'We're having five'

Inside the blur of this GTA family's first year with quintuplets

- MEGAN OGILVIE

Mother Maria and her quints, the first to be born at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital in more than 30 years.

In a rare moment of peace, Maria eases back in her favourite rocking chair.

One of her babies is asleep on her chest. Another cuddles close in her lap.

Mount Sinai Hospital's Dr. Prakesh Shah said a co-ordinated and planned delivery was crucial and that the five open beds would be needed in the neonatal intensive care unit.

A third baby lies on the floor at her feet, chewing on an infant toy — a bright yellow giraffe that matches her cheery summer romper.

Baby four is an arm’s reach away. She’s sitting upright, quietly watching her brother — the fifth baby and the only boy in the group — snoozing in an infant rocker.

“I can’t believe they’re 10 months old already,” Maria says. “It’s gone by so fast.”

In a flash, the calm is shattered. The baby with the yellow giraffe has tumbled while reaching for her mom. She’s OK — a bump that startled more than hurt — but Maria moves quickly to comfort her.

And now, with all four girls awake and wanting attention, Maria is back on the living room floor, shushing and rocking and reaching for bottles and blankets and toys. Again and again, she tries to stop the girls from bothering their brother, still asleep in his rocker.

Maria laughs: “The days are always such a blur.”

It’s the kind of busyness that comes with being a mom to quintuplets.

But Maria is grateful.

Last summer, pregnant and on bed rest at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, she could only hope that all her babies would survive.

Married six years, Maria and her husband had sought medical help to get pregnant, knowing it would be difficult for them to conceive.

‘A stress test for the body’

Quintuplets are exceedingly rare.