John and Denise Cross found their children tripled in number with the birth of quadruplets Dec. 24, just in time for Christmas and income tax deductions.
Three boys and a girl - Merinda, Robert, David and Daniel - were delivered within a minute and a half at David Grant USAF Medical Center here by a team of 10 doctors."As each of the babies was born, I listened to hear them cry," said Sister Cross. "As soon as they cried, I knew that was a really good sign and I started crying, too."
Tech. Sgt. Cross, an airman at Travis AFB and nursery leader in the Vacaville, Calif., 2nd Ward, said, "My wife was really scared that the multiple birth would be complicated. She was placed in bed rest in the hospital in September, something we couldn't have afforded if we hadn't been in the military."
Doctors expected the babies to be born in November. After Thanksgiving, the doctors went from day to day, ready to make the delivery at any time. On Dec. 24, just six weeks before a normal term of pregnancy, the babies were delivered by Caesarean section.
"The babies just kept coming," Cross said. "It was just unbelievable to see new life come out like that. It was hard to imagine she was carrying all four."
The tiniest, Merinda, 3 pounds and 14 ounces, was the first to drink from a bottle. The others, who weighed four and five pounds, are also doing well.
Cross said the babies came home Jan. 13 to a nursury transformed from a living room, with four cribs, two tables and two rocking chairs. Sister Cross's parents, Gem and Edith Randall of Centerville, Utah, are helping for a few months.
Ward members also have been very supportive and helped during and after the pregnancy, he said. The older Cross children, Angela, 5, and Jaycee, 3, are excited with the prospect of a larger family, the parents said.