Lauren Perkins has always dreamed of becoming a mom. After spending a difficult year trying and failing to fall pregnant, the idea of fertility treatment didn’t seem so scary anymore. She and her husband David decided to take a vacation to Nicaragua to consider their next step.
The couple, along with some friends, did exactly that, and whilst there, Lauren talked openly about their struggles to conceive. One of their friends, a priest, replied calmly, “Someone up there has big plans for you. I don’t know what, but it will be big.” At the time, it sounded strange, but Lauren would soon realize the words really carried some weight.
On the contrary, she and David had decided on one thing: they wanted to try out artificial insemination, the simplest method of assisted fertilization. Lauren was convinced that it wouldn’t work, that she was destined to be barren. But it did. Lauren finally fell pregnant.
In the first routine check, Lauren was told by nurses that her hCG levels were very high. That meant there was a strong possibility there was more than one child growing inside her. Lauren and her husband were delighted at the idea that they might have twins or even triplets. They’d struggled for so long to have a child, so the idea of having more than one was too good to be true.
Then the ultrasound came. A staggered doctor studied the screen for a few seconds and delivered the shocking news. The doctor quietly told her, “I count five in there.” Lauren thought it was impossible. The doctor turned back to the screen and then continued, “Wait a minute, I just found a sixth baby.” The confused couple stared at the screen in complete shock.
6. Lauren and David were then faced with a difficult decision. Either they could reduce the number of children or keep them all. The chances that all six babies would survive their pregnancy were low. To have six at the same time brings on a number of dangerous complications. After much deliberation, Lauren and David finally decided to give all six a fighting chance. Their doctors promised to do everything they could to ensure every baby was delivered safely. The hospital went through with a mighty effort to avoid the complications associated with birth.
Monday morning, April 23, 2012, the day arrived. Lauren was on week 30 of her pregnancy, and children born before the 37th week are considered premature. A total of 35 people from the hospital gathered inside the delivery room as the birth got underway. The doctor needed the help of six nurses standing by to receive each baby as it came into the world.
No easy task and certainly one rife with stress. “I was nervous and excited all at once. It was starting to sink in that this was for real. I was gonna have six babies,” Lauren said. It took a total of four minutes to deliver all six: Andrew, Benjamin, Caroline, Leah, Allison, and Levi, all weighed between one and two pounds at birth. “I didn’t expect to see my babies until the next day, but each baby’s team rolled them by me one by one on their way up to the NICU, and I got to touch their little fingers.”
The children weren’t healthy enough to be with their parents for the first few days. At four days old, Alison was the first baby in a stable enough condition to be held. It took the nurse 10 minutes to get all the wires and monitors up so Lauren could hold her. “But what a feeling! And that moment when I got to hold my baby was when I became a mother of sextuplets,” Lauren explained. The first few weeks were crucial in the lives of the babies.
Their parents still worried about complications that could potentially lead to disabilities or, worst case, death. Fortunately, though, all six recovered slowly but surely after many intense weeks of love and care from the staff in the neonatal facility.
The family were able to hold all of their angels. Five of the babies were able to go home at four months old, and little Leia had to stay in the hospital for an additional few weeks as she was the smallest and had struggled for space inside the womb. “She was literally buried under everybody else in the womb,” said Lauren, “so she didn’t get the right nutritional flow, and her brain wasn’t fully developed.
The family has had an abundance of support from loved ones, which has helped them immeasurably when it comes to getting through the hardest and most difficult of periods. Donations from others have also come in, both from family and complete strangers touched by the birth and Lauren’s story. Lauren, of course, has high praise indeed for all the medical staff involved.
Without them, the children may never have been strong enough to go home. My doctor was the best, and I’m forever grateful to him for the level of care I received,” Lauren says. Also, the NICU staff who put in hours upon hours getting our children ready to come home and teaching us the ins and outs of preemie care. So many of these people have a special place in our hearts and family.
Only recently, Andrew, Noah, Benjamin, Luke, Caroline, Grace, Leah, Michelle, Alison, Kate, and Levi Thomas celebrated their sixth birthdays. The family has adapted to a newer, more full-on way of life. “I call it semi-controlled chaos,” Lauren told Today. “We had to get very scheduled and very structured and organized, especially in the first year.”
The boys Andrew, Benjamin, and Levi, and two of the girls, Alison and Caroline, are perfectly healthy today. Leah, meanwhile, has had things a bit tougher as a result of her brain not being fully developed prior to birth. She probably needed to be careful by her parents for a long time to come. That said, she has started school along with her siblings. She goes to general preschool for children with disabilities, but she always gives a hundred percent and laughs all the time. “She’s our sunshine,” Lauren said.
What an incredible story!
