LIVED - Taylah Glachan: Becoming A Quadruplet Mum

In this episode, we sit down with Taylah, a mum of quadruplets, to hear the incredible story behind her journey to motherhood. From her upbringing and love story with her husband Sean, to the emotional challenges of trying to conceive and navigating IVF, Taylah opens up with honesty and vulnerability.

What followed was something she never could have imagined - falling pregnant with quadruplets. Taylah shares what life looks like now as a mum of four, the highs, the challenges, and everything in between.

This is a powerful conversation about resilience, love, and the unexpected paths life can take.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hello everyone, and welcome to our podcast Lived. I'm Mary Ann Sayers. And I'm Tara Steinweight. How are you, Tara? I'm good. How are you? I'm great. Feeling fantastic. So, Tara, you and I, through our podcast, we get to discuss lots of life topics, share experiences and stories. And along the way, we're going to be sitting down with some special guests who are going to be opening up and sharing their stories.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hi, Taylor.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hello. Today we have a very special guest, and I've had the privilege of knowing her for a little while now. She is an incredible mum whose journey into motherhood has been anything but ordinary. Because she birthed not one, not two, not even three, but four babies at once. Quadruplets. Taylor Glacken, welcome to Lived.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Thank you, girls, for having me. My gosh, it's it does feel a bit like a full circle moment, especially sitting here with you. Uh we have been through a lot of the journey together, so I'm excited to share it all and yeah, get into it.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

So your story is something that most of us could barely even imagine. So really looking forward to diving in. So let's get started. So maybe just tell us a little bit about, just a little bit about your childhood, where you grew up, your family situation. Yeah, just start, let's let's start at the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Yeah, well, I feel like that's a a whole nother series in itself, my life. Uh, but in summary, I was born here at Gosford um to my mum and dad. Uh, and then along came my brother in 2000. Uh, and we were at Budgeboy, that's where we were raised. Um, I was going to school there. Uh very beautiful family home. Uh, and then of course we get straight into the deep stuff. In when I was in kindergarten, my dad sadly did pass away, um, which I've spoken to you about this a lot, uh, Miriam. But yeah, when I was five uh at kindergarten and my brother was only six months old, he did sadly pass away from a sudden heart attack. So that really turned my life into a different path. I feel like my life has gone down so many different paths, and I guess that's life itself as well. You just never know which way it's going to turn. Um, and so yeah, we quickly went from a family of four to a family of three. Uh, and that was kind of what our life was looking at, just surrounded by family. It was a really challenging time, especially for my mother. Um, she had a five and a half-year-old and a six-month-old, and she was suddenly a single mum, a widow. Uh, and then she she has been incredible throughout our lives in keeping our dad alive. Um, he's very much a person that we feel strongly connected to, although we didn't get that much time with him, uh, especially for my brother. Uh, but our life continued as it does, the world keeps moving. Uh, my mum did end up remarrying um to another man who had three girls who I still call my sisters. Um, and then came my youngest brother from that marriage. So I have two younger brothers. Um uh that then seen us start looking to move from the central coast away. Uh, in when I was in year four, I base everything off like the years I was at school. I can't really remember my ages and years and all that. Yeah. But when I was in year four, uh, we bought land up at a place called Casino, uh northern New South Wales. Yeah. Uh, and we had planned to move up there, five acres, live the country life. Uh, and then sadly we headed down another path. And my brother Jai, um he was diagnosed with leukemia when he was four years old. So that then seen us in a bit of a limbo stage of we were just about to move far away, but we needed to be at um John Hunter Hospital. So we ended up living at the Ron McDonald house for about a year there. There was uh my ended up being two of my sisters, my brother Jai, who had his cancer, and then my youngest brother Zach and myself. So five kids, two adults. Uh, my brother spent a lot of the time in the hospital, and we traveled from John Hunter down to Budgewoy to school when we could, and a lot of the time ended up just being in hospital school. He he came through. There is a happy ending to this. He's very healthy and well. Yes. Uh, and yeah, we ended up finally being able to make that move up to casino. We lived up there for uh a few years. I repeated school in year six, um, and that's an important part of my life to kind of remember there because that changes a lot further down the story.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Uh, in terms of how Sean and I met, my husband. But yeah, so we lived at Casino. Sadly, my mum and her partner did end up having a divorce. Uh, and we then moved to Crescenthead uh from there when I was in year seven. So, oh no, sorry, I think I was year eight. Year eight. Uh year eight moved down to Crescenthead. I went to school in Kempsey and I was there until about halfway through year ten. Um, a lot happened in that time uh that really shaped the person that I am. It's not something I can speak hugely about because it's not just my story, um, but there was a lot going on at home uh during um yeah, our family dynamic, and it seen a lot of life um lessons for someone of my age to be learning, and um yeah, so we ended up moving back home. We needed to be home and closer to family, yeah. And so we came back to Budji Wi.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Yes, and so then I was in year 10, but I had repeated when I was away. So everyone I went to primary school with down here was in the year above me at school.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

And I had stayed very close with all of them. We all had our family down here. We came down to the Central Coast every school holidays, so I was very much connected to the year above me and was the same age as the year above me, and had all my friends in the year above me. Um, and so I mingled with that year group, and that happened to be the year group of my now husband.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Okay, this is this is getting to the really interesting love story that evolved. Yeah. Tell us about that. So you met your husband, now husband, Sean, at school in in that year that you start finding new friends.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Exactly. Well, yeah, I already had my friends there. Um, so I I found high school at that high school very challenging in trying to make new friends, but staying with my old friends. Um, I very much stayed with my old friends until they graduated, and then I had to kind of find my new friends again. Uh, but yeah, I met Sean. Uh, well, I kind of just seen him across the playground. He's playing handball or something, and I thought, that's my guy. Um, and I pursued him. I was like, right, I'm inviting you to. I used to have parties at my house, and he was, his dad was the deputy principal, his brother was in my year, and I was like, come to this party I'm having. And he's like, Oh, I'll be the designated driver for everyone. I was like, Oh, what a ball! Like, come on, come party with me. And he would drive everyone home safely. And I would, I was really good friends with him and his mate, so I'd invite um and his mate would go to the movies, and uh Sean would last minute cancel on us. So I always get stuck going on dates with his best friend of mate. And uh eventually, it was a few months later, we started dating. I was 16, he was 17, and yeah, that was 2012. And yeah, now here we are, married, four kids. Yeah, uh, the house, the kids, yeah, we're living a life that I just never really thought was possible for me with my childhood, with my um upbringing. I had so many uh roadblocks in my path, and I didn't see this pitch perfect life at the end um until 2012. And I met Sean, and that really put me on the path that I was meant to be on.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

So childhood sweethearts, essentially, teenage sweethearts left school and to how long before you got engaged and married at that point?

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Yeah, so Sean obviously graduated the year before me. He went straight into university to become a teacher. He's a high school PA teacher now. Um, I then continued schooling. I really didn't want to continue schooling. I was just there so that I could go to the formal at the end of it, honestly. I just wanted to dress up. Um, take Sean as your partner. Exactly. We did three formals together. He came, well, no, sorry, my year 10 formal, he just came for a photo. I went to his year 12 and then he came to my year 12. Oh, that's so sweet. Yeah, it was. It was really lovely. And yeah, so then um I left school and then I was I ended up going to university and becoming a teacher as well. Um, it was oh god, it's gonna bring me unstuck now. I don't remember when we got engaged. It was around maybe we were 25, 26. Uh, but we went on a camping trip to Glenworth Valley. We're big uh big campers in our family, and that's where we had first went camping. So naturally he was we were decking out a van at the time, and he just said, Oh, do you want to just go for a trip down to Glenmouth Valley? And I went, Oh, love to. And he goes, and you know, I'll book your horse riding. I went, Oh, that's great. And I said, Are you gonna come with me? He goes, No, no, no, I don't like horse riding. I went, Well, I'm not gonna go on my own. And little did I know this was a part of his plan, but I was like, I'm not gonna go on my own, and I'm now ruining his plan because I'm like, right, I'm taking my mum. And he's like, Oh, I didn't have all this factored in. Ended up getting mum to come on this horse trail ride with me. And in that time, Sean had gone and set up uh with all his family a picnic down on a creek edge, and um, we were going to go kayaking, and we pulled up and there was this private picnic there, and yeah, he asked me to marry him, and it was the uh the quickest yes I've ever said. Oh, and that's so beautiful! Yeah, he it was it really was like the fairy tale. I did have rings, um, the catalogues would come up and I'd be circling catalogues like the years leading up, just so we knew. Um as you do, yeah, exactly. Um, but I think we'd been together like eight years or something by then. We knew we were going to get married. We always knew that we knew we were each other's forever. Uh it was, yeah, just waiting until he got down on one knee and yeah, swept me away.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Well, how beautiful. That sounds like such a lovely engagement story. And so, how long after did you both get married and then discuss family plans? Let's bring it to the fertility side of things, shall we?

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Yes. So that kind of leads us straight to fertility. So prior to all of that, I knew that I had PCOS. Um, I had polycystic um syndrome, polycystic ovarian syndrome. Oh my god, here I am, not even knowing what I've got. Uh, but yeah, so I knew that. So once we got engaged, I knew that we wanted to be married. Well, we both were like, we don't want an overly long engagement. However, COVID had different plans for us then. Um, so I immediately went to my doctor and said, hey, we're going to be getting married hopefully in a year's time. So we want to try for a baby after then. I know that I have PCOS. You have already told me that I'm not going to be able to conceive. What can I do for my body now to get it in shape? Uh so then we quickly were I she took me off the pill. We started trying to just regulate my hormones and just pretty much living a somewhat healthier lifestyle in that sense. Uh, but my I didn't really have a period. It was all over the shop. Um, and I I didn't get my period until I was like 17 or something. I was a very late bloomer, and I just I was chucked on the pill straight away. So I didn't really know much about a cycle. Uh, but yeah, we kind of just went along that track. We got married uh and straight away started trying. But I for someone that's a teacher and Sean's a PE teacher, I had no idea, we had no idea what we were doing. Like this uh thing that everyone tells you, be so careful about is actually so bloody hard to do. And like catching your fertility, like your ovulation windows to optimize your fertility, all of that, we were trying. It was about six months in, nothing was happening. I wasn't even having a period to kind of try to know where to start from. Uh, I went to a doctor and he said, Yeah, okay, well, we're gonna put you on letrozole, which listening to your story last week, Tara, we're very similar on this. Yes. So you were on letrozole as well for your fertility.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

I was, which helped with my ovulation. So I was ovulating um because we tracked fire blood tests. Yeah, just wasn't getting the lucky one.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Exactly. And that was exactly my experience. So he said, and you'd be able to relate with the uh process of taking the letrozole. I remember sitting in his room saying, Can't get pregnant. He's like, right, we're gonna put you on letrozole. You take it on this day of your cycle for this many days, and then and I remember getting my phone out going, sorry, can you just explain that again? I'm trying to write it down. And this man was so rude. He was like, It's really not that complicated, Taylor. Take the medication and you'll be pregnant in a month. And I was like, Wow, yeah. And I was like, Okay, thank you so much, kind sir. Went to the pharmacy, and even the pharmacist was like, Do you know how you're taking this? This is a really confusing process. And I went, Yeah, apparently. It's apparently it's not that complicated. But did did you find it complicating?

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Like for the first time, yes. And I I was I kept going back to my I I figured it out. It's on days two to six. Yeah, but it was the dosage. Like I was like, Do I take one in the morning? Like, do is it the same time? I don't it was a bit confusing with the instructions and how they explain it to you. Um, the first couple of months it wasn't working with just the one tablet. So I start rebooked back in and I was like, it's not working, I'm not pregnant. And he was like, Well, take two per day, then days two to six. And another month went by, I'm like, it didn't work, I'm not pregnant. So we actually even increased it to three tablets per day for days two to six. And again, it still didn't work, which is what led us to our ICF.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Well, I figured out, well, because I wasn't having a period, I didn't actually have the day two or six to go off. That makes so much sense. So he was giving me another medication to start a bleed to then so that's what made it so complicated was I had to have this other medication, start your bleed, then take the letrozole. And anyways, the month went by and I was like, Well, I'm not pregnant, uh, Mr. Genius. Yes. And so I called back the same place and I said, I want to come back in, but I don't want to see that person again. Can you book me in with someone else? And she took one look at my blood work. She's like, This is not going to work for you at all. Go to a fertility specialist. So I went to a fertility specialist and she like gave me this chart and she's like, Here's your PCOS. This is the chart of PCOS, and yours is off the chart. Like your hormones just aren't making you actually don't ovulate. So then I ended up being on triple the dose for double the time.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah. So they really pumped me with this letrozole. Uh, and I was on that for I think like nine near 12, nine to twelve months. And because they say you get to a spot and you start to plateau, like it can help, it can help, it can help. And then it kind of just plateaus out. And then they said, Look, you can keep trying, but you're kind of gonna just be beating your head against a brick wall. IVF's probably your best route. But the risky part about IVF for me was my PCOS. So with that, my ovaries were so chocolate block, but nothing was getting to its full potential because I wasn't releasing from my ovaries. And then with IVF comes with stimulating your ovaries. So they're stimulating everything that's already in there. So there was the very high chance that I would overstimulate. Um, so we started the ovul, the not ovulate. I stayed on the letrozole, sorry, because you need to ovulate for IVF. So I stayed on the letrozole, started all the IVF. They would put me on a very small dosage, it was very tiny. Uh, got to the collection phase, and I got like 30 eggs on the collection, which was huge. Yeah. Um, I was awake for that process. I remember it very um vividly. They put me in kind of like a twilight stage, but at the start, I can hear them all talking. I'm laying on the bed, Sean was in there with me. Uh, and I remember I could actually feel the needle. I remember them like feeling the pressure, and they're like, Oh, your ovaries are so chocker block. The needle's bouncing off, like we can't get it. And they're like, UAK said, Oh, I can actually feel it. So then they up the dose. Um, and I remember them grabbing my shoulder saying, Taylor, did you hear that we got your first egg? And I was like, Oh, and then I kind of rem feel like I kind of drifted off that pressure gone. And then when I'd come to they I didn't have a number on my hand, I was really confused. And the doctor came by and she said, Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

Because they write the number.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Yeah, they usually do. And I thought, oh, okay, well, what's happened? I don't have the number. But it turns out they were just like, we need to tell you that you've got 30. This is a large amount. Um, we're going to red flag you for overstimulating. You need to be really cautious. Uh so the next day I went to work, which was very silly. Uh, yes. That's a big no-no, Taylor. Oh no. I went to work and I was in class and I just was like, no, I need to go home. And I ended up calling the fertility clinic, and I was like, look, I can't stomach water. I'm not having any bowel movements. I'm incredibly bloated. Um, I'm yeah, not well. I went up, they did an ultrasound. My ovaries were like 10 centimeters, they were just huge, inflamed. I had a lot, um, a lot of fluid in my abdomen, and that seen me get um admitted for about three days in hospital just to recover. So that was a bit of an important part of our IVF process because everything got frozen. 15 ended up making it to the freezer. Uh, we lost 50%, but 15 made it to blastocyst. Uh that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

I know. That's a really good amount.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Yeah, we are really, really blessed for that. We know how hard that is, and we know how, yeah, just how lucky it is that we got that. And um, yeah, that that really was able to help our mindset shift through our treatment because a lot of people only like yourself, you got three, like the pressure just amplifies, I feel, with that. So we we got extremely lucky and we're we're very blessed for that. Uh, but yeah, we ended up doing uh freezing them all. We did a frozen, yeah, froze them all, then um all the blood, it's so hard remembering it all at the time it consumes you, like all these people that say, Oh, you just need to relax a little bit and you'll get pregnant, like, how can I relax? So I'm getting a blood test every three days and like I'm injecting my like you cannot relax and you can't not think about it because you're getting phone calls every second day. So, anyone listening that if you're ever thinking about telling someone, maybe you just need to go on a holiday or maybe you just need to relax, like tell me this holiday destination you're all talking about. And tell me what relaxation, like meditation you're listening to to help somebody calm themselves through that process because it is just so mind-consuming. Um I feel you. Oh, it's just wild.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

And the amount I mean well, but they do. I think exactly that the people that haven't been through the experience don't understand how t how awe-consuming it is, and how it literally is just invading every pore and every cell of your body through that time because you're just constantly having to, as you said, go through testing and phone calls and literally, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

And the part about IVF that I uh didn't realise was how scientific something can be, but how out of control it is. This is a a pregnancy being developed by science, yet no one really has control over it. No one has control over how many eggs you get out, how many end up getting to an embryo, how many make it to blastocyst, how many survive the freezer, how many make it through your transfer? Like, this is a science-based thing, but we have no control over it. And that was a really hard process to accept that okay, what we really need to just let the universe take the reins here because no one else does. Like, no one else has control over this. Uh, and yeah, so, anyways, we froze them all. We were going to do a transfer the next month. So, this is now two months after all the IVF medication. I'm still on the leche result because you need to ovulate to do the transfer part.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

I'll just quickly take you back to when you're in hospital. Everything was okay, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 20:37

Yes, yes, sorry. I had just overstimulated. Uh, so I just needed time for my body to settle.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Um, they needed to make sure I was able to stomach water, have bowel movements and things like that, and everything came okay. Okay, great. Yes. Oh gosh. I look back at those three days and now I think, oh, how lovely. Three days of resin all beautiful people checking on me, bringing me food. It was great. No, it was it was really um good for my doctor to be so proactive in that and get me in there before it got too serious, which was good. Um, but yeah, so two months later, we're trying to get ready to do a transfer. I'm taking the litrazole to make sure that I ovulate. I'm getting all the blood tests. Uh, and then they're all saying, no, you haven't ovulated yet. And then I go to get a blood test, and it all of a sudden is a public holiday. All the pathology's closed. So I can't get my blood test on that day. So then I wait, I get it, and then I get the call that they missed my ovulation. Literally, like that literally sums up how I felt. Like it was just like, oh, you're serious. Here I am, like getting myself ready, getting myself psyched up. I'm doing everything they're telling me, and then a public holiday comes along and ruins it. And this isn't just a month in waiting, this is a year and a half a year. Yes. Like, this isn't just that time, like it's it's the whole thing. Um, so yeah. Take it for what it was. All right. Start again the next month. Exactly. So started on the next month. This is now three months post doing all the IVF medication. And I harp on that because I get a lot of people saying to me, Oh, so this all happened because you're on IVF medication. Well, no. I was on letrozole. I'd been on letrozole a year and a half now. Um, we got the phone. I my ovulation was really, really late. So I was getting blood tests every day. They're saying, no, no, no. Radio, go on about your day as you can. Then finally we get the yes. Okay. Five days, you have to come in. You get that embryo transferred. You go in. They've got one embryo there for me. Um, for something that you really are building up towards, it's a five-minute appointment. You walk in and you're like expecting there to be this grand entrance. They're like, come in, lay down, here you go. Like, what? Hold on with me.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

We're at the clamp in, here's the long needle. Yeah. How we go. Have a look, look, wait for the flash on the screen.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

I'm like, okay, radio. And then off you go. Yeah. I'm like, can I, can I do a poo? Like, I'm I'm gonna push this embryo out. Like, I was scared to like go about your day. I'm like, how? How do you go about your day when this thing I've worked so hard to create, you've just plopped it on in there and I'm just meant to go about my day? I like it was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

But if you'd bring me back, I actually had Googled because chat chat GPT wasn't around, you know, a few years ago. And I Googled, will I wee my embryo out? Literally, literally, and it goes far as poopy.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

I was literally like, well, oh my god, like what if I just walk? Is it gonna fall out when I'm walking? Like, I seen them, like I seen the flash. And anyways, we went on about our day. I think we went and got lunch on an idea, and we're like, okay, well, let's wait and see. And the two-week dread begins, and that is the longest two weeks of your life. You're just waiting and waiting. And I ended up getting to um doing all my blood tests. The day came, the blood tests, and I'd called the clinic and said, do not call me um and expect me to answer. I'm going to be at work like yourself. I knew when they were getting those collections. I knew when the call was coming, and I knew I was going to be at work. So I wanted to hear the phone call with Sean.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Can I just ask, did you test yourself? No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

I didn't. I was I know the mental strength was surprisingly there in all of it. And I was like, nope, I'm just gonna wait for that phone call because I really wanted Sean to be there with me. And I was, I remember I was teaching class and I heard my phone vibrate. And then at lunch I looked and the voicemail was there. And I was like, wow, this was at like 12, 12:30. I was like, okay, the voicemail's there. The answer of whether I'm pregnant or not is in my phone right now, but I need to wait until like four o'clock when Sean gets home from work. And he, for some reason, he took Foreverly at home that day. I was like, seriously.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Come on, buddy. I know. I was like, you should have taken the day off.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Thank you. Thank you. I thought so. How on earth did you go on the rest of the afternoon? I know. I I don't even know what I was doing, but I remember Sean got home. I was like, sit down while we're listening to this phone call. And we gave ourselves like a little like team chat before the pep talk. Yeah, pep talk. We're like, okay, look, statistically speaking, that first one's not necessarily going to work. And if this doesn't work, we're ready to bunker down and try and try again. We have so many in the freezer, this isn't time to give up. And we pressed play, and she just said, hello, Taylor. Uh, congratulations. And I think from congratulations, I I I blanked out. I didn't hear anything else because I was like, okay, I'm pregnant. Wow. And um, from listening, we videoed that uh and listening back on it, it was just congratulations, you're pregnant. Um, please call us back to go to the next step. And we just held each other and we were just in tears. It was it was everything we dreamed for and it was happening, and I was pregnant.

unknown 25:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Who was that? Who did you who did you call first? Well, we didn't really want to call anyone yet. We wanted to get to that scan first, and we were just a bit iffy about all like we just thought it was too good to be true. We were like this, yeah. Some the other shoe has to drop. I actually went and took a test straight away. I was like, okay, I'll only believe it when I see it on a stick because I've peed on so many, like surely, and then I've seen it. I was like, okay, we are pregnant. That happens.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

How good is that feeling? I've months and months and months of it being absolutely negative, and you're looking at it with you know, the sun in the background, you're trying to see through, and you're like, I think I can see it, and you can you can't. It obviously hadn't been. How good is that feeling?

SPEAKER_02 26:40

We just moved the other week and I found the stick. I had kept it in my bedside drawer for forever, and I've still got it because it's just a beautiful reminder of yeah, like it that's how it all started. And yeah, so at that point we thought we were pregnant with one. We had one embryo transferred. We had no HCG chat. We I was just like, whoa, we're pregnant, like woo-hoo. Called up, they're like, okay, come in at eight weeks and we'll do the scan. We did actually tell our immediate family that we were pregnant. We went and told, because I thought I ended up saying to Sean, no matter what way this goes, we need their support. So we told our immediate families, and they were just over the moon. They knew we had been trying, they all had been on the journey with us. And being a mum was something I always wanted to be. Sean, I was very open from the get-go. I wanted to be a mum. Um, and Sean also wanted to be a dad, but being a mum was like my sole purpose. It was everything and anything. Like I didn't care for anything else. I just wanted to be a mum.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

That's so special. Just before you go down the story of the scan and how you need to find out you're actually pregnant with four. Had you and Sean discussed how many children you would like to have?

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Yes. Yeah. So we had always said three, and we were very proactive in being prepared for our children. We bought a house at 23. We had been renovating that for since then. And we um had our car. I bought my car back when I was like 20, 21, and I bought it as my family car. I was like, that's gonna be my family car. Um, everything, like our work, our jobs, everything was lined up for family of three, and we had planned our life out for that.

SPEAKER_01 28:26

So yeah, we went for that scan. Okay, so step us through because I'm sure, if I'm not mistaken, it would still be very clear in your mind.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

I think it's something that'll never leave, and I hope it doesn't. It's it's a really big moment in our life. Uh, but the only reaction we didn't record. Oh, really? Yes, I wish they had some kind of camera footage in there because that would have been an experience. CTV or something? Yeah, surely, come on. Uh, but yeah, so we went to that appointment. I took a picture that morning because I had a belly and I was like, oh, I'm just bloated. But your first pregnancy, you get so excited for that first bump pick. And I took that, my boobs were huge, and I just thought, oh, it's just it's just all coincidence. And we were waiting in the waiting room, and I remember laughing to Sean, like, oh imagine if we had twins, like that'd be hilarious. And that's a joke, right? That's a joke. Of course. There are no twins in our families, no history. It was just something that just randomly popped into my mind. And so we went into that appointment. We had the sonographer, it was at the fertility clinic, big screen in front of us. I laid down, Sean on my left shoulder. She put the wand on and quickly took it away. And I thought, oh, she just needs to readjust it, different wand. Um, and then put the another wand back on. And I instantly seen the screen and I seen her face, and I'm one that reads a room, I think, very well. I'm always very picking up on everyone around me and everything going on. And in my experience, I forgot to mention throughout, I also found out I had endometriosis stage four. So I'd seen lots of ultrasounds of my abdomen, and I knew what it was meant to look like. Yes. So I seen on the screen like black spots, and I was like, there shouldn't be that much area of black, what's going on? And I looked to the sonographer and her face had just dropped. And she just grabbed my leg and she said, Taylor, you have I'm sorry, but you have multiple pregnancies in here.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

And I was like, What what what do you mean? She's like, No, like you have more than I've been able to count. I need to actually stop and go through and count how many pregnancies you have in there. And I had a mask on at this time. It was, yeah, just post-COVID times. And I remembered like literally thinking to myself, catch your breath, you're gonna faint. And I remember saying, Can I just take my mask off and breathe? And uh to be completely honest, like I was just full of fear. The the excitement for that first ultrasound wasn't there. Um, it it was quickly taken away in that moment. The crushing feeling of all the unknown was just so heavy. Um, I remember grabbing Sean's hand and just being like, I don't know what's going on. And I hate that. I'm yeah, I'm much like yourself, Tara. Like you spoke in your last podcast, I need to know everything that's going on, and I didn't know in that room. And she said, Let's just start this as we would with a twin pregnancy, start at the cervix and we'll go around and count. And she starts counting. She has one pregnancy sack, two, three, four, and then she has a final sweep and she said, Oh, I think that's four. My husband's like, No time for thinking dull. Like, let's let's clarify that, please. Do a sweep. And she's okay. Yep. No, there's there's four pregnancies in there. And she referred to it, I'm pretty sure, as pregnancies, because you can have a pregnancy sack, but you just don't know what's inside that sack. Yeah. There could maybe not be any, is what I started thinking. Okay, these are all false pregnancies, but then there could also be two or three or whatever amount of babies in each pregnancy sack. And yeah, at that stage, I I was beside myself. I was completely hysterical.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Cannot imagine.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Yeah, just everything we had planned for, everything that we knew was out the window. Uh, this wasn't even something we'd ever factored into our story, into our journey. And here we are, no one in the room knew what was going on.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Such a surreal moment, really. And did she confirm they all had a healthy heartbeat? And so you left that scan knowing the amount of babies inside each sack. I just want to clarify that. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

So um, once we all kind of got a grip of ourselves and we're like, okay, let's go back, let's examine each pregnancy sack, let's count, let's check heartbeats, and we did just that. And I remember the first heartbeat, which we now know as our Daisy Girl, uh, was just so strong. And I remember that was another wave of emotion. Just hearing a strong heartbeat was another wave. And there was the heartbeat and a yot sack. And then we went to baby two, exactly the same. Baby three, exactly the same. Baby four, exactly the same. And we again all cry, like I was just, yeah, beside myself. Sean, I've never seen his eyes so white in my life. Good thing he had a mask on, it kept his jaw up. Like, we were just like, Oh my god. And the sonographer was really beside herself too. She said, I've never seen anything like this. She said, How many, how many embryos did you get transferred back?

SPEAKER_01 33:26

And I said, Just the one. Did she did someone else have to come into the room, like another medical person to just verify that? Did she have to bring someone else in at that point? Well, that's what we were saying. We're like, what did we do?

SPEAKER_02 33:37

And she was like, Oh, I don't know what to do. And um, I've spoken to her on Instagram before as well, uh, since that. And she's like, I'm sorry if I was anything like frightening to you in that situation. And she was just in the shock as what we were. And she ended up saying, Who are your nurses on your transfer day? And she said, They're actually here today. Can we bring them in? We'll just start scanning them, we'll show them. And those two nurses came in, and they were the first sight of excitement I had seen. They jumped for joy, they hugged me, and then came the next wave of emotion for me of oh crap, I can be excited about this pregnancy. I thought this was doom and gloom. Like, yeah, I thought this was let's go back to the drawing board. This isn't something that can be done. And then they brought an embryologist in who they're very black and white, and they were just like, Yeah, there's four. That's four.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 34:27

And we ended up printing out multiple pictures and giving it out to them all. They all put it up in the staff room. And I do, I remember saying to her, What where do I go now? What do I do? And she said, Um, I don't actually know. Go, you need to go call your doctor. Right. And so we left. I fell into a heap. That car ride home was quiet until I stopped and got my six-pack of chicken nuggets from Accus because I was very hungry, gal. Uh, and I I anyone driving past our car would have thought it was some sad music video because I was looking out the window just crying, thinking, at that point we thought we had four identical babies because we had one embryo transferred. We didn't realise at that point how they had come about. Yes. And from what we've learned now, it turns out all through our IVF process, it's do not have sex after you transfer. Don't have sex after you transfer. Well, we may have prior to the transfer. Because I was getting all these negatives, like, no, you haven't ovulated, no, you haven't ovulated. So we've had sex, but from what we know now, sperm can last for some time. Right. And then I've gone and ovulated. Yep. And so I've potentially fallen pregnant in that time. And there's only two scenarios either I fell pregnant with all four at that time, or I fell pregnant with three, and then we've had the embryo transferred. What number four? Number four, because none are identical, which was a huge surprise to everyone. Uh yeah. So from that, it quickly led to I went to my doctor, I went back to my specialist. She had a scan. We're on the central coast here. She said, This is too big for us. We can't do that up here. I'm going to refer you to the fetal medicine um unit at Raw North Shore. They are very like the FBI. They'll call you, they will tell you to be there, um, and you just go. And that was like a three-week wait.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

So, had you shared the news with anyone at this point? Because I I know that there's an interesting video that you have online, which for anyone who hasn't seen that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

So we quickly we went straight from the fertility um ultrasound to uh Sean's parents. We told them, we went over, we told my parents, we told all of our immediate family because we're like, we need everyone's support here. We don't know what's happening, we don't know what's going to come of this fetal medicine meeting. Uh and yeah, so we just needed everyone's support. And it was three weeks until we had that meeting down at Raw North Shaw. And in that time, Sean, I used that to research and we we went into that meeting well prepared for what was potentially going to come of that meeting. And so that that looked like um having an ultrasound to start off with at that stage. They've all they're they're little babies. I think I was about 13 weeks, they're little babies at that stage. They've all got their own placenta, they're all in their own sack, they're all phenomenal. And the scenographer's going, if there's any multiple pregnancy you want, this is the one. Like, no one's sharing placentas, no one's sharing sacks, everyone's got their own thing. We then went into a consultation room, and my doctor, who I absolutely adore, her name was Karen, and she was just everything I needed. She was straight, straightforward with us. She said, Look, congratulations, but this is a high-risk pregnancy. You not only do you have four babies, you got four placentas. You were going to be extremely depleted. Um, and here's our medical advice. And she broke everything down from the physical risks, the social like network, uh the emotional risks, the baby's risks, uh financial risks, all of that. And their advice was to terminate or to do a selected or uh selected and reduced termination down to twins. Right. Which um it that's a lot to hear. It is a lot, but with Sean and I's research, we were prepared for it. And we did appreciate their honesty and them coming to us with no emo we we needed to be the emotional people in that room. We needed them to be the doctors, and that's exactly what they were. And they came through very clinical and very forward, but I appreciated it.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Um, and we just said, look, we have four healthy babies in there with four placenters, and I'm 28, I'm healthy in myself, we'll continue moving forward until we think that there's any other reason to do so. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

And trenching on right now to my I'm like so tense.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Yes, story. That's exactly what it was. It was very tense. It was uh it was very serious conversations, a very serious matter. And we just said, we wait up all the outcomes of if something happened, if we did this, if something happened because we did that, where would we feel most comfortable and okay with our decision? And our decision was we've got four healthy babies, when we're not going to take any other step. And my doctor went, okay, let's do that then. And she was so supportive, and the entire team at Royal North Shore were phenomenal, like phenomenal, amazing. They were, yeah, they were our saving grace.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

Had they experienced quads before?

SPEAKER_02 39:28

1995, the year I was born was the last time. And those quads actually live on the Central Coast. Um, well, sorry, their story is a bit um sadder. They were obviously very premature um back in 1995. I don't think um all the quads did get to make it throughout um their full life expectancy, and they did have some other challenges. But the sister of one of the quads did reach out to me um just after I had the kids. She was like, hey, sent me a picture of her mum holding the quads. And so then I sent them back a picture of me holding my quads at Roll North Shore, and it was just this really like, how crazy is that? It is like, yeah, that she found me, and then she literally lives like a suburb. This the sister of the quads lives a suburb away from me. It was just wild. Um, but yeah, 1995 was the last time they had quadruplets at Royal North Shore, and they were doing everything to be prepared. They did um practice rehearsals of my cesarean. They had um so at 24 weeks, I was doing scans every fortnight down there. At 24 weeks, my cervix suddenly shortened. Um, I then had they admitted me on the spot. That was really, really challenging. I wasn't ready yet, but that's what needed to be done. And then I stayed in hospital from 24 weeks, and they were just they put extra staff on the NICU that day that were ready for me to give birth. That day I had um steroids, everything ready for me to have the babies then.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Um, I then continued on, just not necessarily bed rest. I needed to make sure my mental health was good too. So my doctor was very open about that. She goes, I can tell you to lay here, but there's no point. Um, and yeah, continued on, ended up getting to about 31 uh weeks until things started showing signs of proclampsia. Uh, and then that's when they called in the troops and were like, right, let's deliver these babies at 31 and a half weeks.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

There must have been heaps of like medical crew around.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

There was over 40 people in the theater. There was a buzz in the hospital. It was, it was surreal. It was, it's yeah, it was it was magical. Like it wasn't even stressful because this hospital had it so well sorted. My hospital team were just phenomenal. They had everything there ready to go. I didn't feel an ounce of stress. I walked in, it was like I was walking down my aisle again, like holding my belly like a bouquet, and everyone lined the walls, and they're like, hi, and everyone was so excited, like no one even like trickled into fear into the room. Like it was just so calm. I remember there was a bit of chatter while I was getting sat down in the bed and the doctor said like this one word, and the whole room went silent. She was like, right, this is where we we get ready. And they I even heard them having their team chat before I walked in the room. It was like a football like um change room. They were like, All right, let's go and clapping. I was like, Yeah, this is cool. Uh I laid down and they they just switched into action. There was four Humidicribs, each um Humidic came with a team. Each team had like a Sharpie number on their back to associate them with which baby. There were four nurses there with um towels, all labeled one, two, three, and four, that were ready to come and swoop them away. And it was the smoothest three and a half minutes of my life.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

They were born in three and a half minutes, which was just crazy and so overwhelming. Like it was actually real. They were really in there. At this point, I was just so focused on being a vessel that I forgot that okay, the real stuff actually happens after. It's actually babies coming out at me. Yeah, they're coming out and they're they're well, they're crying, they're they're going into their Himidi crib, they're no one's frantic, there's no alarms going off. Okay. All right. And yeah, Sean went off with them and he came back and reported to me like they're not even eating oxygen, Taylor. Like we've got four superstars over there, they're just smashing it, and that they did, and that they have like they have continued kicking milestones ever since. It's been a whirlwind.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Which brings me to I I don't want to rush too much, but we are getting to the end. Yes. I really so obviously they're all healthy and you're healthy, and it was that has to be the most incredible birth story I've ever heard. Uh, but I want to bring us to kind of now. How are the kids all going now? I think they're actually only a few months younger than my daughter, Summer. So are they just over? Yes. So they're December. Summer's September's September. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

Yeah, I know. It's a big long story, isn't it? But yeah, now they're two. Um, we have just moved back into our home. We had to move out and rent to get a bigger house because life got a bit crazy there. Marianne knows all about our little home. Marianne came and uh gifted us all of her education on sleep when they were six months old and saved our lives, quite honestly. Um, so we're very blessed to have Marianne. Um and they are just super troopers. Like they bring tears to my eyes talking about them because they're just they're incredible. They're their own little selves, but they're also a little gang, which they ganged up on me yesterday. Uh, but they are just they're magical and they really are just a blessing. And multiples are challenging, but it's not because it of the children, it's just because we're outnumbered. And that's a big part of why I like to share our story is there's a lot of this doom and gloom about multiples, which we felt in that initial ultrasound. And uh, everyone's scared of multiples, I feel. And yes, it is scary. Yes, it's hard work, uh, but it's it's the most beautiful thing that you get to witness. Like something not many people get to. There's only sometimes there's not even like I couldn't even get the data for you on how many quadruplets are born in Australia a year. Um not many. There's not many. There's sometimes none a year. There's maybe one every two or three, maybe every four years. We don't even really know. Uh, but it's a front row seat that not many people get, and we're just it's chaos, absolute chaos in our house. Well, I wouldn't want it any other way. Uh, while we only ever wanted three kids, the world knew that we needed four, and the world knew that we needed quadruplets in our life. They knew that we needed the hustle, the bustle, and we've just been on this roller coaster for what feels like since 2012 when Sean and I met feels like we've just been on this crazy ride and it's only getting better. And for our listeners, your quads' names are oh yes, oh those guys. Yes, uh Archie, Billy, Charlie, and Daisy. A, B, C, D.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

Well, I never picked up on that before. Yes. Um, Charlie being a unisex name, it is three boys and one girl. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

So I my um great grandfather was Archibald, so Archie. Uh my pop's name was Poppy Bill, so Billy. Sean's middle name is Charles, Charlie, and then Daisy just came to us in all these magical ways, and she's our Daisy girl.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

And what would you say looking back? I mean, what an experience. Like, I'm just being glued to the sentences listening to that story. Because even though I knew parts of it, just feeling like I was right there with you. What would be one of the biggest kind of lessons, I guess, that you've learned going through this experience that has life has taught you?

SPEAKER_02 46:55

The universe has its own story for you. Like, and you just need to surrender to it, I feel like no matter how hard you prepare, and I think that's my entire life has taught me that lesson is no matter how much you put things into place, the universe will take over at some point and it'll give you what you need. And you get to wake up each morning and choose if you want to harness that or if you want to let that bunker you down. I I am a true believer that each new day is exactly that. It's a new day, and you get to make it your own, and the universe is going to throw all these different things at you, and you you get to make it what you want. And we've been throwing a lot of curveballs, and yeah, we now just have this beautiful, chaotic, noisy um life, but we just it's you wouldn't have it any other way, though, no other way, no other way.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

And what about more children, or is that now done?

SPEAKER_02 47:53

That's perfectly done now. It is Sean has had his snippety doodaday. Uh yeah, we just look, it was a big thing that we spoke about. Um, I think it's it's a big thing everyone should speak about. Having children is a big decision to make. And while I would love to experience that um of having one child, having a singleton pregnancy, having a single child, I don't feel like that's a pressure I should put on a child. Bringing a child into a world just to meet my needs of something that I feel like I missed out on, I don't think is fair. I have four healthy children. What more could I ask for, really? Um, the dynamic as well, like there's just so much that we thought into financially, we couldn't afford that. Our house, you've seen our house, we hardly fit the six of us in it at the moment. And we just we're content that we we've got our we've got our babies, we've got our miracles. Uh, and so that that's that for us, I feel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

I love that. That's such a special story. I just want to ask um, just other mums or anyone really that could relate to this, that have even just one or I mean not everyone has quads, but one or multiple children, in the tough times, what did you do for you? Because, you know, as they say, you have to fill your own cup to be able to give your best self to your kids. How did you manage that with such demand on you as a mama for babies?

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Yeah, I I look at Marianne here because Marianne came. Oh my god, here I go. I got through this without crying. Marianne came into my life at a really hard time. Um lack of sleep can do crazy things to your mind. Sleep deprivation is no joke, and you add your hormones changing, you add um your new life starting as a mum, the process that your mind goes through in shifting into that space of you're not just yourself anymore, you're someone who is responsible for four people. Um, and all of that, it was a really challenging time. Sure, now averaging an hour and a half broken sleep a night for six months. And Marianne and Steph came in and yeah, caught us in a really dark stage. And I think at that, what helped us in in those hard times was the support of people around us. Um, but I also understand not everyone is blessed with those kind of supports. Not everyone has people have family that live interstate, international, like overseas and things like that. And I've connected with a lot of multiple parents like that. And my advice to them is again, treat every day as what it is. It's a new day, it's a fresh start. If you're having a rough day, write the day off. And I remember saying that to Marianne, messaging her, we've had a crap day today. I'm chucking this day in the bin, it's done. Tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll start it again. I'll just start fresh tomorrow. Every time you go to sleep, you let your mind settle, and then tomorrow, start again. You've you've got the chance with the new sunrise to yeah, make it a new day and make it a new habit, whatever that be. But that was something that really helped me was if I'm having a rough day, I chuck it in the bin, and then tomorrow I'm gonna start fresh. I'm gonna do something that's gonna help what made yesterday hard.

unknown 51:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:14

I love that answer. I it's something that I'm actually trying to implement myself as a mum. I'm, you know, just a human being. I have crappy days and I feel like, oh, I shouldn't have done that with summer, or um, even on myself or in the marriage, you know, being a parent is hard. It's hard on the marriage, it's hard on friendships, it's it's hard on everything. Um, but I think the biggest thing that I've learnt along the way and even in recent days is it's all about the repair. Yes. And not just, you know, I'm sorry mummy was mad yesterday, or even at the end of the day, I'm sorry mummy did that today, and explain it. I I try now to explain things to Summer, and even I then go and do the repair with Matt, or I go and do the repair with a girlfriend of mine if I've, you know, not been handled a situation the way I would have liked to. So I think it's all in the repair. Yeah, and definitely in the feedback, like the reflection.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

I mean, sorry, the reflection. Sean and I are big reflective people and reflecting on it to see, okay, I've had a crappy day. Why did I have a crappy day? Okay, I snapped at the kids today. Why did I snap? Okay, well, maybe I could have tailored or tinkered this little thing over here. All right, well, when the fresh day comes, I'm gonna try that tomorrow. And those, yeah, just reflecting back on the day without being too critical. And I need to take a cover of my own advice there because I'm very critical on myself as a mum, as a wife, as a as just as a person. Um, but I think that's mums, aren't we? We're all very hard on ourselves. Uh, we're all very reflective, uh, but yeah, just taking it a bit easier on ourselves. We can only change so much and we just start tomorrow fresh and see how we go. We're all doing life for the first time. We're all figuring it out. And I think that's a beautiful um reason for this podcast. We're all you guys are here to share those experiences. So it slowly does build up a little life manual that people can go and listen to and hopefully help them figure out some parts of their life.

SPEAKER_01 53:10

Well, Taylor, thank you so much. We have really enjoyed having you and hearing your story. Gosh, you got me a bit emotional there. Anyway, I'm back on track now. Um, but thank you for coming on and sharing your story. And for anyone who's listening, um, I know you don't regard yourself as an influencer. What did you say? You're a sharer. I'm an overshare sharer. But for anyone that would love just a little dose of joy in their in their day, I cannot recommend enough. If you're on Instagram, are you on TikTok or is it just Yeah, on all of them. On all of them. Yeah. The Glacken Quad Squad on Instagram. Just Taylor and Sean put their lives up there, really. And it's just uh really joyful. So make sure you uh follow that. Thank you so much, Taylor. We've loved having you on Lived.

SPEAKER_02 53:55

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been beautiful just sitting here in a nice quiet room having a chat with the girls.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

Now back into reality, right? That's it. All right, thank you everyone. Bye.