Texas Mother Describes ‘Controlled Chaos’ of Raising Sextuplets

The Perkins sextuplets after birth (Texas Children's Hospital)

A Texas woman recently provided an update on raising sextuplets, years after news of her pregnancy and delivery went viral.

Lauren Perkins, of Houston, gave birth to sextuplets in 2012, but she told the BBC in March that she was “complete shock” and “overwhelmed” when she learned of the rare pregnancy.

Lauren and her husband, David, were vacationing in Nicaragua after they had difficulty conceiving a child.

After expressing their troubles to others, a pastor told her: “Someone up there has big plans for you. I don’t know what, but it will be big,” according to a personal account she wrote on Houston Moms Blog.

“Okay…that was just a strange thing to tell someone,” Perkins said.

Later, they attempted fertility treatment. “So, we did the procedure and the 2 week wait. I got the call…and I was pregnant!!! But the nurse told me my beta levels were quite high, so it’s likely to be multiples. What?! Multiples?! That’s crazy! They wanted more blood work done to double check things,” she said.

When she went in for an ultrasound, the doctor expressed shock and awe. “We knew something was up when we saw the doctor’s jaw drop... he had seen six babies! Our feelings range from excited, overwhelmed, and scared, all at the same time,” she recalled to the Daily Mail.

“I remember talking with my mom before the ultrasound. Did we think it would be twins or triplets? The thought was overwhelming. What would I do with TRIPLETS?! My husband came with me to the ultrasound. I had a list of people to call once we found out how many babies were in there. Not sure how long the doctor stared at the screen, but it seemed like an eternity. I broke the silence, ‘So, how many?’” she said.

The doctor then replied: “I just counted five.”

Then, after Perkins said she couldn’t belive it, he gave her another reason to pause.

“Hold on. I just found a sixth one,” she recalled him saying.

The expecting mother of six babies then told their families, but they thought she was joking.

“Until they saw our faces. No sense of joy and excitement, just fear and worry. The next move was a big one – the decision to reduce the number of babies or keep them all and see what happens. We met with a high risk doctor who also performs reductions. The pros and cons of any decision were explained to us. I don’t think I heard anything positive about having sextuplets. I didn’t know what to do, and I agonized over it for weeks. We consulted family, friends, medical professionals, pastors, and prayed for guidance. After much thought, prayer, crying, and talking, I knew I couldn’t reduce,” according to her account.

Eventually, she made it to 28 weeks, adding that the babies all had a good chance of survival at that point.

However, the next week, Perkins said that it was clear that the babies were experiencing some problems. When she made it to 30 weeks, doctors decided to perform a C-section.

“Andrew Noah, Benjamin Luke, Caroline Grace, Leah Michelle, Allison Kate, and Levi Thomas were all born between 1-2 pounds. 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,” she recalled.

Raising Sextuplets

In the BBC interview, she explained how she raised six babies at the same time.

“I would make up bottles each night for the next 24 hours and set them in the fridge with labels on so everyone knew which baby they were for and at what time,” she told the news outlet. “Friends would sign up to come and do feeding shifts in the middle of the night, they would help with giving the babies baths and doing laundry,” she added.

“We wouldn’t have made it without that generosity,” Lauren reflects of her friends. “They brought us dinner for an entire year!”