When people start thinking about having a family, they may think of all the wonderful things they’ll do with their boy or girl. They may even begin to develop a hope for one over the other—or at least one of each.
Megan Hulen, from Minot, North Dakota, and her husband Joshua were already parents to Jacob, 7 and Matthew, 2, when they decided to try for one more baby in the hope of having a little girl. Megan gave birth to four daughters and a son in addition to one in September. Even the couple’s doctors are in awe of the fact that they are now the proud parents of a set of naturally conceived quints.
The mum, who has polycystic ovary syndrome meaning that she doesn’t naturally ovulate, had previously relied on fertility drugs and IUI when conceiving.
So couple were astounded to learn they had conceived the quints through natural ovulation.
“I started to feel really weird and I thought, surely there’s no way I could be pregnant because I never actually ovulated on my own.
The couple went in for an ultrasound at six weeks where they were initially told that only one heartbeat was present and it was unlikely that all five would be viable.
Megan said: “We went back in a week later and saw five heartbeats.
“I was so shocked – the ultrasound technician worried they were hurting me because I was shaking and I said ‘I’m shaking because you’ve told me I’m having five babies.’
They knew that they were risking having three boys, but they were okay with that! They just had to try.
While most multiples are developed via IVF, Megan and Joshua didn’t take that route, making the discovery even more outrageous.
“Pretty shocking. Exciting and terrifying all at once, I’d say,” Joshua said.
“The birth was not what I expected it to be,” she recalled. “I was so shocked because the babies were all born within four minutes of each other. It was boom boom boom and all the babies were out. It actually took a lot longer to get my bleeding sorted and me stitched up than it did to get the babies out,” she continued.
By 2:20 am all five babies were born. Did they at least get their wish of having a girl? Yep—four of them! Chloe, Emma, Allison, Madison, and one boy named Adam, were born on September 2, 2020, at 32 weeks. That makes the pregnancy a one in 43 million chance. On top of that, they were the first couple to have quintuplets in the state of North Dakota!
“It’s miraculous but overwhelming all at the same time,” Joshua said.
Megan and Joshua weren’t even sure that the quintuplets were going to make it at one point.
“They’re not viable, or one or two vanish, or those types of things happen,” Megan said.
“And so we thought, ‘OK, there’s not going to be five. There’s going to be two, three, or something. We went back after a week, and there were five heartbeats.”
Even though it was completely unexpected, the two couldn’t be happier or more grateful.
“We’re super excited and happy to have a big family. It’s bigger than what we anticipated, but we’re blessed, and we’re happy about it.”
“And at some point in the future, when we get to sleep again, we’ll be thankful for that too,” Joshua continued.
What would you do if you tried for one more baby and ended up with five more?