Irvine Fertility Doctor Is the Life of the Party : Celebration: At the annual picnic outside his office, parents heap praise on Lawrence Werlin, the man they thank for their children.

IRVINE — For more than two hours Sunday, hundreds of parents with giddy children stood in line to spend a few minutes with a jovial man wearing small, wire-rimmed spectacles and bushy, gray hair rolling down over his shoulders.

Despite the vague similarity to a Christmas scene with Santa, these families came to say thank you for gifts they had already received: babies that might not have been born if it weren’t for the long-haired doctor at the front of the line.

Dr. Lawrence Werlin, an Irvine fertility specialist, figures he’s helped bring about 1,200 babies into the world over the past 15 years, and about 200 of them were on hand Sunday, frolicking at an annual picnic the doctor hosts for his successful patients.

“This is the best feeling in the world,” said Werlin, 47, a flamboyant man who greets his patients with bearhugs and a booming voice. “The majority of people [who get fertility treatment] don’t get pregnant. When you see the ones that do, it’s very rewarding and fulfilling.”

The picnic, which took place in the parking lot outside Werlin’s office near Woodbridge, was a sea of toddlers wearing Halloween outfits, munching on cupcakes and playing with orange and black balloons. But the brightest smiles were on the faces of the parents, many of whom had almost given up having children before undergoing fertility treatments.

Barry and Lee Deslatte spent about $5,000 (their insurance kicked in another $5,000) to undergo in-vitro fertilization. Seven and a half months ago, they had triplets.

Out of necessity, their lives have since taken on an assembly-line efficiency; they go through 20 diapers a day. They have three cribs, three strollers, and say there is barely enough room to walk in the second bedroom of their two-bedroom apartment in Anaheim.

But, they said, it’s all worth it. “I feel sorry for people who can only have one at a time,” joked Barry Deslatte, 29, a radio repairman.

“It would be nice to have one more because it would be a real piece of cake to take care of one,” said Lee Deslatte, 26. In case that feeling strengthens, the couple has stored 10 frozen embryos.

Like many parents at the event, the Deslattes said they came to say thank you. Barry goes so far as to say that Werlin “is almost their dad too. We wouldn’t have had them without his help.”

A Rolling Stones fan who drives a 1966 Corvette, Werlin looks like he might be more at home running a nightclub than working in a laboratory. His appearance can be unsettling at first, some parents admit.

“Your first thought is he’s an artist from Laguna Beach or some kind of eccentric,” said Jim Morse, 39, whose wife, Kristi, 38, gave birth to the couple’s second daughter after undergoing in-vitro fertilization a little more than a year ago.

But many parents use words like “magic” and “miracles” to describe the effect Werlin and his partner, Dr. Paul Zarutskie, have had on their lives.

“We’re just thankful,” said Angel Brazil, 37, whose twin girls wore cowgirl outfits and sat in a double stroller made to look like a covered wagon.

Brazil and her husband, Mike, came to the event partly to bond with other parents who had undergone similar fertility procedures, but also to show Werlin and his staff their baby girls.

“We just wanted to let them see the fruits of their labor, so to speak,” Brazil said.