It started with fertility challenges and then when they were pregnant with twins it ended up being a miscarriage which was very disappointing to the couple. Followed by other miscarriages. Chad and Amy Kempel were finally able to have two healthy children.
As happy as they were, they wanted a few more kids. Eventually, Amy was pregnant again and this time with more children than they imagined. 5, at one 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.”
Despite the odds, Amy carried her 5 babies to 27 weeks. At which point the doctors needed to intervene for medical reasons. The quintuplets were delivered by C-section 3 months early. They spent 73 days in the NICU until they were ready to go home.
The couple had conceived using intrauterine insemination, where sperm are inserted into a woman’s uterus near her eggs. Doctors had warned the process could result in twins or even triplets, but the family didn’t expect to see five heartbeats.
The Kempels found a doctor in Arizona with a history of successfully delivering high-risk multiple babies. But Kaiser declined to let them go out of network, saying its doctors were prepared to handle the birth. 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.
