The couple was quite disappointed when it turned out to be a miscarriage after they had reproductive issues and were expecting twins. But they had subsequent miscarriages, and eventually Chad and Amy Kempel were able to have two healthy children.
As happy as they were, they wanted a few more kids. They decide to get pregnant again, Amy quickly becomes pregnant as planned and this time with more children than they imagined. 5, at the same time. That’s right. Quintuplets.
He adds: “In that moment there when the ultrasound shows up on the screen. Every couple should be happy about that moment. Not have their heads go exactly where our heads went. Which was like, oh no, this isn’t gonna end well.”
Amy shares: “I was just really scared. Then when they said I think there’s another heartbeat I burst into tears. I was just sure that we were having another funeral.”
Amy carried her five babies until 27 weeks despite the odds. Then, for medical reasons, the physicians had to step in. Three months early, the quintuplets were delivered through C-section. Before they were ready to go home, they spent 73 days in the NICU.
The couple had conceived using intrauterine insemination, where sperm are inserted into a woman’s uterus near her eggs. Although the family wasn’t expecting to observe five heartbeats, doctors had previously warned that the technique could produce twins or even triplets.
TThe Kempels located a physician in Arizona who had a track record of successfully delivering many high-risk pregnancies. However, Kaiser refused to allow them to leave the network, claiming that its medical staff was equipped to handle the delivery. Since then, the couple had been praying for the best.
Born boy, girl, boy, girl, boy — Lincoln, Noelle, Grayson, Gabriella and Preston — the quints joined an exclusive club. Just 24 sets of quintuplets were born in the entire United States in 2015.
