THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602060110
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Long : 185 lines
ANGELA JONES WAS lounging on pillows last week in her hospital room at Riverside Regional Medical Center, reading ``Special Delivery: How We Are Raising America's Only Sextuplets,'' by Becky and Keith Dilley.
The Dilleys, of Indianapolis, are the parents of four boys and two girls.
Angela and her husband, Darin, who live in the Isle of Wight County community of Carrollton, are getting ready to be the parents of four - all boys. Make that five, counting their 4-year-old daughter, Shakeeta.
``This is amazing to me,'' 26-year-old Angela said as she leafed through the book. ``She works. He takes care of the kids. She's a nurse. They've gotten endorsements, donations, free Pampers and formula. The babies just did a commercial.''
But how, Angela wondered, putting her palm to her face as her eyes widened, did those parents ever find time to write a book?
Finding time for four babies and a little girl is one thing that concerns her. Providing for them is another.
Daily, she said, the numbers multiply through her mind. Formula for four. Diapers times four. Medical care. Food, clothing, housing, transportation. And how about college? What then?
``One thing,'' says Angela's cousin, Vernita Pierce, ``she won't have to worry about fixing their hair. I told Angela: With girls, you've got to worry with their hair all the time. With boys, you just cut the hair, put a T-shirt and a pair of pants on them and let them go. Boys are easier.''
By last Friday, the babies were all doing well, the largest tipping the scales at just over 3 pounds, the smallest at 2 pounds, 6 ounces. And Angela's doctors were still looking at delivery some time during the week of Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, when the mother is in her 32nd week of pregnancy. That is a prime time for multiple births, according to Dr. Sue Sayegh, Angela's primary physician. A normal pregnancy for a single baby, she says, usually runs for 40 weeks.
And if there's any doubt the Isle of Wight County couple will be able to provide material things for their sons, the day meant to celebrate love would hold perfect meaning for the Joneses.
Love abounds in their large, supportive family. With the birth of the quadruplets, the family will add to its fifth generation. Darin's great-grandfather, William Steve Jones Sr., is still active at 93. He lives in Chatham, near Danville.
``He's still driving his car, chopping wood, planting a big garden every summer,'' Darin said recently, chuckling as he sat in the hospital room where his wife has been on bed rest since the day after Christmas. ``He says he's going to be here when the boys are born.''
While long distance telephone bills pile up, the family is staying in touch, being certain not to miss a thing about what Angela's mother, Uteria Hardy, calls ``this miracle in our family.''
``We are all so excited,'' said Hardy, who lives in Surry.
Angela comes from a family of nine children. She remembers that growing up with so many brothers and sisters was fun. Her mother remembers that she didn't know she was going to have twins when she was expecting Angela and her brother, Andrew.
``I knew I was big,'' Hardy said, laughing. ``But I never thought about twins. The nurse came in the room that morning and said, `Miz Hardy, you have twins. A boy and a girl.' I said, `No, I don't.' I didn't believe it until I saw them.''
Darin's mother, Linda Jones, who lives in Chatham, had the same experience.
``They never did an ultrasound. I was awake when they were born. Here comes Anthony, here's comes Arthur.''
Two times two equals four. It was unexpected, unplanned, with no fertility drugs, but ``the boys,'' as they already are called by family members, are on their way. And their great-granddaddy William Steve Jones Jr., 69, who lives in Williamsburg and is Darin's grandfather, couldn't be more excited.
``People come up to me on the street!'' the retired Fort Eustis commissary worker said.
Great-granddaddy Steve, as they call him, said he was one of the first Darin called when he and Angela found out about the quads.
Darin told him: ``Granddaddy, they say we're going to have four babies. What will I do?''
And he recalls telling Darin, ``Don't worry, son. God will provide. He's not going to give you no more than you can handle.''
The babies will be named after relatives: Kameron Steve, Karon John, Kahlil Andrew and Karlyle Charlie. Steve Jones has decreed that they not be given their names until he chooses the one he wants as his namesake and that of his father, William Steve Jones Sr., the 93-year-old.
``I'm always doing something, always active,'' 69-year-old Steve said. ``So's my daddy. I'll look for the one with the most energy.''
The quad who's kicking and screaming, then, most likely will be Kameron Steve. Once that decision is made, it will probably be up to Angela and Darin to attach the other name tags. But they won't lack for help in the task.
If relatives show up as they've promised, it could be that the births - the first of their kind in Riverside Medical's 75-year history - will pack the Peninsula hospital.
``My brother in New York is more excited than I am,'' Steve Jones said. ``He calls at least once a week. He don't even say `hello' now. Just, `Are they here yet?' He's liable to show up.''
Linda Jones, Darin's mother, is planning to take off work at Dan River Mills in Danville to come to Newport News with her sister as soon as they get word. Darin's father, Charlie E. Jones, who also works at the mill, hopes to come down, too. Grandma Hardy from Surry and most of her eight other children also plan to be on the scene.
Despite their experience with twins, neither Darin's nor Angela's mothers have much advice about raising four.
``Oh, I don't know,'' said Uteria Hardy, who ``almost fainted'' when she first heard the news. ``I was lucky with Angela and Andrew. Angela was a good baby. She slept all the time. Andrew was always screaming. Feeding and bathing was the biggest problem.''
For Linda Jones, ``potty training'' was the most trying experience.
``That's going to be a little hard,'' she said. ``Wait until it comes time for that.''
Little Shakeeta, the boys' sister, will probably be of some help. She's already promised to help with feeding and dressing, her mother said.
``But she says she won't change the diapers - because they're boys,'' Angela said with a laugh.
Much like her dad, the little girl still seems awestruck by the impending births. She knows she will soon have as many brothers as fingers she holds up to show her age. She spends as much time with her mother in the hospital as the Joneses can arrange. The two read, cut and color paper, watch TV together.
Darin, 27, is still trying to hold together the small house-cleaning business he and Angela started a couple of years ago. Relatives help with Shakeeta when she is unable to stay at the hospital with her mother.
And Angela, who apparently hasn't changed much since she was a quiet, calm infant, is holding the family together. She's doing everything she's supposed to do, her doctor said, taking everything in stride.
She credits her faith for the way she's handled the unusual situation.
``I believe this is his will,'' she said, with a serene smile. ``It wasn't planned, but we can deal with it.''
While her family worries and her husband anxiously expresses concern for his family's future, Angela remains calm.
Cousin Vernita falls in the worry category.
``She needs at least four bedrooms now,'' she said. ``They've only got two. And they have a compact car. If they ever want to go anywhere, they can't all go at the same time. Angela likes to go to church. She won't even be able to do that in a compact car with five children.''
And she may never finish her own college education, her cousin muses. When she found out she was pregnant, Angela had only two semesters left at Christopher Newport University, where she was pursuing a degree in education.
In her prayers, Angela said, she thanks God for her supportive family, her loving daughter and her strong, young husband. And she's grateful for the support the community already has shown.
``My belly is beginning to get in the way,'' she laughed. ``They stick me a lot. I get really tired from doing nothing. But prayer gets me through.''
If prayer and the love of family has anything to do with it, four robust little boys should be new Isle of Wight County citizens by some time next week.
The one with the lustiest cry will be named Kameron Steve. The others will be just as welcomed.
``It's a miracle,'' Uteria Hardy said.
``It's amazing,'' said her daughter.
And Shakeeta, who after all is only 4, isn't sure exactly what it all means.
``It's all right, I guess.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including the cover, by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Dedra Alley, right, operates the ultrasound machine on Angela Jones,
allowing them and Dr. Sue Sayegh, Jones' primary physician, to peek
inside the womb.
A profile of one of the baby boys is clearly visible on the
ultrasound monitor. (The baby is on his back, facing upward.) By
last Friday, the babes were all doing well, the largest tipping the
scales at just over 3 pounds, the smallest at 2 pounds, 6 ounces.
Doctors for Angela Jones are looking at delivery during the week of
Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, when the mother is in her 32nd week of
pregnancy.
Nurses at Riverside Regional Medical Center monitor the babies'
heart rates. The quadruplets will add to the fifth generation of the
family.
WANT TO HELP
To help Angela and Darin Jones cope with adding four babies to
their young Isle of Wight County family, Riverside Regional Medical
Center in Newport News is accepting donations through its public
relations department. For more information, call Bud Ramey at
594-2194.
In Isle of Wight County, Vernita Pierce, Angela Jones' cousin,
has agreed to act as a collection center from her home on Carroll
Bridge Road. For more information, call her at 357-7962.
KEYWORDS: MULTIPLE BIRTHS by CNB