Wood Dale couple brings home quadruplets; last two leave Adventist Hinsdale Hospital

Thanks to her job working with infants and children at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, Beth Fraley already knew how much life would change once she had a child with her husband, Lane.

The Wood Dale woman never guessed, however, that change would come fourfold.

Last month the Fraleys became parents to fraternal quadruplets and on Tuesday the last two babies came home from Hinsdale's neonatal intensive care unit.

“Everything is different already,” said Fraley. “Yesterday when I brought them home I just looked at our floor and saw the four bouncy seats, and it definitely hit me that this is our new life.”

The Fraleys, both 30, had been trying to conceive for nearly two years before they consulted Dr. Michael Hickey, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at the hospital. After intrauterine insemination treatments, the couple learned Beth was pregnant with quadruplets and a team of eight doctors worked to help her through the risky pregnancy.

“We were very fortunate that she was able to carry them to almost 32 weeks, which is amazing,” Hickey said.

He added that while doctors aim to help couples have only one child through artificial insemination, multiples are common and are 50 percent likely to be born prematurely. And the more babies there are, the more risks grow.

Therefore, Hickey said, bringing quadruplets to term is rare; Adventist Hinsdale has had only three sets of quads in about 2,000 births.

After weeks of bed rest, Fraley gave birth to her tiny babies on April 7: Landon James, the only boy, was 3 pounds, 6 ounces; Olivia Grace and Clare Elizabeth each weighed 2 pounds, 13½ ounces; and Maya Kathryn was 2 pounds, 14½ ounces.

So far, doctors say, the babies are healthy and developing normally.

Fraley works as a speech-language pathologist at the hospital, specializing in feeding therapy for infants to children age 3, while her husband Lane works at the Walgreens corporate office in Deerfield.

Since some of the babies had to spend more than six weeks in the intensive care unit Beth sees every day, she said she knew they were in good hands.

“Driving home in our van with all of our balloons and flowers was very sad, but I knew they were loved even when I wasn't there,” she said.

Now the new parents are getting adjusted to organizing four sets of clothes, finding space for the 100 packages of diapers Beth's co-workers donated, and scheduling the help that's been offered by family, friends and co-workers.

“We are just so happy that they are healthy, home and we are finally parents,” Fraley said.

She said the couple is not immediately thinking about any more children, especially since they had such difficulty conceiving.

“We've always wanted several children, so the fact that we have more than one was lucky,” Fraley said. “I think we have to take it day-by-day and just enjoy the babies.”