After challenging path to motherhood, surprise quads lead to family of nine

One year ago this month, Jenny LeBrun traveled to Brookings so her doctor could check on the progress of her pregnancy.

A spring storm had caused the clinic to lose electrical power, delaying LeBrun’s check-up from nine weeks to 10. The delay didn’t bother LeBrun even though, as she described it, “I felt big right away.

“But I’m 37, so I blamed it on getting older,” LeBrun said. “And I had the three other kids, and I was teaching at the time, and it was the end of the school year. I kind of had excuses for why I felt big.”

When a dazed LeBrun left the clinic, she called her husband, Dusty, to give him a bit of a backhanded message: The family mini-van was going to have to be replaced. The LeBruns knew it would hold two adults and four kids without any problem. They even had decided that if they went so far as to have a fifth child, it would still be usable.

But four new arrivals? Expanding the total number of LeBrun children to seven? To paraphrase a famous movie quote, the LeBruns were going to need a bigger car.

“Dusty thought I was pranking him,” LeBrun said, recalling that phone call. “I was like, no, no, this is real.”

Cru, Grayson, Levi and Oakley—the LeBruns’ fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh children—were born Oct. 2, 2022, at Avera McKennan Hospital, 10 and a half weeks early. After weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), they returned home to join their older siblings, Jack, Addy and Hunter.

Grayson was the first to come home to the LeBrun farm near Colman. He was discharged Nov. 23, 2022, followed by Levi and Oakley on Nov. 26. Cru made the family complete the next day.

LeBrun also had issues. She went into heart failure when the quadruplets were born, spending 11 days as a patient. After the quads came home, the family was just getting settled into a routine when, two weeks later, a respiratory virus snuck into the home. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) usually causes mild cold-like symptoms, but it can seriously affect infants and older adults.

And it did.

“We almost lost two of them,” LeBrun said.

Cru, the oldest of the quads, was airlifted to Avera McKennan after he stopped breathing. Oakley also spent 25 days in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).

“That was more stressful,” LeBrun said. “We knew the NICU was going to happen. PICU—we didn’t plan on that.”

Since then, the LeBruns have adapted to their new normal. Since they haven’t purchased a larger vehicle, they take two cars when traveling places such as church for the babies’ baptism.

Dusty and Jenny LeBrun will celebrate their 11th wedding anniversary in June. He farms, while Jenny LeBrun, no surprise, has left teaching, at least until the quadruplets are in kindergarten. She taught in Flandreau for nine years and taught middle-school language arts and reading for two years in Colman.

Now, her day usually starts at 3:40 a.m. before she carpools to a fitness center.

“It’s my time to leave the house,” she said. “I try to be home between 6:30 and 7:30 when my husband goes to the farm. Then from 7:30 to 10 at night, it’s nonstop—feeding, changing diapers, going to appointments, trying to hang out with the older kids.”

A helper stops by daily, and the LeBruns also have been assisted by nursing students from South Dakota State University.

Jack, 7, found the arrival of four siblings a little overwhelming at first. He stayed with grandparents during the NICU period and considered making it his permanent home until deciding to come back to the farm, LeBrun said. Three-year-old Hunter, who knew the babies were inside his mother, was confused about the transition to four new babies.

However, 4-year-old Addy was ecstatic, particularly at having a sister join the family. She calls herself a “sister mom,” LeBrun said.

LeBrun herself is thrilled to be called mom. Her path to motherhood sometimes seemed uncertain. Her 4-year-old was born with the aid of in-vitro fertilization. The quadruplets were conceived with the use of a medication to help with ovulation.

“All my pregnancies have required assistance with fertility,” LeBrun said. “The quads were my least, intervention-wise. It’s so backwards.”

Multiple births—going beyond twins—remain relatively uncommon. In 2022, Sanford Health delivered 94 sets of twins and two sets of triplets. So far this year, Sanford has delivered 19 sets of twins.

The LeBrun quads are the first set born at Avera since 1995. Avera McKennan has delivered 78 sets of multiple births in the last 365 days. That includes the quads, 69 sets of twins, and eight sets of triplets. Based on digital records, hospital officials think five babies in one delivery is the record.

The LeBruns knew undergoing fertility treatments meant the possibility of multiple births. If it happened, it happened, they decided. So, when LeBrun first learned at that appointment last May the ultrasound revealed multiples, she wasn’t surprised.

The actual number she was carrying did surprise her.

“The doctor thought I was having triplets, but then she decided to send me to the hospital to get a better ultrasound,” LeBrun said. “It turns out one was hiding. She said, let me do one more check though, and she found the fourth baby. I was like, quit checking!”

As she approaches her first Mother’s Day as the mom to seven, LeBrun offers encouragement to other women.

“I also have had a lot of losses, so Mother’s Day was a difficult time for me,” she said. “I know many ladies out there are struggling and long to be a mom. Sometimes it’s hard to see people with big families when that’s when you want. So,  yes, I knew a lot of challenges, but I focused on the good. When life is dark or stressful, we sometimes overlook our blessings. We still have good things. That goes for anybody, no matter what their struggles are.”