Standing only five feet tall and a mere 100 pounds, you would have never thought that Justina Kopp carried four babies inside her body only a year and a half ago.
From Minneapolis, Minnesota the 27-year-old mom lives with her 26-year-old husband Matthew, along with their 15-month old quadruplets: Cora, Raphael, Theodore, and Benedict.
The couple married in October 2015, and shortly after they wed suffered a miscarriage.
When Justina became pregnant again, they received the surprise of a lifetime at their first ultrasound appointment.
At their first ultrasound appointment, the expectant parents were told that they were expecting quads.
"We both just laughed," Justina said of their reaction. "We laughed for two solid days until all the panic set in."
With such a small figure, carrying four babies at the same time should have been more difficult for Justina than it turned out to be. She actually describes her pregnancy to be "pretty calm" with the exception of two kidney stones and an elevated heart rate.
"Each time I went in to appointments, especially in the third trimester, the doctors would say how shocked they were that I wasn't on bed rest or in the hospital," Justina said.
When Justina delivered at almost 33 weeks pregnant, she was measuring at a whopping 52 weeks!
The babies, three boys and a girl, where miraculously out of the NICU by day two. They spent three weeks in a special care nursery to ensure they were eating and growing at the rate they needed to be. They were all able to come home on the same day, without a single complication.
On October 16, 2016 the four babies joined their family. Cora Immaculée was born weighing 3lbs, 8oz, Raphael Gerard weighed 3lbs, 9oz, Theodore Ambrose weighed 3lbs, 5oz and Benedict Peter weighed 3lbs, 2oz.
That three weeks was a good thing for the new mom, because it allowed her to rest, heal and prepare to bring home her children.
"It would have been absolute madness if I had to care for four babies right after having a C-section," Justina said.
While their lives are clearly busy with four babies at home, the couple hasn't ruled out adding to their brood. Matthew comes from a large family of 10 kids, so more children could be in the family's future.
Their day-to-day life is very different than other first-time moms. Justina isn't able to attend mom groups or easily leave the house because caring for four infants is a large challenge.
"It's a lot more than just having four kids," Justina said. "It's four infants, and each kid has their typical infant demands that doesn't match the kid next to them, and each kid is very unique."
But it's all worth it.
"I get four times the smiles and four times the laughs. I get to see my kids' first steps like bam, bam, bam "” one right after the other," Justina said. "Watching them interact and learn to love one another, and depend on one another and fight with one another, it's really fun, it's really joyful and it makes all the sacrifice we have to do more than worth it. It's so beautiful."
Source: Babble / The Catholic Spirit