Alabama couple Courtney and Eric Waldrop got the shock of their lives when, after trying for one more baby after having three, they found out they were expecting with sextuplets.
In a matter of minutes, Courtney and Eric Waldrop, 35, became the parents of nine kids on Monday after giving birth to sextuplets, three boys and three girls – adding to their three older sons.
The babies were born at just under 30 weeks and weigh less than 3 pounds each. It took a team of nearly 40 medical specialists to deliver the newborns via C-section at Huntsville Hospital for Women and Children.
Eric and Courtney, who met each other in eighth grade and have been together for 22 years, agree that having nine children has strengthened their relationship.
The boys’ names are Tag, Layke and Blu, and the girls’ names are Rivers, Rawlings and Rayne.
Courtney Waldrop said the most difficult part of her high-risk pregnancy was not being able to give her three older kids the amount of attention they were used to.
“It was really nothing else than just the challenge of trying to be still a good mom for them and grow these six babies and get them where they needed to be,” she said during a press conference on Thursday.
In a Facebook post, she recounted the birth, writing, “They’re oh so very little but absolutely perfect!! May take a few more days for me to recover. But it was all worth it.”
Courtney Neill Williams, a friend who photographed the birth that the couple’s goal was to make it to 28 weeks. On Monday — two days before she would have hit the 30-week mark, Waldrop began having contractions at around 3 a.m. She had a scheduled C-section later that day.
“From the first baby to the last baby, it took four minutes. It was very quick and fast,” said Neill Williams. “It was just so surreal. When the first girl was born, Courtney’s husband leaned and kissed her on the forehead and said, ‘You’ve got your first little girl.’ He was just very comforting to her and held her hand the whole time.”
The couple said that they feel “truly blessed” to have been able to have so many children.
Eric and Courtney, who met each other in eighth grade and have been together for 22 years, agree that having nine children has strengthened their relationship.
“If you would have asked me the way I felt when I found out we were having six babies, I guess I just thought it was going to be an impossible situation,” Eric said. “I’m not saying it’s not hard, but you just kind of adapt and make it work. It’s the new normal, how crazy it is, and I just jump right in after I come home from work and before you know it, it’s midnight.
