A happy memory from August as Laois quadruplets attend their first day of play school.
Starting play school is a big deal in any household – but when you’ve a family of quadruplets, it’s on an entirely different level altogether.
Today, Laois three-year-old quadruplets Grace, Layla, Johnny and Amelia MaGee attended their first day of play school in Little Treasures, owned by Elaine Gavin, on the Borris Road in Portlaoise.
The siblings are among just a very small number of quads in the entire country.
They celebrated their third birthday last week and today is a significant milestone, given that they were born 10 weeks premature in August 2019 and spent the first couple of months of their life in the Coombe Hospital in Dublin.
“It’s absolutely a massive day for us,” says their mother Ciara Flynn. “When you think of how far they’ve come, from the early days when they were all connected up to tubes in incubators to their first day of school.
“Like any parent I’m nervous about them starting school but also very excited. This is the start of their school days now.”
For Ciara and her partner Shane Magee, it will mark a considerable change, where their three daughters and their son will be in school for three hours per day.
Prior to getting pregnant, Ciara was employed in Internal Results in Portlaoise but didn’t return to work after the children were born.
She’s originally from Kildare and Shane is from Dublin and with no immediate family close by, they found themselves in an incredible position as the quads came home from hospital in October 2019, only a couple of months before Covid forced a variety of lockdowns.
The whole story is an amazing one, going right back to when they were told after their initial scan that they were having triplets. At the next appointment, though, it was confirmed there was four heartbeats.
And the birth itself was “like something from a movie” with about 40 medical staff in the operating theatre, two incubators on each side of the bed and a team of nurses and doctors ready to care for each baby, who ranged in size from 2lbs 6oz to 2lbs 11oz.
Because of how rare an occurrence it was, Ciara says that all the staff in the Coombe wanted to be on that day, all under the guidance of Dr Aisling Martin, who specialises in multiple births.
Though Ciara had to endure the heartbreaking experience of leaving the hospital without her babies, two of whom were in ICU, by the end of October they were all home, with the sitting room in their house in Mountrath essentially converted into a nursery.
Shane took a couple of months off work and stayed up all night to mind them; with Ciara taking over in the morning and then they doubled up in the afternoon and evening.
Feeding them all was a logistical challenge where initially they’d go in rotation. But by the time the last one was fed, the first was ready to go again. In the end, they worked a system where they could feed one and prop up a bottle for the others.
The cost of it all was a huge concern too – with a special tub of premature formula milk costing €13 a tub. And with four mouths to feed it wouldn’t last too long. They also had to change car a couple of times. While a seven-seater was able to accommodate all the babies in their car seats, there wasn’t room for anything else.
Now they’ve a nine-seater Opel Vivaro, something you’d generally associate with taxi drivers.
But that was the least of their worries. With premature multiples, there was an array of concerns.
“We didn’t know how many, if any, we’d come home from the hospital with,” adds Ciara.
“We were also warned that there could be disabilities. When they were born we were absolutely terrified.”
They have remained under the care of the Coombe and have had regular developmental check ups.
“They are all flying it,” she adds.
They are – and probably forever will be – a source of fascination and curiosity for anyone they come across.
Ciara recalls a family trip to Fota Island, where they had their quad buggy, in use led to people stopping them “every five seconds!”.
Though they argue like all siblings, they are the best of friends too, even if Johnny has to particularly fight his own corner with three sisters.
“They are like any other kids, they fight over toys,” she says.
With the children in school (they’re doing the afternoon session as getting them all out in time for 9am would be too much of an ask), Ciara and Shane will be able to indulge some of life’s simple pleasures that most parents take for granted – like going for a coffee or a swim on their own.
“There can be tough days,” she says, “but everyone has their own challenges and struggles. We’re very lucky and we wouldn’t change it for the world.
“It is so lovely seeing them play and chat together and it’s a once in a lifetime experience.”
SEE ALSO – Check out all our 2022 Remembered stories here
