Boy, Oh Boy : Challenges Abound as Quintuplet Brothers Come Home

WEST HILLS — There were 500 diapers stacked up at the Quezada home Tuesday, 50 bottles, scores of stuffed animals, five embroidered bibs, five cribs--two bunk beds and a bassinet--and five bubble-gum cigars.

But as in everything else about her much-anticipated first crack at motherhood, Marcella Quezada was told she would have to wait to test all her new supplies and most of her new skills.

Quezada began a gradual transition to being the mother of quintuplets Tuesday when she brought home her two sons--who, at just more than four pounds each, are the biggest and strongest of the brood. Her husband, Ramon, a restaurant cook, had to miss the babies’ lunch-hour homecoming.

“In a way I think it will be good practice to start with two,” Quezada said. “It’s all harder than I thought.”

Two of the boys’ sisters, Tiffany and Patricia, could be released in another week. Kimberly, the smallest of the group, is expected to join her siblings within the month. The five, conceived with the help of fertility drugs, were born Feb. 9, two months premature.

On Tuesday, all the attention was focused on Raymond and Andrew, although the boys did not reciprocate.

They barely stirred at an awaiting throng of reporters, photographers and camera operators, most of whom have chronicled the multiples since their birth.

A limousine ride to their new home, donated by a Redondo Beach limousine company, also failed to impress, or even to wake them.

The reporters who crammed into their crowded bedroom to poke, prod and stare at them hardly warranted a peep.

But when they were in their beds for the first time outside a hospital, first Raymond and then Andrew began to cry.

“Uh-oh,” was all Quezada could say.

Call it a portent.

Doctors at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills, who cared for Quezada throughout her pregnancy, said it is unlikely that Quezada, her husband, Ramon, and Quezada’s live-in parents will be hearing much else for the next few years.

“Poor mom,” said neonatologist Shankar Bhatta. “It will be very difficult.”

The children will need to be fed every two to four hours, Bhatta explained, and each child will take about 30 minutes to eat.

“By the time you finish feeding the last one, the first is hungry again,” Bhatta said.

Not to mention the fact that all those feedings generate a proportionate number of dirty diapers. Quezada anticipated that a case of diapers would last about a week when all five children are home.

So far, formula and baby food manufacturers have provided food. Medical costs have been covered by the family’s Kaiser health plan. A toy store chain has also sent diaper bags, booties and bottles to the newborns. A Santa Clarita church donated the special double bunk beds that transformed the infants’ small room into a mini barracks. And in addition to toys and other items, Kaiser donated the babies’ car seats.

But a source for the thousands of diapers, tanks full of milk, tons of clothing, large-sized transportation and other necessities continues to elude the new parents.

The budget has been tight, Quezada said, since they lost their Canoga Park condominium to the Northridge quake and she was forced to take a maternity leave from her job. The new family is getting by on Ramon Quezada’s salary as a cook at a Woodland Hills restaurant.

Despite financial and other difficulties, Mario Lopez, Quezada’s proud, ever-smiling father, maintained hope.

“We’re going to make it,” Lopez said. “Don’t you worry about us.”