More than they imagined

CREVE COEUR, Mo. (AP) — Ron and Tina Otten knew they could have more than one baby this time. Never in their wildest dreams, though, did they think they would be raising sextuplets.

The Granite City, Ill., couple are deep into their first week as parents of six babies, three boys and three girls. Jacob, Joshua, Tyler, Isabella, Madison and Rileigh were born Friday at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in this St. Louis suburb.

The Otten Six arrived 10 weeks early, after their mother spent nearly two months in the hospital on bed rest. They are expected to spend another six weeks in neonatal intensive care.

Some are doing better than others, but the prognosis for all of them is good, said neonatologist Mike Maurer. Their weights range from 2 to 3 pounds.

“They’re vigorous kids,” Dr. Maurer said.

Like sisters Hannah, 4, and 2-year-old Abigail, the Otten Six were conceived with the help of the fertility drug Gonadotropins.

“They told us we could have multiple births,” Mrs. Otten said in an interview from her hospital bed. “We never imagined six.”

The Ottens learned last fall that they were having sextuplets, though ultrasounds suggested they should expect four boys and two girls. The couple went into the delivery room with six baby names chosen — only to find that one of the boys was a girl.

“I said they should put the word ’oops’ in her name,” Johnnie Reckert, Mrs. Otten’s father, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Granite City has embraced the Ottens, offering to help with the children and fixing up a five-bedroom house for the young family. Mrs. Otten, 29, will continue to be a stay-at-home mom. Mr. Otten, 33, is an assembler at a Ford plant.

The Ottens say their hopes and wishes are like those of most other parents: to provide for their brood and to live as normal a life as possible, “considering the circumstances.”