The Lomaka family when their children were younger, (front row, from left) father Steve; youngest brother Matt; quadruplets Greg, Stephen, Chris and Kate; (back row, from left) older sister Lauren and mother Tina (Photo courtesy Tina Lomaka)
When Tina Lomaka found out she was expecting quadruplets, it was a dream come true. A labor and delivery nurse, Lomaka had always hoped to become pregnant. She and her husband, Steve, had been experiencing infertility for nine years when Tina conceived. The couple’s 4-year-old daughter Lauren, whom they had adopted as a newborn, was excited to be a big sister.
The quadruplets — Greg, Steve, Chris and Kate — were born in October 1993, so close to midnight that Lomaka recalls wondering if some of them might have different birthdays. The family’s sixth child, Matt, was born less than two years later. “For a short time, we had six children under age 6. Crazy time!” she says.
“Every stage of our parenting was wonderful and scary at the same time,” Lomaka recalls. “The hardest time had to be when the quads came home from the hospital. They were preemies, and all four came home on apnea monitors. We prepared 24 bottles per day and bought diapers by the case. It was challenging to keep them healthy, try to capture a few hours of sleep with both of us working and having a 4-year-old, but we made it work somehow.
“The scariest time,” she adds with a smile, “was having four [children with] learners permits. Imagine four 16-year-olds needing time behind the wheel!”
The family moved from Philadelphia to Richmond before the quads started school. Lomaka continued her career as a labor and delivery nurse at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital, working 12-hour shifts on the weekends and staying home with the children during the week while Steve worked. At one point, she recalls, Steve worked days and she worked nights, and they occasionally had to meet in the parking lot at the hospital and switch cars so that he could take the kids home. “Steve and I have made our children our priority from the beginning,” Lomaka says. “Our goal was to give them unconditional love.”
According to the Virginia Department of Health and Office of Vital Records, 2,837 sets of twins and 55 sets of triplets were born in Virginia last year. In 1993, when the Lomaka quadruplets were born, they were among only 277 sets of quads out of more than 4 million live births nationwide.
When her children were young, Lomaka says, she often turned to a New York-based support group called Raising Multiples, which offered a subgroup for the parents of quadruplets, quintuplets and sextuplets. Before that, she says, “I had never met anyone who delivered and raised quadruplets. Raising quads is tough, but knowing someone [who] is doing the same thing makes it somehow easier.”
Richmond Area Moms of Multiples President Lisa Rodgers with her children, (from left) Cooper and twins Shelby and Sawyer (Photo courtesy Lisa Rodgers)
“It’s helpful to know you are not alone, and that there are other moms who can understand the fears, excitement and challenges that come along with having multiples,” says Lisa Rodgers, current president of Richmond Area Moms of Multiples and mother of Cooper, age 10, and fraternal twins Shelby and Sawyer, 7. RAMOM is a support community that provides resources, guidance and camaraderie.
“I personally was very scared and concerned about having twins and the higher-risk pregnancy,” Rodgers says. “The knowledge and support from the group eased my worries. It was nice to have other moms who get it to share stories and questions and vent with. Even giving information like the best fenced-in playgrounds is helpful.”
There are advantages to multiples, Rodgers says, like having built-in playmates, but dividing parental attention between them can be challenging. “Sleeping through the night, potty training, speech development, reading, riding a bike — they will not do everything at the same time,” she explains. “Also, how to put two babies in a shopping cart made for one is something I would never have thought about before twins.”
RAMOM offers information on all of that and more, Rodgers says. The group meets regularly for family activities where, she adds, dads of multiples are also very welcome.
The Lomaka family today (Photo courtesy Tina Lomaka)
Reflecting on her family’s journey, Lomaka shares her favorite saying: “Good parents give their children roots and wings: roots to know where home is, and wings to spread and fly away to explore and reach their full potential.”
A decade after making the news as the first — and, so far, only — set of quadruplets to graduate from Virginia Tech, Chris is a senior project manager for Hourigan, Greg is an analyst with Progressive Insurance, Stephen is a manager at Deloitte, and Kate is a physical therapist at Sheltering Arms. Their younger brother, Matt, who has Down syndrome, is an avid musician who recently beat a cancer diagnosis, and their older sister, Lauren, is an emergency department physician who, Lomaka reports, is expecting twins this summer. “We are absolutely thrilled!” she says.
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