After years of trying to become pregnant and two miscarriages, Jenny and Bryan Masche decided to start fertility treatments.
The Arizona couple was surprised and happy to learn last year that Jenny Masche, 32, was once again expecting after her very first artificial insemination — a relatively inexpensive and simple procedure.
But when the ultrasounds started to come in and the couple's doctor began seeing a clearer picture, the couple realized that their dream of a large family could be realized sooner than they had hoped.
Jenny Masche is pregnant with sextuplets.
"It is very surreal. And it is very hard to imagine there are six babies growing in me," Jenny Masche told TODAY Friday from her hospital bed in Phoenix.
Doctors say mother and babies are doing well at 24 weeks, and expect her to deliver at 28 weeks, based on the babies' development. (34 weeks is considered full-term.) Jenny Masche said she hopes to be able to hang on another seven or eight weeks before delivering the infants as the more time they spend in the womb the better.
In the meantime, Bryan Masche, 28, is traveling back and forth two hours each way from Lake Havasu City to the hospital in Phoenix where his wife is on bed rest.
A pharmaceutical company representative based at home, he is spending his spare time putting together cribs and trying to figure how eight people are going to live in one small house.
"I don't think you can really prepare to have six kids and bring six kids home at one time," the father-to-be told TODAY host Meredith Vieira. "You can make your best effort, but I don't know how anyone can do that."
Three shy of a baseball team
The Masches plan to expand their house and add on two bathrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. Jenny is expecting three of each.
"We used to tease that we are going to have a baseball team. We're not quite there, thank God," Jenny Masche said.
"I don't know if we'll have those three to make the baseball team," her husband added. "I think we're done after this."
The couple has yet to decide on names. The babies are currently referred to as A, B, C, D, E and F so doctors can tell them apart.
"We're working on it. It's kind of hard," Jenny said "You've got come up with six names that are your favorite. You don't want to get some babies' names that you love, and some babies' names that you are like, 'Oh, I couldn't think of anything else.' "
Visit the family's web site at www.maschemiracles.com.