01/10/2025
What a beautiful story and family!
World’s Youngest Surviving Quadruplets: Alabama Siblings Earn Guinness Record
Birmingham, Ala. — At just one year old, Lainey, Kali, Lennon and Koen Bryant have made medical history. Born at 23 weeks and 4 days—a full 115 days early—the naturally conceived quadruplets have been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s most premature surviving quads.
Delivered in May 2024 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), the babies faced long odds. Doctors estimated only a 10% chance that all four would live. Lainey weighed 1 lb 4 oz at birth; Lennon, the largest, 1 lb 7 oz. Each spent about six months in the NICU, supported by UAB’s Golden Week Program for extremely preterm infants.
Their mother, Becca Bryant, a cardiac ICU nurse, went into emergency delivery after her cervix shortened, her water broke, and signs of infection appeared. “It was fast and scary,” she said. “I didn’t get to see or touch them.” UAB neonatologist Dr. Colm Travers recalled “about 30 people” in the room: “All hands on deck.”
The quads—two boys and identical twin girls—went home to Auburn, Alabama in December, joining siblings Kendall (12), Laikyn (7), and Kainen (3). Now 12 months old, Lennon remains the heaviest at roughly 17 lb, with Lainey at 14 lb. The family says the babies are still “medically fragile”: Lennon uses a G-tube; Lainey and Koen continue on nasal oxygen but are being weaned. Even so, Becca calls bottle-feeding “a huge win.”
Natural quadruplets occur in roughly 1 in 700,000 pregnancies, according to the family’s MFM specialist Dr. Ayodeji Sanusi. While UAB also holds the record for the youngest surviving premature infant (Curtis Means, 21 weeks + 1 day, 2020), the Bryants’ mark is specific to quadruplets—surpassing a record that stood for nearly 30 years (the Tepper quads, 1997).
Life at home is logistics and love: about 40 diapers a day and two daily loads of baby laundry, with big siblings pitching in. Dad Lavareis, a police officer, and Becca keep the pace steady. “People say, ‘If anyone was meant to have quads, it was y’all,’” Becca laughed. “They fought so hard, and they’ve come so far.”
