Emotional Moment Mom Holds Quadruplets for the First Time After Years of Infertility
For years, Ashley Crandell believed she might never have another child.
After welcoming their first daughter, Isla, who is now five, Ashley and her husband Lance hoped to grow their family. But what seemed easy the first time turned into a long and painful journey.
The couple struggled with secondary infertility for nearly four years, facing disappointment month after month.
“There were moments when I truly believed we would never be able to give Isla a sibling,” Ashley said. “It was heartbreaking because I had always dreamed of having a big family.”

Ashley, 36, explained that she has polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal condition that can make it difficult to conceive. Meanwhile, her husband Lance, 41, was dealing with low sperm motility. Together, the challenges made pregnancy far more complicated than they had expected.
Although the couple considered in vitro fertilization (IVF), they weren’t completely sure they wanted to go that route. Instead, they decided to try intrauterine insemination (IUI), a fertility treatment in which healthy sperm is placed directly into the uterus around the time of ovulation.
Ashley didn’t have high hopes.
“I honestly thought it wouldn’t work,” she admitted.
But six weeks later, everything changed during a routine ultrasound appointment.
As the doctor examined the screen, four tiny heartbeats appeared.
Ashley and Lance were stunned.
“I remember staring at the screen and thinking, ‘Should we be excited or completely terrified?’” she recalled. “In the end, I realized we were feeling both emotions at the same time.”
The couple soon learned they were expecting quadruplets — four babies after years of fearing they might never have another child.
A Challenging Beginning
The babies arrived on February 11 at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Because they were born nine weeks early, each of them needed specialized care.
The quadruplets — Wesley, Emma, Leah and Nora — spent the first ten weeks of their lives in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), where doctors closely monitored them as they learned essential skills like breathing and feeding on their own.

Despite their early arrival, Ashley says the babies did remarkably well.
“Considering everything, they were pretty healthy,” she said.
Every day, Ashley visited the NICU, spending time beside their tiny incubators and marveling at the four little lives she had fought so hard to bring into the world.
“I still couldn’t believe they were finally here,” she said.
A Moment She Will Never Forget
Because the babies required intensive care, Ashley had to wait seven days before she could hold all four of them together in her arms.
When that moment finally arrived, the emotions were overwhelming.
After years of infertility, countless negative pregnancy tests and the heartbreak that came with them, Ashley suddenly found herself holding four babies against her chest.
“I get emotional just thinking about it,” she said. “When you’re pregnant with quadruplets, it’s hard to truly understand that there are four little people inside you.”
Although she had seen them on ultrasound scans throughout the pregnancy, the reality felt completely different once they were in her arms.
“When I finally held them, it hit me all at once,” she said. “I thought, ‘These are my babies. All four of them are mine.’”
For Ashley, the moment felt like an incredible blessing.
“Somehow I was given this amazing gift — four perfect babies all at once,” she said.
The only thing that could have made the moment even more special, she added, would have been having their oldest daughter Isla there to witness it too.
After years of uncertainty and heartbreak, Ashley and Lance finally had the big family they had dreamed of.