Marine couple welcomes home quadruplets

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Sunday, October 17, 2004 8:47 PM PDT ∞

CAMP PENDLETON ---- Major Larry Coleman and his wife, Linda, both came from large families, and the couple envisioned raising several children of their own some day.

"We always wanted children," Linda said. "We wanted as many as we could have. Of course we didn't want four at the same time."

The Coleman family had a growth spurt Aug. 10 when the Marine major and his wife became parents of quadruplets Allison Mary, Patrick Lawrence, Emily Theresa and Elizabeth Anne.

The three daughters and one son have joined the Coleman's other child, 22-month-old daughter Kelsey Anne, in the family's three-bedroom Camp Pendleton home.

"It's just exhausting," Linda said. "We don't get more than a couple of hours sleep each night. They eat every two hours, and it takes an hour and a half to two hours to feed them all."

Linda's mother, Alice Bontempo, came out from New Jersey to lend a hand and will stay for another week and a half. Neighbors and friends from church also have helped out by donating diapers, making meals, folding laundry and playing with Kelsey Anne.

"One of the other good things is we've made a lot more friends, a lot more contacts with very good people," Larry said. "We've been able to see the good and generous side of people around here."

The babies can go through 60 diapers and $25 worth of formula each day.

"You kind of do it like an assembly line," Linda said about caring for the babies. "You do one and then the next and you keep on until all of them are fed."

Larry, 34, is from Cincinnati and is one of eight children, including a set of twins. Linda, 36, is from New Jersey and is one of seven children.

Statistically, the odds of having multiple babies increase for women older than 35, but quadruplets still occur in only one out of 729,000 births, according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Linda was taking a fertility drug called Clomid, but at such a small dose her doctor told her the chance of having quadruplets was only .001 percent, she said.

The couple learned Linda was carrying quadruplets less than 48 hours before Larry was scheduled to deploy to Iraq.

"My regimental executive officer kind of said, 'You can't deploy.' And then he said he had another guy he could send. He was just going to call and tell the guy for the first time that night, and I said that's not fair. I convinced him to send me and give the guy a couple months."

Larry left for Iraq in February and came home in April. The babies were born 31 weeks into the pregnancy and were delivered by C-section at Balboa Naval Hospital, where they were kept in the intensive care unit. The smallest weighed 2 pounds at birth and the largest was 4 pounds, 3 ounces. They come home one by one, with Emily the last to arrive on Sept. 13.

The couple married seven years ago and have lived in Camp Pendleton two years, but expect to move to Springfield, Mass., when Larry is transferred next year.

While the challenges of having quadruplets are great, Larry said the rewards are proportional.

"The best stuff in life requires a little work," he said. "We don't feel burdened. We've been blessed."

People can contribute to the family through Homefront San Diego by calling neighbor Lauren Sklenka at (760) 430-0226.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at gwarth@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5410.