‘After 2 Boys, I Wanted To Try For A Girl – and Ended Up With Quintuplets’
After being parents to two beautiful children 7 and 2, Megan and husband Joshua decided to try again for a baby girl. While most of us only give birth to one baby, she became pregnant with quintuplets. There is no doubt that pregnancy is a beautiful experience that she will remember for the rest of the life. But it wasn’t always easy.
As Megan suffers from polycystic ovary syndrome – she cannot ovulate – she had to undergo fertility treatments in order to have a child. Luckily, she didn’t need much help. Megan says she fell pregnant before start intrauterine insemination (IUI). IUI is a commonly used fertility treatment in which sperm is implanted in a woman’s uterus and has no problems conceiving.
“Once, when we found out that she is pregnant, it was a surprise for us. We had already found out we were having five babies, but nothing could have prepared us for it. After we found out I was pregnant with quintuplets, we went for an ultrasound. At first I felt weird and thought I couldn’t be pregnant because I’d never ovulated alone.”
“After the ultrasound, I told my husband that I didn’t need time to freak out because I have five babies, so I sat in a corner and cried for half an hour. I was shocked by the ultrasound technician, afraid that they would hurt me, shaking (I say shaking because the ultrasound told me I had five babies). They were specifically told that it was unlikely all 5 babies would live as they could only locate a single heartbeat. They returned a week later and saw there were five heartbeats.”
Megan remembers that she couldn’t do simple tasks without a break. There is a huge difference to be pregnant with five babies and to be pregnant with one baby.
Megan was 32 weeks pregnant when doctors noticed a sharp rise in her blood pressure. When she was admitted to Fargo Hospital in Sanford, she delivered her five premature babies by C-section. She remembers that it seemed quick and easy for the babies to be born within four minutes of each other. Allison 1.5kg, Adam 1.82kg, Madison 1.53kg, Emma 1.6kg and Chloe 1.4kg.
It took much longer for my bleeding to stop by itself and for me to sew it up than it did for the babies. The doctor warned me that I might need a blood transfusion, but I recovered. I was released after 3 days.
She was held for three weeks after the baby was born. “After a week and a half, I was at the point where I could stop taking painkillers and was not complaining about recovery.” Neither of the babies had complications.
Megan and Joshua are proud parents to seven beautiful children.
Families of nine are not as easy as you might imagine. It’s a learning curve and a lot of adjustments have to be made. My husband and I had 24 hours to feed each other in the first few days.
Joshua and Meganve had to get everything in shape, including their car. “We were looking for a bigger vehicle, but we couldn’t find a perfect solution. We looked at eight seats, but now we need nine, so we started looking at larger commercial vehicles.”
Helen’s Facebook fundraiser appears to be over. Living with five babies is not easy or affordable. We wish the whole family all the best.