In December of 1999, Susan and Rick Hellebusch of Missouri welcomed quadruplets, all boys.
The babies were born at 30 weeks’ gestation and weighed less than three pounds each.
What were they named?
Adam, Benjamin, Christopher, and Dylan.
Why? Because Susan and Rick had noticed that the babies were labeled A, B, C, and D on the sonogram. They’d already chosen the name Dylan, so they “decided to start at the top of the alphabet to select the remaining three” names.
The couple went on to have two more babies, daughters named Elizabeth and Maria.
P.S. As a nursing student in the early 2020s, Ben Hellebusch happened to meet one of the neonatal nurses who’d cared for him and his brothers. The nurse still remembered the quads’ alphabetical names, saying: “I thought it was the cutest thing that [their mom] did that.”
Sources:
- Cernich, Karen. “Washington’s Fab Four: Life With The Hellebusch Quadruplets.” Washington Missourian 9 Jun. 2000.
- Yu, Yi-Jin. “Nurse reunites with ‘ABCD’ quadruplet she helped deliver 22 years ago.” Good Morning America 26 Aug. 2022.
Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus
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