Sextuplet Surprise — Couple Planning Fourth Child End Up Welcoming Six Kids

Jan 29, 2020 by apost team

Giving birth to multiple children is not easy. A single pregnancy can already be hard on a mother-to-be, but being pregnant with more than one baby is not only challenging but dangerous for both mother and child.

As technology and medical care has improved over the years, many mothers are able to sustain and give birth to multiple children. Twins are the most common multiples, followed by triplets but naturally having more than three children at once is extremely rare.

With fertility treatment, however, cases of quadruplets, quintuplets and sextuplets have risen. Many women who have so many babies at once receive a lot of media attention and sometimes even get their own show. Some examples include shows like "Jon & Kate Plus 8," "Quints By Surprise," and the focus of this Apost story, "Sweet Home Sextuplets,"

Back in 2016, Courtney and Eric Waldrop were just a regular couple living a regular life. The happy duo already had three children together, and they decided that adding one more to the bundle of joy would equal familial perfection.

However, they didn't realize that expecting number four would also mean getting ready for five, six, seven, eight, and nine. Now, when the Waldrop family arrives, you can expect a portable daycare to be in tow. The Waldrops did not go through an easy time when they realized that Courtney was expecting sextuplets in 2017, and their entire journey to becoming parents of nine kids was chronicled on their show. 

Read on to learn more about the Waldrop family and their nine beautiful kids. 

Eric and Courtney have a sweet love story; the lovebirds met when they were just young eighth-graders and have been together ever since according to InTouch. "So it’s kind of like one of those, I guess you could say, not high-school sweethearts, junior-high sweethearts." Courtney said, and added, "I really would call it love at first sight." They got engaged while attending college and married in 2004. 

According to InTouch, Courtney conceived her first son, Saylor, without any problems and had a healthy pregnancy. However, as the couple tried to have more kids, Courtney, unfortunately, suffered a miscarriage. The Waldrops soon found out that Courtney suffered from a clotting disorder and were told to turn to fertility treatment. Thankfully, Courtney was able to conceive her twins, Wales and Bridge, and had a healthy delivery.

Courtney and Eric decided they wanted to have one more child to complete their family. Their attempt at naturally having a baby once again resulted in a miscarriage, so Courtney was referred to fertility treatments once more. This resulted in her getting surprisingly pregnant with sextuplets! 

"I was scared to death," Courtney told PEOPLE in 2017. "I’m a smaller framed girl, and my first thoughts were on how I was going to successfully get six kids here without something happening to them or me. There was a lot of fear. We didn’t know what to do or think."

There were a lot of risks involved with being pregnant with sextuplets and the doctors warned the parents about the potential hazards and risks. However, Eric and Courtney decided to let faith guide them through their journey. 

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The kids, three boys and three girls, arrived in December 2017 and they ranged in weight from "2 lbs. and 4 oz. to 2 lbs. and 14 oz." with all six delivered by Cesarean section. The babies were born at just under 30 weeks gestation according to PEOPLE and were named Blu, Layke, Tag, Rawlings, Rayne, and Rivers.

With a nine-year-old boy alongside five-year-old twins, having one more baby seemed completely manageable. Unfortunately, sleep deprivation is not a joke, and it can already be a nightmare with only one restless child. Six is a totally different ballgame. In fact, when asked how they are coping with their newly expanded parental roles, Eric candidly exclaimed, "It's a different kind of exhaustion now. They're doing great even in those moments where we think we're going to lose our minds," according to TODAY.

After about four months of sleeplessness, the infants reportedly finally started to let Courtney and Eric get a little shut-eye. In retrospect, the father of nine still feels a sense of disbelief at times. He summarized his feelings regarding the extra bundles of joy in a way that we can all sympathize: "I just thought it was going to be an impossible situation."

Meanwhile, Courtney was a beacon of optimism throughout the miraculous and harrowing process. When addressing her marriage, she happily said, "Honestly, I would say that our relationship is stronger now than ever."

Their show "Sweet Home Sextuplets" first aired on TLC in 2018 and was met with a lot of interest, which led to another successful season in 2019. The couple announced in July 2021 in a Q&A on Youtube that they would no longer film their family on television. 

What would you have done if your family was to grow so rapidly? Tell us your thoughts, and be sure to pass this on to friends and family as well.