A Texas couple gave birth to a record-breaking set of quintuplets at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix on Tuesday with a combined weight of 21 pounds, 7.2 ounces. The previous record was set in 2003 by a Pennsylvania woman who also gave birth at Banner Good Samaritan.
Rachelle Wilkinson, 31, of Cedar Park, Texas, delivered three girls and two boys.
"They came out and they were just beautiful," said Jayson Wilkinson, the new father.
Doctors reported the mother did suffer some complications with her kidneys, but is doing fine.
The babies meanwhile, are all breathing and eating on their own.
Wilkinson and her husband, Jayson, named the girls Kaydence, born at 8:17 am and weighed 5 lbs, 1.2 ounces, Kassidy, born 8:18 am and weighed 3 lbs, 6 ounces and Kyndall, born 8:19 am and weighing 4 lbs, 2 ounces. The boys' names are Rustin, born 8:18 am and weighed 4 lbs, 15 ounces and Ryder, born at 8:19 am and weighed 3 lbs, 15 ounces.
Four of the infants were being cared for by the Phoenix Children's Hospital's neonatology specialists, while Kassidy was allowed to go to the Well-Baby nursery at Banner Good Samaritan.
Wilkinson is the sixth woman to give birth to quintuplets at Banner Good Samaritan, which has also seen the deliveries of about 74 sets of quadruplets and two sets of sextuplets, including the Masche babies born last month. The hospital said most of the women who gave birth to quadruplets and quintuplets there came to Phoenix from another part of the country.
The Wilkinsons have two other children, Riley, 6, and Kaiya, 4.
After choosing to deliver at Banner Good Samaritan, Rachelle arrived in Arizona in April to be near her physicians and stay with her aunt and uncle in nearby Gilbert.
She was asked to eat 5,000 calories a day in order to provide for the tremendous nutritional needs of her growing babies, the hospital said.
Unlike most multiple moms, Rachelle was able to remain with her family until the 30th week of pregnancy because her condition remained stable as determined by daily contraction readings monitored by her physicians.
As for their immediate plans, the father said he would drive his two children back home.
"Then I'm going to fly back and we're going to fly all of them back with the help of some friends," he said. "We're probably going to assign at least one adult per baby."
Well-wishers can send congratulations and letters of support through the Wilkinsons' Web site, WilkinsonQuints.com.
Quintuplets Births
Wilkinson Quintuplets-Cedar Park, Texas
Wilkinson Quintuplets
