--- title: Mom Kimberley Fugate Expects Triplets, Gets Surprise Quadruplets description: Kimberley Fugate was giving birth to triplets when doctors found a fourth set of feet during her C-section canonical: https://time.com/8402/mom-delivers-three-babies-gets-one-free/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-17T16:44:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:13.236Z og:title: Mom Kimberley Fugate Expects Triplets, Gets Surprise Quadruplets og:description: Kimberley Fugate was giving birth to triplets when doctors found a fourth set of feet during her C-section og:url: https://time.com/8402/mom-delivers-three-babies-gets-one-free/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e9e17249e6838de/698682c435ba6f92bfc00a56/quadruplets-mississippi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Kim Fugate looks in on Kristen, one of her four identical quadruplets. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mom Kimberley Fugate Expects Triplets, Gets Surprise Quadruplets twitter:description: Kimberley Fugate was giving birth to triplets when doctors found a fourth set of feet during her C-section twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e9e17249e6838de/698682c435ba6f92bfc00a56/quadruplets-mississippi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mom Delivers Three Babies, Gets One Free > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=eaa2ad21-5971-4887-94fb-89d904bcfded&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Feb 17, 2014 4:44 PM UTC  Kim Fugate looks in on Kristen, one of her four identical quadruplets. Kim Fugate looks in on Kristen, one of her four identical quadruplets. University of Mississippi Medical Center  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Feb 17, 2014 4:44 PM UTC A Mississippi mom has given birth to a [surprise fourth baby](http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20140215/NEWS01/302150026/Birth-day-surprise-Miss-mom-delivers-rare-set-quads?nclick%5Fcheck=1) while delivering what she had thought was a set of triplets. Kimberley Fugate learned of the surprise delivery mid-operation when a doctor told her, “there are more feet.” The fourth baby had somehow hidden from the sonogram throughout Fugate’s pregnancy, serving up a big surprise to doctors and the Fugates on delivery day, Feb. 8. Fugate was not planning on having more children at 42 — she and her husband already have a 10-year-old daughter — and was shocked to discover that she was pregnant with triplets last year. But then she gave birth to identical quadruplets, an event so rare it has “almost incalculable” odds, Fugate’s doctor, James Bofill told the _Clarion-Ledger_. Medical experts put the odds at 13 million to one. Bofill admits he felt sheepish when he heard the news of an extra baby, something he’s never seen in his 27-year career. “I was very embarrassed, obviously,” he said. “The news was sent to me by one of my fellows. I thought she was kidding.” Fugate’s husband, Craig, didn’t find out about the fourth baby until he visited his wife in the recovery room. She told him to count the identification bracelets on her arm, one for each of the four children. They named the four girls Kenleigh, Kristen, Kaleigh and Kelsey. All four babies are healthy and staying in the neonatal intensive care unit, the hospital said. Fugate said she considers the births “a blessing,” but that these are the last children she’s having. And she means it this time. “This. Is. It,” she told the _Clarion-Ledger_. \[[_Clarion-Ledger_](http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20140215/NEWS01/302150026/Birth-day-surprise-Miss-mom-delivers-rare-set-quads?nclick%5Fcheck=1)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/8402/mom-delivers-three-babies-gets-one-free/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/8402/mom-delivers-three-babies-gets-one-free/"},"headline":"Mom Delivers Three Babies, Gets One Free","datePublished":"2014-02-17T16:44:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:13.236Z","description":"Kimberley Fugate was giving birth to triplets when doctors found a fourth set of feet during her C-section","url":"https://time.com/8402/mom-delivers-three-babies-gets-one-free/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Family","Mississippi"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e9e17249e6838de/698682c435ba6f92bfc00a56/quadruplets-mississippi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e9e17249e6838de/698682c435ba6f92bfc00a56/quadruplets-mississippi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kim Fugate looks in on Kristen, one of her four identical quadruplets.","caption":"Kim Fugate looks in on Kristen, one of her four identical quadruplets.","creditText":"University of Mississippi Medical Center","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/8402/mom-delivers-three-babies-gets-one-free/","name":"Mom Delivers Three Babies, Gets One Free"}}]}] ```