Two quadruplets ready to come home

Myleigh and Rory Shatswell are coming home Thursday.

They're the first of the Shatswell quadruplets, born Oct. 26 at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno, to be released.

Their mother, 24-year-old Darah Shatswell, received the good news on Monday. She plans to spend Tuesday and Wednesday at the hospital to prepare for the tiny babies' homecoming.

"Something just came over me on Monday and I knew there would be a call this week. I guess it was just mother's instinct," she said.

Since their premature birth, Shatswell has spent every day at the hospital learning how to care for the quadruplets.

The smallest of the babies, Kaylee, weighed 2 pounds at birth. Joseph, the first-born, weighed 3 pounds, 5 ounces.

Joseph and Kaylee will remain at the hospital until they are stronger. Shatswell said she hopes all the children will be home by Christmas.

"We could have them all by the end of December as long as they function completely as newborns," she said. "They change every day."

Missing the joyful homecoming will be Shatswell's husband, Army Spec. Joseph Shatswell, 22, serving with the infantry in Afghanistan.

He was able to spend a month on leave in Nevada home and attend the babies' birth, but returned to Afghanistan on Nov. 16.

"While he was home, Joe just lived at the intensive care unit. His hand was bigger than Kaylee," Shatswell said. "The night before he left, he was back at the hospital. He was just torn up over leaving."

Joe Shatswell is deployed in Afghanistan until July. His wife and their 2-year-old daughter Zowie will be living in Gardnerville until he comes back and they return to his base at Fort Hood, Texas.

She said her husband recently re-enlisted for four more years.

Shatswell and her daughter returned to her mother's home when the Shatswells learned they were having quadruplets. The babies were conceived without use of fertility drugs.

The tiny babies have been working hard to catch up, Shatswell said.

"The nurse said they were model babies," she said. "They're wonderful, beautiful and laid back. They're just gorgeous."

She described baby JJ as "just like his dad, through and through. He even looks like him."

"The three girls are wild women," she said.

Kaylee was the smallest at 2 pounds, but her mother said she is the spunkiest.

"She eats and breathes the best," Shatswell said.

Kaylee and Rory are identical twins.

When the babies come home, it will be the first time Zowie gets to meet her little brother and sisters.

"You have to be 12 or older to get in the neointensive care unit," Shatswell said.

She said she was grateful for the community response and the donations of diapers, clothing, carseats, baby wipes, furniture and other items.

She's hearing from volunteers willing to rock, bathe, diaper and burp the babies.

That's an offer Shatswell has had to turn down for the time being.

"We're on lockdown until at least April," she said, as the babies build up their fragile systems.

Her extended family is ready to work in shifts to care for the quadruplets.

"We want to thank everyone for all they've done for us," she said. "I don't allow myself to get overwhelmed. I just want my babies home."