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By BOBBI DEMPSEY; Times Leader Staff Writer
Monday, May 11, 1998     Page: 3A

WEST HAZLETON- While many area families celebrated Mother’s Day in fancy
restaurants, Karen Kaschak spent it like most other days- changing four sets
of diapers and feeding strained food to four hungry mouths.
   
Kaschak remembers getting her first ultrasound during her pregnancy last
year. She had taken fertility drugs, so friends teased her that she was likely
to have twins.
    But when the technician told her there were four, “I was, like, `that’s
really not funny.’ ”
   
The technician assured the couple she wasn’t joking and Karen watched her
husband, Jim, go from beet red to white.
   
But the couple has adjusted and is dealing with four teething 9-month-olds,
as well as a 3-year-old daughter, Amanda. Jonathan, Morgan, Kyle and Rebecca
were born July 22 at Lehigh Valley Medical Center.
   
“We’ve been on a jet plane since then” Karen said, adding that life has
only recently become less hectic. “The first three months were the worst.”
   
It was sometimes a challenge just to tell the babies apart when they were
newborns. “We kept their name bands on as long as we could,” Karen said.
   
Three of the babies were on apnea monitors until recently, so the family
has nursing care every night. “It’s been a Godsend,” Karen said.
   
Raising quadruplets can be costly; they go through nearly a pack of diapers
and a case of baby food a day. The babies slept two to a crib at first, but
Morgan was crowding Rebecca, so the girls were separated early. The boys were
split up soon afterward.
   
A large room on the first floor serves as “Baby Central,” where, in two
cribs and two playpens, babies doze underneath signs bearing their names, made
by nurses at the hospital nursery. Usually, they can be found crawling around
the front hall, the most baby-proof part of the house.
   
All get shots and check-ups at once, so the family only has to make one
trek to the pediatrician’s office in Plains Township.
   
Karen recently gave up her teaching position at Transfiguration School.
   
“Now I’m a full-time mom- and then some.”
   
Jim’s employer, Dorr-Oliver, Inc., has been supportive when he needed time
off.
   
While it’s been hectic, it hasn’t been as bad as Karen expected.
   
“They’ve been pretty healthy, so we’re really lucky,” she said.
   
Come suppertime, Jim and Karen sit on the floor in front of the babies,
lined up in four feeding seats. They juggle bottles and spoonfuls of baby
food, a basket of washcloths nearby.
   
Karen admits this is the most stressful time of the day.
   
“Evenings are tough. I’m tired, they’re tired.”
   
Rather than being anxious to go to work and escape four babies and a
pre-schooler, Jim said he would really like to be home with his children.
   
“He’ll walk in from work and go right over to pick up a screaming baby,”
Karen said.
   
Big sister Amanda is unfazed, running from one baby to another with toys
and a helping hand.
   
“She thinks it’s normal to have four babies,” Karen said.
   
The couple need charts to keep track of each baby’s feedings, medications
and other information. Karen laughs when she tells of a couple she knows who
have one baby.
   
While the couple said having quadruplets has been “wonderful,” they admit
to relishing their rare night out.
   
Both belong to their parish council, and they’re disappointed when meetings
only last one-half hour.
   
Karen laughs, “We’re,