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    janelle's Avatar
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    Now crawling, Headrick six turn one Sunday

    Posted on Sat, Apr. 05, 2003

    Now crawling, Headrick six turn one Sunday
    BY ROY WENZL
    The Wichita Eagle



    RAGO - The scary thing, the really scary thing, is that the babies have begun to crawl. Ethan. Grant. Sean. Danielle. Jaycie. Melissa.

    The Headrick sextuplets turn one year old Sunday. Mom and Dad are in for it now.

    Sondra and Eldon put up the baby gates three weeks ago, those collapsible barricades meant to pen the babies in their tiny living room, keep them out of the kitchen, keep all six in sight.


    [IMG]http://www.kansas.com/images/kansas/eagle/5574/31073031212.jpg
    [/IMG]

    The Headrick sextuplets are 1 year old, from left; Ethan, Melissa, Grant, Sean, Jaycie and Danielle were born the day after a set of quadruplets were delivered nearly a year ago in Wichita. AP PHOTO

    Posted on Sun, Apr. 06, 2003

    Now crawling, Headrick six turn 1 today
    Sondra and Eldon, the parents of the sextuplets, celebrate the joys the year has brought
    BY ROY WENZL
    The Wichita Eagle


    More photos

    The Headrick sextuplets are 1 year old, from left; Ethan, Melissa, Grant, Sean, Jaycie and Danielle were born the day after a set of quadruplets were delivered nearly a year ago in Wichita. AP PHOTO


    RAGO - The scary thing, the really scary thing, is that the babies have begun to crawl. Six crawling babies. Ethan. Grant. Sean. Danielle. Jaycie. Melissa.

    All six started crawling in the past three weeks, scooting like kittens.

    Parents know how scary it can be when it starts ¾ even with one. It happens fast. Babies that had been lying in one place suddenly scoot everywhere.

    And the parent watches, fear rising, seeing for the first time all those bits of paper and who-knows-what lying around, the stuff you never think to pick up or cover. Electrical outlets. Shoes.

    The Headrick sextuplets turn one year old today. Mom and Dad are in for it now.

    Sondra and Eldon put up the baby gates three weeks ago, those collapsible barricades meant to pen the babies in their tiny living room, keep them out of the kitchen, keep all six in sight.

    You know that's not gonna hold them long, someone told Sondra the other day.

    You know what's gonna happen. Two, three more weeks, the babies storm the barricades, each throwing a leg over the top, climbing up, standing up, going bungee jumping without bungees....

    Geronimooooo!!!

    Sondra nodded, coughed. "Yeah, I know," she said.

    She coughed again, took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes.

    Head colds, she said. But no worries, other than Eldon going to work tired every day. No big worries, not like last year.

    A year ago, Sondra lay in her hospital bed, staring at her belly, wondering.

    Her pregnancy lasted seven months, and she spent much of that time thinking that the sextuplets might be born dead or damaged.

    But the doctors performed miracles, coaxed her to tough it out. And she defied their expectations, sustaining her pregnancy for 31 weeks and a day, longer than any other mother of sextuplets in the United States.

    The babies were born April 6, 2002, with no sign of defect. And quick-witted Eldon stood in the hospital hallway, hugging his mother, wanting to laugh and cry, and saying with glee that he and Sondra would probably never try this sort of thing again.

    In the house, on the couch, Sondra coughed again, took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes.

    She'd done this three times in 20 minutes.

    She looked tired and talked slowly, more slowly and with more fatigue than in any but the worst weeks of last year.

    Head colds, she said. Six babies plus Aubrianna, the 5-year-old, had passed colds back and forth all winter. Eldon had walking pneumonia not long ago.

    Other than the colds, life is good: Seven children. One marriage. Thousands of prayers answered. One tiny mobile home. Dozens of volunteers to help. Dollars in the bank donated by well-wishers who read all about the family last year when they were big news.

    And no forgetting about the incredible luck and the blessing of watching six babies who are now cutting their first teeth, crawling, standing up, taking their first steps, speaking their first words and smiling for the cameras.

    Danielle came crawling over, crawled expertly up a visitor's leg, crawled into his lap, stared at him face to face. She smiled a knowing smile.

    Do you remember me, young lady? the visitor asked. I saw you the day you were born.

    Danielle smiled faintly, puzzling over the new face.

    "They're all so used to people," Sondra said. "And they have been photographed so much, so many cameras, that they go right up to anyone, and when they see a camera, they just sit up and smile."

    They've been smiling at a lot of cameras lately. Many reporters showed up in the weeks before the birthday, everyone from KAKE, Channel 10, to Japanese television to the Discovery Channel.

    Danielle sat in the visitor's lap, staring into his eyes. Then she got down, crawled, found a loose coloring book page colored green and orange and red by sister Aubrianna.

    Danielle stuffed a corner of it into her mouth. The visitor ran her down and took it away.

    Near the couch, one of the two volunteers sitting beside Sondra noticed baby Sean chewing.

    She grabbed him, spun him expertly around, stuck her index finger in his mouth and extracted a tiny bit of paper. It was a color coding tab, one of hundreds Sondra and Eldon have stuck onto toys and bottles and pacifiers so that the adults know which pacifier and which bottle or toy is which.

    "You can't eat this," the woman told Sean. He whimpered and crawled away.

    Grant crawled to the visitor, climbed onto the couch, laid his head down on an adult thigh and fell asleep. His cheek felt soft, warm, smooth.

    "He's one of the lovey ones," Sondra said. "He likes loving."

    Grant lay there, asleep, for half an hour, while his mother talked slowly from fatigue.

    She felt content, she said.

    The year had flown by.

    So many diapers, so many feedings. So much going on.

    No, she said. She does not get out much.

    I know we are at war, she said.

    She sighed.

    She took off her glasses again, rubbed her eyes.

    On the floor, babies crawled at her feet, clean, content and safe.

    In the visitor's lap, Grant lay quiet, his breath coming soft and slow.


    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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    just making the pic show They are CUTE!!!!
    Real women don't have hot flashes, they have POWER SURGES!!

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    OHHH MYYY......whew!!!
    PROUD mom of Bradyn Marshall 02-15-00 and Haley Ryann 12-3-03

    Lord, Help me remember that being a Mommy is the most important thing I will do today.

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