A military couple in Hawaii has given birth to the state's second set of quadruplets within a year.

Tiffany and Francisco Beltran of Kailua had two boys and two girls Jan. 16 at Tripler Army Medical Center. They are the couple's first children.

About nine weeks premature, the infants weighed more than 12 pounds total, from 2 pounds 9 ounces to 3 pounds 15 ounces.

“;They're doing really good,”; said Tiffany Beltran, 25. “;They're all breathing on their own.”;

They were born by Caesarean section within three minutes starting at 5:19 p.m. Francisco Paul came first, then Leilani AnnMarie, Alexis Jade and Alexander James at 5:21 p.m.

The couple, high school sweethearts married six years, had been trying to get pregnant for three years and turned to fertility drugs when unsuccessful. Beltran became pregnant through intra-uterine insemination.

While the couple had heard about the mother who recently had octuplets in California, they were glad to have only four.

“;That's crazy,”; said Marine Sgt. Francisco Beltran, 26. “;I have no clue what I would have done if the doctor said eight or even seven. Eight, that's a lot.”;

“;I just can't even fathom,”; Tiffany Beltran said. “;Good luck to her. I already don't know how I'm going to manage as far as sleep and feeding.”;

It is the second set of quadruplets in Hawaii since October. Before that, there had been no quadruplets since 1999.

Four babies at once is the most so far in Hawaii, according to the Hawaii Department of Health.

Sgt. Beltran, who was deployed in Iraq while his wife was pregnant, returned early to help her after doctors ordered her to stay off her feet in October.

Tiffany Beltran said the births came without warning.

While at the hospital for monitoring, “;Baby A went ahead and broke water,”; she said. Hospital staff sent her to the operating room, and the babies were born three hours later.

“;It was all very quick, unexpected,”; she said.

The day his wife gave birth, Beltran rushed to Tripler and made it in time to see the births.

“;They just kept pulling out babies one after another,”; he said.

The couple visits the babies every day in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, where they are on feeding tubes. They will take the babies home in about five weeks.

The couple said they are prepared with bottles and diapers and plan to breast-feed the infants.

Family members have come from the mainland to help, and the couple will move back to California in May to be closer to family.

Sgt. Beltran expects that it will be hectic when the babies finally come home.

“;It'll be a happy crazy,”; he said.