Ten years ago, Charity and Steve Donovan welcomed not one, but four babies into the world.

Nolan, Evan, Nathan and Meredith, quadruplets, joined big brother Aidan in the Donovan household.

Perceptions about what is “normal” changed, too. For a while after his four siblings were born, Aidan would ask pregnant women: How many are you having?

The Donovans lived in Wentzville and moved to Warrenton soon after the quadruplets were born.

Charity works for Edward Jones and Steve is an independent cabinetmaker.

These days, the quadruplets are a tight team. They talk over each other, finish each other’s sentences, stand up for each other and know each other better than anyone else.

“They are in each other’s business all day,” Steve said. “They’re like a little gang.”

Meredith, the only girl, said being a quadruplet means “always having someone to play with.”

Nolan said being a quadruplet is “the best thing ever.”

Charity remembers the first few months after the babies came home. They were born premature on Oct. 17, 2007. From then to about Easter time, Mom and Dad were their sole caretakers as they kept the babies isolated from viruses.

“It was crazy when we first brought them home. We laugh about it now. Back then we were so sleep deprived,” Charity said. “It took two hours to feed them and we had to feed them every three hours.”

Time moved fast, though. Soon the four babies were holding their own bottles and they were potty trained. Steve said potty training quadruplets was chaos.

A biting stage came and went.

“They started biting each other, a lot. I remember it was a lot of crying,” Charity said.

Now Aidan is in high school and the quadruplets are in fourth grade at Daniel Boone Elementary. The gang of four is made of four individuals with different tastes, humor, interests and motivations.

What’s more is, they will tell everyone they are each other’s best friends.

Christina Cosgrove teaches Nathan and Meredith.

“They have different personalities with different likes and dislikes of course but share such a close bond and are always looking out for one another,” Cosgrove said.

Nolan and Evan, who are identical twins, are in Tracy Halter’s classroom. She said it took a while to tell them apart. At first she distinguished them by their shoes. Later she recognized slight differences in their faces.

“It has been very interesting to see how different Nolan and Evan’s personalities can be but how closely connected they are to each other,” Halter said.

The twins once tried to trick a teacher by switching classes. Their classmates turned them in.

Charity said the quadruplets have a different way of doing things than single-pregnancy children. For one, instead of going to Mom or Dad, “when they’re sick in the middle of the night, they go to each other.”

Steve said where there is one, there is usually another. 

They hold each other accountable. Charity said the last child to learn how to ride a bike got support from the others and a bike riding lesson. After that, they all were riding bikes.  

As the family celebrates the birth of Nolan, Evan, Nathan and Meredith, the Donovans said this is their normal, and they are blessed.

These quadruplets will celebrate their 10th birthday Oct. 17. Here they are, from left and by birth order, identical twins Nolan and Evan, Nathan and Meredith Donovan. The Donovans live in Warrenton. Record photo/ Kate Miller.