Ashely and Lance Crandell of Queen Creek certainly have their hands full these days and their hearts no doubt feel the same way. Ashley, holding her brand new quadruplets, said: “It’s been a lot of work, four kids is a lot of babies, but we feel so lucky to have them and be their parents.”
Ashley Crandell, 36, and her husBᴀɴd, Lance, 41, have struggled with secondary infertility for almost 4 years, after becoming Pʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ with their first child, Isla, now 5. Ashley said: “There was a point where I thought we were never going to be able to give Isla a sibling and I was ᴅᴇᴠᴀꜱᴛᴀᴛᴇd. I always wanted a big family. I tried to stay positive, but at certain points I was like, OK. This just isn’t going to happen. Our bodies aren’t working.” Crandell found out that she had polycystic ovary syndrome or P.C.O.S, and Lance had low sprem motolity, and both conditions contribute to their fertility problems.
That’s when they turned to a fertility treatment called I.U.I. A procedure that places Lance’s sprem directly into Ashley’s uterus. A last-ditch effort prior to in vitro fertilization. “We tried for three and a half years before deciding to try I.U.I with our doctor and it worked on the first try and I think everyone was sʜᴏᴄᴋed,” Ashley said.
“I remember looking at those four heartBᴇᴀᴛs and thinking, ‘Should we be excited or should we be scared? “I decided we could be both at the same time,” she recalls.
The quadruplets were born on February 11 at Dignity Health St. Hospital and Medical Center. Joseph in Phoenix, Arizona. All four babies spent 10 weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), learning to feed and breathe on their own.
