SIXTEEN BABIES AT ONCE?! OH MY!

Had a weird dream when I finally could get to sleep - no idea about this one. I can bet part of it is from Chinese New Year (shark's fin soup!), Korey having to work a lot, my asking Jen where Dawn was (out with Eni?), and Chinese New Year / the Super Bowl in general.


My friends and I had to help this poor woman figure out what was wrong with her. She knew she was pregnant, but wondered why she kept getting noticeably bigger with each passing day. We consulted a doctor, who said that there wasn't much we could do for her - she would die soon without an expensive operation. Horrified at this news, we sought other opinions from the highest in the land - every one of them returned the same verdict. After we found someone willing to do the operation for free, we requested attendance at the event. Lo and behold, the woman had SIXTEEN fetuses inside her! We marveled that it was one more than the current world record for quindecaplets (15 at a time), and the doctors had medical documents and everything of this extraordinary event. They included souvenir drawings of the position of the fetuses inside her body, rather like a sketch of multiple heads with numbers on them. (like the legends accompanying large groups depicting a sketch of the picture, plus a number on each head - with an indicator as to which number goes with which name - I hope I'm explaining this okay!)

After that, it was time to go to a ball pit, kinda like the ones they (used to?) have at the Richmond Ikea. (I played there till I was past eight!) We knew we weren't supposed to let my parents know that K was there, so we made up all sorts of inventive elaborate schemes. Somehow, the ball pit was connected to a large room where the Super Bowl was going on. We had lots of chips and snacks - by the time my mom did know that K was around, she didn't mind at all. Strange, but good for us! She even baked K some apple pie - how sweet of her! (we thought she'd FREAK!)

From there, we went to a Chinese restaurant where it was Chinese New Year. We saw Auntie Angela and a whole bunch of church people there. Celebrating this event meant that we had to go through the arcane ritual of jumping on our intricate brown chairs, so we did that. (this would supposedly rid the coming year of an influx of bad spirits and demons) Everyone did that except me and K since we couldn't. By the time I returned from the washroom, K was gone! I asked a 50-year-old brown-haired waitress whether she had seen him, since Eni had taken his place at the table. Turns out she was looking after the kids, and had seen him rush out quite suddenly... he told her to tell me that he was on his way to work. The Caller ID on my phone showed that he had tried to call me, but was unsuccessful. I slowly woke up from the dream, realizing that my boyfriend was (in reality) still here in town, even if only for a few more hours... that was very comforting! Gotta see what the plans are for today - I hear they involve sushi, beds, mattresses, and maybe Ikea!

Various random observations / memories about kids, Wikipedia, and multiple births

I remember kids in elementary school named Aura, Mitchell, and Sebastian. Wonder what they're doing now, heh. (I also remember a counsellor I had named Peggy, and a kid at the pool named Larisa)

After reading Facts About Multiples some more this afternoon, I've come to the conclusion that I'd definitely NOT like to have septuplets / octuplets / nonuplets / decaplets / undecaplets / duodecaplets / tridecaplets / quadecaplets / quindecaplets! (that's 7 to 15 babies / fetuses at a time!)

I've been busy creating new memories sections over the past couple of days... now Facts About Multiples and Wikipedia have been added to my ever-burgeoning list of journal memories! Certain other sections (like Weird Stuff / Corey / Other Convos / Rants / Dreams / Books / Music) have been fleshed out as well... I love my journal upkeep, as well as having the time to do it in the first place! :D

Editing tags, OCDL, multiples

I decided that I was tired of all the "0 uses" on my LJ tags page where those tags were actually used once on previously-filtered entries. Originally, I thought of deleting them... but then I figured I could add those tags to pre-existing entries: one entry for each letter of the alphabet where "0 uses" was found, and one for non-alphabetic characters. Then I also spent some time deleting a bunch of misspelled tags, and tags that weren't even used. I told you that I was OCDL about my journal, even if these mini-projects are a lot of work. :P

I need to check Facts About Multiples soon, since it's recently been updated. That info is gonna rock, haha. (quadruplets, multiple multiples, world lists of quads / quints / conjoined twins... not likely the twins, triplets, sextuplets, septuplets, octuplets, nonuplets, decaplets, and quindecaplets will be updated!)

Facts About Multiples stuff

This whole long post is inspired by a line I was reading just now: "a woman in the USA gives birth to octuplets, nineplets.. or if they can even find a word for it.. 10 kids upwards.. " (and for those of you who are wondering how I can make a long post out of just one line.. that's just me :P) So here's your information.. whether you like it or not! Twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and sextuplets are definitely lesser than these really super births! (all fraught with peril, of course...)

The word for having nine babies at a single birth is nonuplets. Close, but no cigar. :D

They can definitely find a word for ten kids and upwards at a single birth: decaplets (10) / undecaplets (11) / duodecaplets (12) / tridecaplets (13) / quadecaplets (14) / quindecaplets (15)..

This is the information I have for septuplets (7 babies at a single birth) and higher:

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Septuplets (7)

FIRST SETS
A woman named Edith Bonham (who died in 1469) reportedly gave birth to septuplets with none surviving.

The first births of septuplets I have heard of were to Britt Louise Ericson of Sweden in 1964, the Verhaege-Denayer set in 1966 in Belgium, the Cwihielnik's had 4 boys and 3 girls in 1966 in Massachusetts, and the Jusuf's in Ethiopia in 1969. I assume none survived from any of these sets, or many were miscarried.

LIVING SETS
The McCaughey's of Iowa had Kenneth Robert (3lbs 4ozs), Alexis May (2lbs 11ozs), Natalie Sue (2lbs 10ozs), Kelsey Ann (2lbs 5ozs), Brandon James (2lbs 14ozs), Nathan Roy (3lbs 3ozs), and Joel Steven (2lbs 15ozs). The babies were born on November 19, 1997; they were the first US set to survive, and the first set in the world to survive. They were conceived on the fertility drug Metrodin. Nathan and Alexis have cerebral palsy, but both walk with the aid of walkers.

Hasna Mohammed Humair and her husband Abdullah Ibn Mohammed Sammam have 4 boys and 3 girls born in Saudi Arabia on January 14, 1998; named Fahd (boy), Salman (boy), Sultan (boy), and Al-Anoud (boy), Hind (girl), Naif (girl), and Noura (girl) . The mother was told to expect 4 babies and has 6 other children, and was not trying to get pregnant. She had been given a fertility drug to regulate her menstrual cycle. The father has two other wives and nine other children.

A woman in India gave birth to all male septuplets on September 20, 2002. No word on how many survive.

In addition, there is a set of 7 surviving octuplets, born to Usa Nkem Chukwu in December of 1998. See the section on octuplets for more information.

FIRST US SET
The first set ever born in the US where there were survivors, were the Frustaci septuplets. They were born on May 21, 1985; there were 4 boys and 3 girls. Only three survived. They are Patricia Ann, Richard Charles, and Stephen Earl. Christina Elizabeth was stillborn; Bonnie Marie, James Martin, and David Anthony died shortly after birth. The mother Patti later had a set of twins; Jaclyn and Jordan were born on December 21, 1991.

OTHER SETS
A set was born in Pakistan on July 2, 1985; I am not sure if any of the babies survive.

Susan Halton of England gave birth to septuplets (4 girls, 3 boys) on August 15, 1987. Their names were Ben, Leah, Liam, Christy, Erin, Laura, and Kane. The last survivor, Kane (1lb 8ozs), died on August 31, 1987.

A set was born in India on June 4, 1988.

A set was born in Italy on May 20, 1989.. with none surviving.

Lidia Santartia of Italy had 4 girls and 3 boys on October 23, 1992.. with 5 surviving.

Maria Rocio Diaz Carrillo of Mexico had septuplets (5 girls, 2 boys: Fernando Fabian, Dylan Emmanuel, Yuziri Dayanara [girl], Perla Karina, Rocio Astrid, Daniela Abigail, and Yalanda Iris) on January 21, 1997.. with none surviving.

A woman in Saudi Arabia had septuplets (in September 1997) with one surviving.

The Zapata-Smalls of New Jersey miscarried all 7 of her septuplets on January 30, 2000 at 19 weeks due to a bacterial infection that invaded the womb. The babies were all delivered, but were too small to survive. There were 4 girls and 3 boys.

A Saudi Arabian woman from Virginia gave birth to 5 boys and 2 girls (6 surviving) in Washington DC on July 12, 2001; at 28 weeks. The father is Fahad al-Qahtani, the mother has not been named. The babies are Bandar (boy), Naif (boy), Abdallah (boy), Abdulaziz (boy), Sultan (boy), Haifa (girl), and Shamma (girl). One of the babies died in December 2001 of kidney and liver problems. Three others were still in hospital at that time.

Octuplets

The Louis octuplets were born to Usa Nkem Chukwu and her husband Iyke Louis Udobi of Texas. One baby girl was born December 8, 1998; the rest (5 girls, 2 boys) were born December 20. Their names are Ebuka (girl) 1lb 6ozs, Chidi (girl) 1lb 8.4 ozs, Echerem (girl) 1lb 9.7ozs, Chima (girl) 1lb 7.5ozs, Odera (girl) 10.3ozs, Ikem (boy) 1lb, Jioke (boy) 1lb 10ozs, and Gorom (girl) 1lb 7ozs. The smallest of the Louis babies, Odera, died December 27, 1998. They have a younger sibling (Favor) born in 2002.

An Italian woman, Mariella Mazzara Pirerra, gave birth to octuplets, with four (3 girls, 1 boy) currently surviving. She gave birth to one, a girl named Margherita (died October 10), on September 13, 2000.. and Michele (boy), Angelo Gabriele (boy; died September 17), Cristina (died September 18), Girolamo (boy; died September 20), Rosa Maria, Marta, and Connie on September 17th.

There has been only nine other births of octuplets; none where all 8 babies survived:

A set was born in Mexico (4 girls, 4 boys) on December 3, 1967.. but none survived.
Katerina Zerbini of Greece had octuplets on July 9, 1977; 5 girls and 3 boys.. all of whom died within 3 days of birth.
There are 2 surviving octuplets that were born in Italy to the Chianese family on August 16, 1979. The two surviving girls (of 5 girls, 3 boys) are Silvana and Anna. Valentina was the last girl to die, and two boys were named Luca and Francesco. The family had conceived and lost a set of sextuplets before this.
A Turkish woman, Sevil Capan, gave birth to octuplets (5 boys, 3 girls) on December 20, 1985.. but all 8 died within 3 days.
Rosario Clavijo (of Huelva, Spain) had octuplets on December 5, 1996.. with 6 (4 boys, 2 girls) surviving. Their names are David, Angel (boy), Miguel, Andres, Belen (girl) and Blanca.
Mandy Allwood, of England, was pregnant with octuplets (6 boys, 2 girls) in 1996. The first three were boys born on September 30 at only 19 weeks. The other five (3 boys and 2 girls) were born on October 2. None survived.

Octuplets were also recorded in Australia (1971), in Greece (1977), and in Salvador (1996).

A woman in Alaska was pregnant with octuplets in 1985, and was reduced to twins.

Nonuplets

A 29-year-old woman in Malaysia gave birth to nonuplets on March 26, 1999.. but none of the 5 boys and 4 girls survived more than 6 hours. The babies were named Adam, Nuh (boy), Idris (boy), Soleh (boy), Hud, Aishah (girl), Khadijah (girl), Fatimah (girl), and Umi Kalsom (girl). The mother, Zurina Mat Saad, had been using fertility drugs and was told she was having sextuplets before she delivered the nine babies at 21 weeks.

Mrs. Geraldine Broderick of Australia had nonuplets on June 13, 1971. There were 5 boys and 4 girls. Two males were stillborn, and baby Richard (12 ozs) lived 6 days. None survived.

There were also nonuplets reported in Philadelphia on May 29, 1972 with none surviving; England in 1976 (none survived); in Bangladesh on May 11, 1977 to a 30-year-old mother (none survived); and Italy in 1979. (this might actually be the Chianese family who had octuplets)

A Sudanese woman is pregnant with nonuplets. She is 2 months along as of July 2002, and is currently in a Saudi Arabian hospital.

Decaplets (10), Undecaplets (11), Duodecaplets (12), Tridecaplets (13), Quadecaplets (14), Quindecaplets (15) +

The highest number of babies reported at a single birth were decaplets (10) to a woman in Brazil on April 22, 1946. There were two boys and eight girls, but it wasn't listed how many (if any) survived. There were also decaplets reported in Spain in 1924; and in China on May 12, 1936.

A woman named Zoe Efsthatiou of Cyprus was 23 at the time she conceived 11 babies in 1996 after using fertility drugs. She elected to undergo selective reduction and reduce to 4. I am not sure of the outcome.

In 1988, a woman in Switzerland miscarried 12 fetuses.

Quindecaplets (15) were reportedly removed from the womb of a 35-year-old woman in Rome on July 22, 1971. The fetuses were 10 girls and 5 boys. Fertility drugs were responsible.
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There.. hope that answers everything. ;)

(note: all info mostly taken from the "septuplets and higher" link of Facts About Multiples)