05/23/2026
New Zealand Welcomes First Quadruplets in More Than 20 Years as Timaru Family Adjusts to Life With Four Babies
A family in Timaru is capturing hearts across New Zealand after welcoming the country’s first recorded set of quadruplets in more than two decades.
Parents Kendall and Josh MacDonald suddenly became a family of seven when quadruplets Quinn, Indie, Molly, and Hudson arrived prematurely at 28 weeks via cesarean section. The rare birth included three girls — two of them identical twins — and one boy.
Now three months old, the babies are finally home, where the family is adapting to the joyful chaos of raising four newborns at once alongside their proud older daughter.
“It doesn’t quite feel real yet,” Kendall admitted while caring for one of the babies. Josh echoed the feeling, saying their lives changed completely overnight but that they would not trade the experience for anything.
One of the family’s funniest ongoing challenges has been telling the identical twins apart. Josh joked that the mix-ups still happen occasionally, prompting Kendall to laugh and remind him that knowing which baby is which absolutely matters.
The couple said the pregnancy itself came as an enormous surprise. After undergoing fertility treatment, they expected the possibility of one baby — not four. Even now, Kendall says looking back at the original ultrasound still feels unbelievable.
Daily life inside the MacDonald home now revolves around nonstop feeding schedules, rotating sleep shifts, piles of laundry, and roughly 30 diapers each day. To help manage the demands, the family currently receives part-time nanny assistance and has sought additional community support as the babies continue growing.
Family members have also rallied around the exhausted but grateful parents. Grandmother Vicki MacDonald says spending time helping with the quadruplets has become one of the greatest joys of her life.
Meanwhile, Josh’s employer, Fonterra, stepped in to support the family by granting extended leave while the babies remained in intensive care and continuing to provide prepared meals during the transition home.
As the couple recently celebrated another wedding anniversary, Kendall joked that life had already delivered the ultimate gift.
“Four babies — that was my present,” she said.
Though the days are exhausting and unpredictable, the MacDonalds say their home has never felt fuller, happier, or more alive as they embrace life with four tiny miracles at once.
