Mom gives birth to rare quadruplets—two sets of identical twins

A couple from Birmingham, Alabama welcomed not one, but four miracle babies into the world when the mother gave birth to an exceedingly rare case of two sets of identical twins.

In a report by TODAY, Michael and Hannah Carmack shared that the quadruplets were born out of their decision to have a second child after their eight-year-old daughter named Emily. But it was to their great surprise when Hannah examined her first pregnancy scan and saw two sacs on the screen.

Recalling his wife's interaction with the ultrasound technician, Michael said, "She was like, 'Twins?' But the ultrasound tech didn’t respond. Then Hannah goes, 'Is it three?' Then the ultrasound tech put her hand on Hannah’s knee and said, 'Sweetie, it’s four.' I started laughing."

Michael then shared that his wife started to cry upon hearing the news—but they were not tears of joy.

"I always wanted a big family, but that wasn’t Hannah’s dream," he said.

Because of this big responsibility that had been unexpectedly put on their shoulders, the couple decided to speak with a pastor to help them understand the right path to take. They sat with him for more than an hour and discussed how they were feeling about growing their family from three to seven.

"What I think Hannah came to realize is, 'This is not normal. We had been chosen for something by God,'" Michael said. 

After a heart-to-heart talk, the couple felt stronger than ever.

Hannah welcomed their two sets of identical twins in March: girls, Evelyn and Adeline, and boys, David and Daniel.

The babies were born at 27 weeks gestation and the birthing process had been done via cesarean section. Adeline was the smallest of them all, weighing one pound, 10.5 ounces while Evelyn was the largest, weighing two pounds, 9 ounces. 

At two months old, Michael shared that they are now starting to see glimpses of their personalities, with Evelyn being the "sweet, smiley one" while Daniel and Adeline are slowly building up a close sibling relationship with their adorable interactions.

While the babies are now breathing on their own and "doing great," they still need assistance with eating, so they are being cared for in the hospital until their technical due date in June. Michael and Hannah, meanwhile, have their hands full in remodeling their 1200-square-foot home to suit their big family.

According to the Journal of Family and Reproductive Health, spontaneous quadruplet pregnancies can only happen somewhere between one in 512,000 to one in 677,000 births. Having two sets of identical twins is an even more exceptional case as both embryos would have had to split after fertilization.