Meet New Jersey quadruplets born at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center
Ean, Evan, Eamon and Alayha made their debut at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center when Kennon was 34 weeks pregnant.
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Aja Kennon and Manny Volmar's family grew from a family of three to a family of seven on July 1.
Ean, Evan, Eamon and Alayha made their debut at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center when Kennon was 34 weeks pregnant.
"To find out I was having four, it was like, 'Wow,'" said Aja Kennon. "That's either something you see on TV, or you think of that being somebody else's story, not yours."
But it was in fact their story. In the first ultrasound, they were only able to see three babies.
"The tricky part was how we found out it was the three at first, and then two weeks later, they found the little girl hiding in the back," Kennon said.
Aja and her fiancé Manny conceived their babies naturally with no fertility treatments.
Having quadruplets naturally? The chances are 1 in 700,000. A multiple birth was always a possibility for the couple because twins run in both their families. Manny’s mother and his grandmother are both twins.
"I actually said it when I was a kid to my sister. I told her I might be the one to carry the twin gene. It was something a little different… it was double," Volmar said.
Dr. Joanne Bishara is the NICU director at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center.
"It is very rare to happen naturally and so the fact that it did and to have four healthy babies carried to term speaks to our MFM’s here and how well they took care of mom prenatally," Dr. Bishara said.
"Four is crazy…four is actually crazy". Truer words have never been spoken by 8-year-old big brother EJ, who has his hands full these days.
"It’s fun holding them, feeding them, changing them, but it is what it is," EJ said.
And it takes a village. Earlier this year Aja, who works for the United States Post Office, and Manny, a truck driver, attended a community baby shower hosted by the Montclair Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority incorporated, which Debroah Irvin is a member. After that first meeting Deborah decided to start The Village fund with anonymous donors to give the family a monetary gift.
"She received an envelope with $1,000. Manny received an envelope with two $250 gift cards, and we couldn’t leave out big brother, so we gave him $80, Irvin said.
"It was a nice feeling, and it let you know that there are still genuine people in the world who can care about somebody that they don’t even know," Kennon said.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the family.
