Mother times four

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 8:49 PM PDT

When Elena **** celebrates her first Mother's Day this year, the family festivities will include four generations of mothers and her four beautiful babies, now eight months old.

Elena, 36, and her husband, Neal, 37, have a lot to celebrate this month- not the least of which is his five-year remission from cancer.

The babies are four happy and healthy endings to a four year quest by the to have a family. Sweethearts at California State University in Sacramento, they married in 1996. Neal, who works in his family's construction and real estate business in Vallejo, was diagnosed with acute lymphoma leukemia in 2000. The couple banked his sperm in a San Francisco sperm bank 24 hours before Neal began the extreme radiation and chemotherapy treatments that ultimately saved his life, but left him sterile.

Following treatment, doctors explained that his prognosis was grim without a bone marrow transplant. Luckily, his sister, Cindy *** of Napa, was an excellent match and the procedure was successful. Although he was weak and down to 150 pounds, they traveled to both Disneyland and Greece (Neal's dream) after he was finally able to leave the hospital. When they returned home they decided it was time to start their family.

Elena underwent seven unsuccessful in vitro fertilization procedures and suffered two miscarriages. When the couple turned to adoption, they were crushed when the adoptive mother changed her mind. It was Neal who suggested they hire a surrogate.

At a fertility clinic in San Francisco, three embryos each- created from Neal's sperm and Elena's eggs- were implanted in the wombs of a surrogate from San Diego and Elena, who had decided to try one more time to become pregnant herself. This time they hit the jackpot. Both women became pregnant with twins.

"The first set of twins"were born Sept. 4 in San Diego with Neal and his parents in attendance. (The surrogate had been confined to bed rest the last weeks of the pregnancy so she was unable to come to thier home town for the births.) Exactly a week later on Sept. 11, the only girl, and another boy were born by C-section to Elena at **** General. Her parents were among those present for the births. Neal found himself flying back and forth between San Diego and ***** checking on everyone. Later that week the San Diego babies were flown to **** General by an Air Rescue team and their siblings were born soon afterward. All four babies and their parents were together at last.

At birth the quadruplets weighed a combined total of about twenty pounds. Now they weigh about twenty pounds each. Elena nursed all of them for about a month. Now they drink 24 bottles of formula a day, eat organic baby food made from scratch, and go through about 26 diaper changes a day (down from 40)- all possible thanks to an amazing support system consisting of family members, neighbors, church members and Daniele, an au pair from Germany. Elena's mother helps out three days a week and Neal's 88-year-old great-grandmother comes twice a week to bask in the babies.

"Everything works as a system," explained Elena, holding one baby on her lap in their jasmine-blooming yard as three others bounced cheerfully near by. "I run my home like my classroom. It's very structured and organized. We're all on a schedule."

The babies go to bed at 6:30 in the evening, get up at 6:30 and have their bottles. At 7:30 it's breakfast. At 8 it's activity time. They set up four different play stations and rotate the babies through each one every 15 minutes. For example, they all take turns sitting on someone's lap and being read to. By 10:30 it's time for a walk. The family has two twin strollers and one quad-stroller, depending on how many adults are available to push.

Thanks to Neal's hard work, thier original three bedroom home is now five bedrooms. He worked on the addition right up until the babies came home. Considering that quadruplets live there, the home is remarkably uncluttered and serene. Elena did confess, however, that their garage is overflowing with a mountain of baby supplies donated by so many people.

All the babies are named for family members. Two of the babies are blue-eyed, one is hazel-eyed and one is brown-eyed. All are adorable.

"We are so blessed," beamed Elena. "It's all due to the kindness and generosity of people around us".