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5 5th birthdays: Children were born in Forsyth hospital
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
The Brewer family (clockwise, from left): Cherie, Ben, Sean, Marcus, Morgan and Maddie, at their home in Advance.
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Published: November 3, 2009
Updated: 11/03/2009 12:10 am
ADVANCE - Today, Marcus and Cherie Brewer will sing "Happy Birthday" to one of their children.
Then, they will sing it four more times.
Each song will commemorate the birthday of their five children, who were born on this day five years ago.
The Brewer quintuplets were the first quints born at Forsyth Medical Center and just the ninth set born in North Carolina since 1968, the first year that electronic records were kept by the state.
The arrival of Morgan, Sean, Ben, Madelyn and Carson made national news while triggering a flurry of activity in the hospital's neonatal intensive-care unit, where the tiny babies struggled for their lives.
"That was a day of mixed emotions," Marcus Brewer recalled. "I had the excitement of being a father for the first time, not just a father, but a father of five. So I had all the joy that goes along with that. But that quickly turned to concern and some fear because of their prematurity, and I knew that we were in for a long battle."
Indeed, the children were born fighters.
Sean and Morgan stayed in the hospital for two more months; Maddie and Ben for three more.
Carson never made it home. He died in May 2005 of pulmonary hypertension at Brenner Children's Hospital.
Carson is remembered at each birthday.
The family sings "Happy Birthday" to him, and Cherie and Marcus blow out a candle on the kids' cake in memory of him.
They have also declared May 16, the anniversary of his death, "Angel Day."
"We always do something together as a family," Cherie said. "We decided we never want to be too busy that day."
Although the children were born more than two months premature, they have had no serious health problems. Maddie has eye problems, but her vision could correct itself, Cherie said.
Ann Smith, the director for the Sara Lee Center for Women's Health at the medical center, worked as a nurse practitioner on one of the five teams assigned to care for each of the children as they were delivered.
She recalled the teamwork that went into making the delivery a smooth one. Teams were assembled and put on call, and when the delivery time was set, they quickly mobilized. Bed spaces were ready and lined up.
"We knew to plan, and we had the plan ready to go," Smith said. "We average four to five admissions a day, anyway, and these happened to fall at the same time. It was exciting, but it went so well and all the plans fell into place."
Shortly after Carson died, the Brewers moved to Raleigh, and later, Birmingham, Ala., Marcus' hometown. In September, Marcus got a job as a commercial risk manager with Wachovia, and the family moved to Advance.
The Brewers said they are glad to be back in the community that supported them so much when the children were born. They were new to Winston-Salem when the quintuplets were born, but neighbors and church members at Glenn View Baptist Church rallied around them, bringing over meals and donating baby supplies.
Their new home is spacious with a big backyard that gives the kids plenty of room to romp. They are an active bunch and love Disney movies, superheroes, princesses and string cheese.
Although the children have aged out of bottles and burping, the Brewers have discovered that every age presents a new set of challenges.
"They question everything. They want to know why this and why that, and sometimes I feel like I'm a referee because they are constantly picking on each other and taking each other's toys," Marcus said. "They're four very unique personalities, and sometimes those personalities clash."
Cherie sometimes has a child hovering over her at 6 a.m.
"I'm getting breakfast orders, and I'm not even of bed," she said.
The kids go to day care most days of the week. Next year, they will go to kindergarten at Shady Grove Elementary School.
"I love them dearly," Cherie said. "But I'll be ready."
She said she plans to spend some of her new free time volunteering at Forsyth Medical Center. She would like to work in either the neonatal intensive-care unit or the antepartum unit. Cherie spent weeks in the unit before giving birth to the quintuplets.
Volunteering, she said, is a way for her to thank the hospital staff for the care that she and the babies received five years ago.
"I'll never be able to give back anything close to what they gave me," Cherie said. "But this is something I can do that I hope will be beneficial."
Smith and other hospital workers from the NICU recently saw the children at a reunion for premature babies that the hospital holds each year.
"You remember them discharged as a tiny baby and here it is, five years later, and they are talking to you," Smith said. "It's very special and brings back good memories."
lodonnell@wsjournal.com.
727-7420
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