Nothing can prepare a mother for sextuplets. And that’s not necessarily bad, said Jenny Masche.
“If somebody had told me all that I was going to go through — it’s a good thing you don’t know what is coming, because it’s all very overwhelming,” the glowing mother told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Monday from Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, where she is recovering from complications associated with the births.
The babies, still just two weeks old, are all doing fine, breathing “room air” and being fed through tubes. And Jenny Masche showed no signs of the heart failure she suffered immediately after the Caesarian deliveries. “I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I didn’t know what was going on. It was very scary.”
The heart problems were related to a blood clot in her leg discovered the day before she gave birth and to the enormous volume of blood her system had built up because of her multiple pregnancy. Her blood pressure was also severely elevated.
“I’m healing a little bit every day,” she said. “It’s getting better. It’s been a long road.”
She said she doesn’t remember much about the delivery.
‘Everything got dim’
“I remember just being terrified and praying that God would save me and that’s about it,” she told Vieira. The complications, she said, came shortly after the delivery. “I just remember them taking me to the recovery room and everything got dim, and I just couldn’t breathe,” she recalled, admitting to being “terrified ... but God is good, and I’m here and on the road to recovery.”
A day before Masche gave birth, another woman, Brianna Morrison, also gave birth to sextuplets in Minneapolis, three of whom died shortly after birth.
The Masche sextuplets are all expected to thrive, even though it will be at least a month before they can be fed orally and perhaps longer before they leave the hospital. (Currently, the babies are getting breast milk from Jenny and milk banks as well as formula through gastric tubes inserted through their nasal passages.) Her doctors credit their health to her ability to carry them for 30 weeks.
In a taped segment, her husband, Bryan, says, “It’s an absolute miracle. It really is.” The parents are shown with their brood, already distinguishing the tiny infants’ personalities.
“Grant is the big bruiser,” Bryan declared. “He’s going to be the protector of everybody.”
Savannah is the smallest – but “she’s a little firecracker.”
Blake is always sleeping. Cole is always awake.
The other two babies are Molly and Bailey.
‘Jenny did all the hard work’
All are doing great, said neonatologist Dr. Jordan Leonard, who said that only Cole has a slight complication caused by an abnormal connection between his bowel and umbilical chord that is seen in about two percent of all births and is unrelated to the multiple pregnancy. Sometime within the next month, a routine surgical procedure should fix that.
“Jenny did all the hard work,” said Leonard. “We got the benefit of Jenny carrying these babies as long as she did, which made our job easier.
“They’re wonderful,” said Bryan in a taped segment. He’s since left on a business trip, figuring it’s better to tend to that now, while the babies are in the hospital, because there won’t be much time when they come home.
“They’re perfect.”
“It’s unbelievable that they’re all mine,” Jenny told Vieira. “They’re precious. They’re growing every day. We’re all blessed.”