These quadruplets are definitely going places.
Three weeks premature, the set of two boys and two girls - Dong, Nan, Xi and Bei (or East, South, West, and North in Chinese) born on Monday in Shandong Province are still in hospital, the Qilu Evening News reported.
The quadruplet's dad, surnamed Zhang, said he and his wife Li Juan, 27, chose the cardinal directions as names so they would be safe everywhere they went, Qingdao Morning News reported.
Li received a cesarean after an hour of labor Monday morning.
Though in stable condition, each of the four infants weighed less than two kilograms, said doctors at The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University.
They are currently under observation in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where the second-born, a boy, is breathing with the aid of a respirator.
"Several of their organs such as lungs are not fully developed," Li Xianghong, deputy director of the NICU, told Qilu Evening News on Monday.
The babies will remain in the NICU for at least a month, Li said.
Li Juan, who underwent artificial insemination, was both excited and worried when doctors told her she was having quadruplets during her ninth week of pregnancy.
"Even though I knew this would come with a lot of risks, I did not want to give up any of them," said Li.
