Carleen Wild
Moody County Enterprise

“Five weeks old and off oxygen! Now we need to work on bottle feeding so we can get rid of the feeding tubes!” Jenny Stone LeBrun wrote this past Sunday night. LeBrun was providing, as she has for months, Facebook updates on “the quads” to family and friends.
Yes, the quads.
It’s been a long time that the area has seen a set of quadruplets, in fact the LeBrun littles are reportedly the first set of quads born at Avera Health since 1995. Only five other sets have been born in the state since that time.
The rarity of their situation is just one reason Cru, Grayson, Levi, and the sole girl in the bunch, Oakley, are getting a lot of attention. Their delicate situation is another, the four were born October 2nd, ten and a half weeks early. All four were welcomed into the world within four minutes.

“My pregnancy was pretty uneventful until I was 28 weeks, and then I went downhill pretty quickly,” LeBrun, a teacher in the Colman-Egan School District, said.
“I was admitted to the hospital on September 27th and the babies were born October 2nd…Cru, the biggest baby was born first (3 lbs. 7 oz.). Levi, the smallest (2 lbs. 12 oz.), was born second. Oakley (3 lbs. 4 oz.) and Grayson (3 lbs. 2 oz.) were the final two. Oakley has a huge head of very dark hair.”
After 11 days in the hospital, Jenny is now back and forth between the family’s home north of Colman and Avera Hospital in Sioux Falls as the quads remain in the NICU. But as you might gather from the update above, the four are all making beautiful strides in their health and growth, and are “surpassing expectations” according to their care team.
“Hunter, our two year old, and Addy, our four year old, stay at my mom’s house in Brookings on the weekends,” said Jenny. “Jack, our eight year old, usually hangs out with Grandpa Tom on the weekends. There has been a lot of juggling kids around. It will be so nice when we are all at home together again.”
The hope is that the quads will be home by Christmas — and what a gift that would be.
“May 20th of this year will be a day that I and my family will never forget. I went in for my first ultrasound after finding out that I was pregnant. Little did I know how much my life was about to change…Dusty was in the field planting, so when I called him to tell him we were having quadruplets, he thought I was pranking him. The next couple of weeks were a blur as I was trying to come to terms with how much life was going to change,” Jenny said.
While it’s been overwhelming at times, the year for her, Dusty and their three other children, Jack, Addy, and Hunter, has absolutely flown by. The scenario is not one the LeBrun’s ever imagined themselves in, but it is one they are embracing with every ounce of their being.
“I’ve been asked what my plan is when all four of the babies get home. My plan is to be the best mom possible to all seven of my kids and love them all like crazy. There will be challenging days, but there will be many more amazing days,” she said.
The family cannot thank their care team, their families, friends and Jenny’s employer and colleagues at the CE School District, enough for all their help and support.
 “The NICU staff has been amazing. We are forever grateful for them.” The family also credits their amazing family, friends and colleagues. “We often hear the saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ We have the best village a family could ask for. We truly would not be doing as well as we are without our village,” the couple said.LeBrun, by the way, plans to be back teaching in a few years. For now though, she and Dusty plan to soak up all the time they can together as a young family.
“I am going to embrace every day I have with my children. In eighteen years, I am going to look back and say time went by too fast,” said LeBrun.
For anyone wanting to offer support to the family, the LeBruns say that the best way to help is gift cards for things like gas, restaurants, or Walmart/Target/Amazon.