By:Carrie James
Although the contractions Susan Cuttone started to have Friday, April 27, didn't hurt, her obstetrician, George Lau, told her to go to the hospital anyway to try and slow them down.
Three days and a C-section later, Susan and her husband Joe Cuttone welcomed their four daughters, two months early, into the world - Victoria Rose, Rosanna Maria, Daniella Christina and Julia Nicole.
"I was having contractions and I wasn't even feeling them," Susan Cuttone said of that Friday in April. "I was having 11 an hour, so my doctor said go home eat lunch and then go to the hospital. They had put me on magnesium sulfate to slow down the contractions. But at a certain point on Monday [when the pain really hit], I just said get them out of me."
The Herald first profiled the Cuttone family-to-be in its March 29 edition.
From the beginning, the four girls born at Winthrop Hospital in Mineola have been healthy, with only Julia Nicole staying on a breathing tube for more than a couple days, Joe Cuttone said.
Now, they are all pretty much breathing on their own, with Julia and Daniella getting some oxygen through their noses.
"The nurses are already saying they are getting their way," he said, referring to the girls' fight to sleep on their stomachs. "Also, they said they are very strong babies. They can lift their heads up and look at us."
According to hospital officials, the Cuttone babies should be ready to come home in about four or five weeks, but that all depends on how quickly they gain weight and if they adjust well, Joe Cuttone said.
Right now, the babies are in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital, which is known as the A room. From there, the babies will progress to a B and C room, slowly adjusting them from the incubators to open bassinets, being fed by their parents and being bathed.
Only the Cuttones and the babies' grandparents are allowed in the ICU with the babies, and can only touch them through the holes in the incubators. Susan Cuttone did get to hold Julia briefly, though.
"The hardest thing is not going home with them," said Susan Cuttone. The two visit the quadruplets twice every day, in the afternoon and in the evening.
"We try to spend an equal amount of time with each one," she added. "They just change your life."
Already, the local community has shown support for the Cuttone family, they said. Many friends and family have offered their help. Others have donated goods. Some of the East Meadow businesses have also gotten involved, Joe Cuttone said. Roslyn Savings Bank even set up a college fund for them.
"We just want to thank everyone," he said. "It's definitely very nice, and we're very thankful for all of it."
