How is the life of the woman who gave birth to quintuplets

At the State Pediatric Clinic in Odessa, Ukraine, on June 24, 2016, one of those curious cases of medicine occurred: 37-year-old Oksana Kobelenskaya gave birth to quintuplets. And they are not the result of fertilization. in vitro🇧🇷 Until then, Oksana was an engineer and was on leave to look after her three-year-old daughter, Alice. The interest in the case was so great that she decided to create a page on Instagram in which she talks openly about her experience, shares tips and, of course, publishes photos of her 5 little ones.

O awesome.club accessed the blog of the mother of 6 children, who, in her words, is used to people staring at her family on the streets as if they were “part of a circus”.

Everything was normal, after all it was just an ordinary ultrasound with the gel and the sensor. But when the doctor started looking at the screen and his face abruptly changed, I was terrified. I remember like it was today; he began to count aloud how many “berries” were in my belly and said that for the amount, I should get a house by the sea. I didn’t understand anything, but at that moment I made the decision that I would have 5 children.

No more accurate predictions were made; the doctors just thought about the logistics of how to make a delivery of such proportions. One said that if they weighed more than 900 grams each they would need to be born immediately and the local maternity ward did not have the necessary equipment to conceive so many children at the same time.

At the 31st week I had to have an emergency c-section. Thanks to three doctors, the delivery was successful: Denis was born weighing 1,810 g; Daria, 1,190 g; Vlad, 1750 g; Sasha, 1250 g and David, 1450 g. It all happened so fast and I remember being scared but confident that everything would work out. Five resuscitation teams were organized and extra equipment was brought in from other hospitals. I didn’t have time to see them; the babies were rushed to the neonatal emergency very quickly. As our case was very rare, the authorities were concerned and careful. We got a five-bedroom apartment and the mayor established a financial aid fund for our family, which helped a lot.

The children were fed 8 times a day, every 3 hours with an interval of 10-15 minutes each. Yes, it was complete mass hysteria and I couldn’t do anything. When I finished feeding them, I was already preparing the next meal. My mother and husband saved me. The quintuplets were on a prescribed diet while still in the hospital, and I tried not to change.

At 6 months, babies already had 6 meals a day. I walked with them in the morning and at night they all slept together. Throughout the day, we didn’t put them to sleep; only when they were very sleepy. Otherwise, we let them play. After bathing, around 9 pm, they ate and, after half an hour, went to sleep.

Six months after the children were born, my husband literally took everything and left the house and never came back. But before that, so much had happened, so many fights, that I was ready to file for divorce at the end of 2015. Looking back, even if we only had one child, we would still get divorced.

My mother became my safe haven. She protected me from problems, stress and made me believe that everything would work out. She told friends who knew about our situation, and our apartment became a support center, which received toys, clothes and diapers and where people got information on how to help us.

When I learned that I could have up to two sets of identical twins, I almost freaked out. How could I not confuse them? It took away my peace. When they were born, I was exhausted, but I noticed that there were differences, even if very subtle. The shape of the head and cheeks and the length of the hair were characteristics I looked for to differentiate them.

However, from afar and with them running everywhere, I still get confused. In the beginning, we even tied colored ribbons to them so as not to confuse them. The most difficult thing is to distinguish between the girls; so Dasha remains with a red ribbon on her wrist. My eldest daughter, Alice, also has difficulty knowing who is who. In fact, the brothers themselves are confused. The other day, Dasha was talking to Denis thinking it was Vlad. In the photo, they are in order from left to right: Sasha, Vlad, David, Denis, Dasha and Alice.

There is a pushchair for five children, but I didn’t consider buying it: the seats are in a row. Just imagine: firstly, it does not fit in the trunk and elevators. Second, believe me, the cart is very heavy. Third, if you want to go by car, you need a cargo hold to take you there. Fourth, the seat does not recline; that is, if the children want to sleep, they will not be comfortable. And if the temperature is below 10°C, which is common in our country, babies will not feel comfortable either. That is, zero practicality.

Prepare the pram, get dressed, dress the five children: coats, caps, overalls, thermal boots, stroller, belts, phew! Alice already gets dressed almost by herself: aaaaaa, she doesn’t want the pink pants, where did I put the white ones? Okay, let’s comb the hair! Oh, don’t you? Well, they won’t see the messy hair under the cap. Have I picked up bottles, pacifiers, cookies, powdered milk?

Then we wait for the elevator and load it all at once so we don’t have to make two trips. So let’s go to the car: seat belts, more belts… have I fastened my seat belt yet? I put the stroller in the trunk and let’s go! Well, it takes me 20 minutes to do everything. It’s almost 3 minutes per child, almost a military discipline. However, to be able to get things done in 20 minutes, it is necessary to organize everything in advance. But what about when there are 2 rides a day? I’ll tell you, it’s very tiring! There is no physical conditioning that prepares you for this situation.

I used to be crazy about baths: I came in from the street, shower. I went to the beach, bath. I sweat a little, more shower. In the summer, then, there were endless baths. But after the birth of children, I became more flexible: did not get dirty? Everything is fine. But the tradition of bathing before going to bed remained. And in the summer house, if they bathe in the sea or play in the sand, then, of course, they also need a shower. Favorite game is water gun warfare.

I’ve been keeping a certain routine before bed: we do relaxing activities, usually without anything noisy. Later:

Bath with warm water; Wear pajamas; Feeding bottle; Each one has their own bed and their favorite blanket; And a teddy bear nearby in case they’re having trouble sleeping.

Having a nanny, in my case, was a matter of survival. I needed to eat, sleep, and stay sane to take care of the kids. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money for that, but many good people helped. The main mistake was not discussing the details and limits with these people, as I believed that certain rules were obvious. But what is normal for me is not necessarily normal for someone else. And I was often embarrassed to say I didn’t like something until it became a big problem.

Today I believe: Mary Poppins exists. She showed up in response to an appeal, immediately joined the family, and handled the situation with such mastery that it looked like she was just joking. Her wisdom and calm always amazed me. And how children listen to her and obey her is just amazing: she taught a lot not only to my children, but also to me and my mother.

Breakfast is usually porridge, bread or biscuits. For lunch we have soup with bread or pasta with meatballs. After the afternoon nap, they have a snack. And for dinner, it’s basically the same: soup and cereal. I always change the menu because they get bored very quickly and start to refuse food. And the only things that can be freely consumed in any quantity are fruits.

When I see them running to get another plate of cabbage, I can’t believe it either. But I started remembering how it all started.

They started off eating the zucchini, then I added the cabbage, and they started asking for more. For some reason, the taste of zucchini with cabbage was very pleasing to them. Finally, I added carrots and pumpkins to the menu, they love it!

Sweets, honey and chocolate are still prohibited. That is, we do not give the children anything, but we also try not to eat in front of them, so that there is no temptation.

Allowed desserts: fruits, cookies, homemade jam, pastila (a traditional Slavic sweet) and gingerbread.

You know who I envy the most? Those who have already traveled 10 countries with a small child. Now imagine me, traveling with 5 children at the same time. I can’t even think about the chaos that would be. If you had a nanny each and money to rent a car, maybe it could work. Children can already say that they traveled around the Odessa region. Whenever I plan something with my children, I keep a mantra in my head: “May nothing go wrong, may everything go well”.

In the courses I took before having Alice, the teachers guaranteed that after three days of the baby’s birth you would be able to distinguish the types of crying: hunger, pain, sleep and morning. I didn’t believe it at the time. And I was right. After a month, I still couldn’t distinguish their type of cry. With five kids screaming at once, you don’t understand who is really scared or in pain or who is screaming to keep up with their sibling. Over time, I noticed that they had different voices and began to distinguish them by intonation and timbre.

Many young mothers say: “I prefer that he grows up soon to say what he needs”. If you, reader, think so, I’m sorry. If a person doesn’t learn to understand the child over time, he won’t understand when he gets older.

Many people think that twins do everything in sync, but this is not true. When they are sleeping in separate beds, for example, and one starts crying nearby, it doesn’t interfere with the other’s sleep. The same happens when they wake up: they don’t cry together. This only happens for a few objective reasons: if they want to hold hands or complain that the food is taking too long to be served, for example.