One Hundred Fingers and Toes

Dec. 6, 2007— -- Tuesday morning, inside Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans, Pamela Kocke gave birth to triplets.

It was Pamela and her husband George's first child -- and boy, did they hit the jackpot.

The baby boy trio weighed between 2 pounds, 2.5 ounces and 4 pounds, 10 ounces. The boys were named Linus, Oliver and Miles.

For the hospital's weary staff, however, there was no time to celebrate.

That night, at 6:24 p.m., Alicia Murphy also gave birth -- to quadruplets.

She and her husband, Matt, welcomed Elizabeth, Molly, Margaret and Carolyn.

Originally they thought they were having twins.

"We went back, and they said, 'actually there are three,' and we panicked," Alicia Murphy confessed.

But four?

"I asked her, 'Do you see three heartbeats?' the expectant Murphy asked and then recalled her shock at the doctor's response, "'I can. Actually, I see four.'"

The quadruplets were one set of identical twins and one set of fraternal twins. Murphy's physician, maternal-fetal medicine obstetrician Dr. Sherri Longo, said, "The average quad pregnancy delivers at 29.5 weeks, and Alicia was able to reach 32 weeks, which was great news for the babies."

But the hospital staff wasn't finished. At 8:02 this morning, another new mom gave birth to yet another set of triplets.

But they're not ready for their close-ups.

"We've never in the 20 years that I have been at Ochsner experienced such a proverbial baby boom," Dr. Harley Ginsberg said.

This is the first time Ochsner Medical Center has delivered triplets and quadruplets in a 24-hour period, and the Murphy quadruplets are the first set to be delivered at the hospital in nearly five years.

That's 100 fingers and 100 toes.