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printer-friendly version| Five Little Bundles of Joy - Gretchen Slaughter Delivers Quintuplets After Weight Loss Surgery by Ronda Einbinder - July 2006 As soon as she gave birth, Gretchen Slaughter could see the unique personalities of each of her five babies?Grace, Faith, Hope, Elijah and Noah. Previously unable to conceive due to her 320-pound weight, Gretchen began trying to conceive almost immediately after her weight loss surgery. Four weeks after intrauterine insemination, and two years after the surgery, Gretchen was finally pregnant. ?My mom told me I was six months old when I went on my first diet,? explained Gretchen, taking a break from feedings. ?I was just heavy. I laugh and call it the fat gene. I am six feet tall and was always taller and bigger than all of the kids at school.? Gretchen?s height and weight never deterred her from school activities. ?I was always in athletics,? Gretchen said. ?That was the funny thing: I was not a lazy person. I participated in every sport that I could play in high school. I excelled in athletics. I was not fat because I was lazy and sat around.?  After graduating from high school in Lewisburg, Ohio, Gretchen traveled six hours from home to attend Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, a college she chose due to its affiliation with her hometown church. ?My first year in college was tough,? Gretchen recalled. ?I did not have the greatest self-esteem. I not only went away to college, but I was living in a different state.? It was at Lee University that Gretchen befriended Georgia native David Slaughter. The couple married in 2001, Gretchen?s junior year. Having a family was a high priority for Gretchen and David, and they tried to become pregnant from the start of the marriage, but Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) left her unable to conceive. Gretchen chose to pursue weight loss surgery in an effort to overcome PCOS and Type 2 diabetes. ?The doctor had a waiting list a mile long. So when he had an opening date over spring break my senior year, I decided to take it.? Jack Rutledge, MD, FACS, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, performed Gretchen?s laparoscopic Roux-en-Y in March 2003. ?Everything just worked out so well. The surgeon was wonderful,? Gretchen explained. And her surgery did not interfere with her education: ?I had some really great teachers who were understanding and worked with me after the surgery.? By that time, Gretchen?s parents had moved from Lewisburg to New Matamoras, Ohio, where Gretchen?s father was the pastor of the local church. David and Gretchen decided to make New Matamoras their home after graduating from college. They settled in nicely, David working long hours as a caregiver for mentally handicapped adults and Gretchen assisting her father with the church. But having a child still weighed heavily on their minds. ?I tried oral medications to stimulate ovulation and nothing ever happened,? Gretchen said. ?Finally, after two and a half years, my infertility specialist said we should try intrauterine insemination, and if that didn?t work she was planning on sending me to the closest large town, which is Columbus.? The insemination worked, and a week and a half later Gretchen and David were told they were pregnant. They would find out later that they were expecting quintuplets. ?I was actually calm about finding out,? Gretchen said. ?I was just happy to be pregnant. David was really excited. We laugh now because we always teased each other about having six babies.? Almost from the start of the pregnancy, Gretchen was placed on bedrest. The only movement allowed her was in a wheelchair. ?Once the doctor saw the five heartbeats he put me on bedrest, and I had to go to Columbus for my regular pregnancy exams,? Gretchen said. ?The hospital here was not equipped to handle my situation.? When Gretchen?s pregnancy reached 24 weeks, she went into pre-term labor and began having contractions. ?Because I live three hours from Columbus, I had to stay in a hotel with my mom for six weeks so I could be near the hospital,? she explained. The daytime hospital staff began practice drills in preparation for this rare birth. ?They only ran drills during daytime shifts because they thought the birth would be planned and I would come in for the C-section,? Gretchen said. As Gretchen soon discovered, nothing in motherhood goes as planned. Gretchen was brought into the hospital in the middle of the night when her kidneys began failing due to the excess fluids in her body. ?The hospital staff was not prepared, so it was chaos,? Gretchen said. ?Everyone was out making phone calls. They were calling the anesthesiologists and the pediatricians, because each baby had its own medical team.? On November 8, 2005 Gretchen and David welcomed in their five screaming bundles of joy. Hope was the smallest, weighing two pounds. ?She was the littlest one and the first one of the babies on room air with no oxygen within hours of the birth,? Gretchen said. Then there was Grace, weighing two pounds, ten ounces. ?She liked to be left alone,? Gretchen said. ?She was on the bottom in my stomach and she did not move the whole time. She held the others up so she was now enjoying her time to herself.? Then Noah arrived, the smaller of the two boys, weighing 2 pounds 12 ounces. ?He would just roll his big eyes like a little puppy dog,? Gretchen said. ?He was so sweet you just wanted to hug him.? Elijah came in only two ounces larger than his brother, with his jaw looking strong. ?He has this strong presence about him,? she explained. And the biggest baby of them all was Faith, weighing 3 pounds 2 ounces. ?She always had her eyes open in the Isolette,? she said. ?If you were standing next to her, she always had her eyes on you. We call her Ms. Social.? Gretchen was relieved to know that her babies were all healthy despite her weight loss surgery. ?Here I had five really big babies after having gastric bypass,? she said. ?When I was pregnant I worried that I would get heavy because I would get used to eating so much.? At the time of delivery, Gretchen weighed 210 pounds, gaining only 60 pounds during the entire pregnancy. ?The first day I was able to eat I found that I had my old appetite back,? Gretchen explained. ?I was back to eating smaller portions and my body adjusted. Because the hospital had never had a weight loss surgery patient give birth to quintuplets, I was an experiment.? Gretchen?s doctor put her on double vitamins because he was not sure what her body would require. For the first month, Gretchen breastfed the babies. ?I had to make two trips to the emergency room because I became dehydrated,? she said. ?The nutritionist at the hospital approached me and said because I had weight loss surgery my body was not able to breastfeed because it knew I had five babies and was producing more milk than a woman who delivered one baby. I was unable to get enough protein and nutrients, so I had to stop.?  Gretchen now weighs 145 pounds and is keeping very busy with her five new additions. ?I sleep very little, and my mom, dad and husband help out,? she said. ?My mom and dad helped full-time right after the birth, since my husband works long hours.?Four months after the babies? birth, Gretchen was diagnosed with Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, Lupus and Sjögren?s syndrome. ?These problems have caused me much pain in my joints,? Gretchen explained. ?It has also caused my white blood cells to be low, making me very fatigued. I have to be careful with my activities and my family helps me lift and carry the babies when I am weak. We are having faith that the diseases will go into remission.? Gretchen and David realized they needed more help, so they packed up their family and, along with Gretchen?s parents, moved to Huber Heights, Ohio, to be closer to extended family members who now help with the care of the babies. ?My mom and I were exhausted, and the healthcare in New Matamoras was awful for the babies, so we were driving three hours to Columbus,? Gretchen said. ?My father retired, so he is now a full-time grandpa and my husband is temping while looking for employment.? With the love and support of her husband, parents and extended family members, Gretchen has acclimated to her new life. She is grateful for the weight loss surgery that enabled her to be called ?Mom.? |