Megan and Joshua Hulen already had Jacob, 7, and Matthew, 2, when they chose to try for a third child with the hopes of adding a young girl to their family. That girl — and three others – were ᴀᴘᴘʀᴇʜᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ. And then there was another boy. Megan has the ᴘᴏʟʏᴄʏsᴛɪᴄ ᴏᴠᴀʀɪᴀɴ sʏɴᴅʀᴏᴍᴇ, which means she doesn’t ovulate naturally, so she’s had to rely on fertility medications and IUI in the past to ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇ. The couple from Minot, North Dakota, was taken aback when they discovered they had ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇd the quints through spontaneous ᴏᴠᴜʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. “We had chosen to try again for a daughter, and I fell pregnant before we even got a chance to start IUI,” she told Fabulous Digital.
“I began to feel strange, and I reasoned that there was no way I could be pregnant because I had never ovulated on my own.” But the one time I did, we discovered we were pregnant, which was a sʜᴏᴄᴋ in and of itself. But then we discovered out we were carrying five babies, something no one could have predicted.” When the couple went in for an ultrasound at six weeks, they were told that just one heartbeat was present and that all five would be unlikely to survive.
“We went back in a week later and saw five heartbeats,” Megan added. I was so surprised that the ultrasound technician was concerned that I was in ᴘᴀɪɴ because I was trembling, and I explained that I was sʜᴀᴋɪɴɢ because you had informed me I was carrying five babies. I told my husband I couldn’t go home after the ultrasound because I needed time away from the kids to stress out, so we went to his office and I sat in the corner and wept for almost an hour.” Despite the fact that Megan was taken aback by the news, she claims that a prior pregnancy had taught her to be calm.
Putting emotions aside, Megan discovered that carrying one baby vs five was a significant difference. Megan was perplexed by the birth’s quickness and easiness, despite the fact that the pregnancy had been a long slog. After physicians observed a spike in her ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ pressure at 32 weeks, she was taken to Fargo Hospital in Sanford, and the couple welcomed the quintuplets through ᴄ-sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ on September 2. Allison weighed 3 pounds 5.6 ounces, Adam 4 pounds 0.2 ounces, Madison 3 pounds 6 ounces, Emma 3 pounds 10.9 ounces, and Chloe 3 pounds 3.5 ounces when they were delivered at 2:20 a.m.
Megan was discharged three days after giving birth, despite physicians’ warnings that she could need a ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴛʀᴀɴsꜰᴜsɪᴏɴ owing to several delivery difficulties. The kids were delivered without problems, although they were preterm at 32 weeks and were only held in the NICU for three weeks. The couple is now adjusting to life at home with their quints, acknowledging that it has been a learning experience. Megan and Joshua, on the other hand, have figured out a method for the quints, but they could never have anticipated the amount of labor required.
Megan, who is usually extremely busy, wakes up around 3 a.m. for a feed and then again at 7 a.m. before attempting to get some rest between 7:30 and 8 a.m. when the older boys get up. She then begins educating Jacob before moving on to Matthew’s medicine preparation and administration. One or two of the infants will “start to fuss” once Matthew is taken care of, and Megan will begin her military-style feeding operation. Megan and Joshua are being forced to upscale in all areas of their lives now that they have a family of nine. While the parents may be taking their time adjusting, one member of the family has taken to life with quints like a duck to water.
In other real-life news, this is what it takes to outfit 22 children as Britain’s largest family displays their massive Primark loot. And this woman was expecting surrogate twins when her parents abruptly left. Plus, one mother, who didn’t want children at first, now assigns numbers to her 11 children so she can keep track of them.
