’ve really got five kids now!”
The rare quintuplets were born on Feb. 16, with Adalyn arriving first at 9:19 a.m. and Jake last at 9:23 a.m.
Baby Malley was the smallest one, weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces, while their brother Jake was the largest at 2 pounds, 5 ounces.
Haylee Ladner says having the babies spend time together in the crib for the photo “was so important.”
“They hadn’t been all together like that since they were inside of me. So that was the first time they all five had been right next to each other in a very long time,” she says. “It was just so surreal, and it was literally such a special moment for us.”
The four girls are identical quadruplets, meaning one fertilized egg divided four ways.
The odds of having identical quadruplets are about one in 15 million, according to Dr. Rachael Morris, an associate professor of maternal fetal medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. As for quintuplets, Dr. Morris added that they occur in roughly one in 60 million births.
Haylee Lander also shared updates on her babies’ health, adding that her babies are all on bottles, alternating every other feed with a bottle or feeding tube.
She also says that three babies are completely off of respiratory support and two “are really close to completely being off of respiratory support.”
“They’re doing, literally, amazing. Four of them are 5 pounds and our smallest, that was like 1 pound and 11 ounces at birth, is now over 4 pounds,” she adds. “So they’re doing absolutely wonderful.”
As of now, the family doesn’t have the exact date when they will be discharged, but believe they have “a few weeks” before they can all go home.
The mom of five says that she tells her babies apart by their bracelets and nail polish.
"We’ve got some bracelets and I also bought some nail polish I will (put on) their toenails," she says, adding that she "would like to believe that I can tell them apart. I’m pretty good at it."
Haylee and Shawn underwent intrauterine insemination (IUI) in 2022 after experiencing two miscarriages. An IUI is when a healthy sperm is placed in the uterus around the time of ovulation to improve the chances of fertilization.
Weeks after the procedure, the couple heard five heartbeats on their ultrasound. Haylee Lander carried her babies until 28 weeks gestation, common for higher-order multiples, and was admitted to UMMC Jan. 11 so Dr. Morris could keep a close eye on the expectant mom.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
