Safe & sound
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Five tiny preemies resting comfortably in isolettes at Kosair Children’s Hospital do not know that they’re one in 47.5 million.
Some day they will, but for now, Southeast members Christy Kessinger and her husband Bill Clark are just grateful they’re here, healthy and safe.
It’s been an incredible journey since the couple decided to have one more child—and learned that they were adding quintuplets to their family of three children: Ty, 9, Tayleigh, 5, and Tanner, 3. It’s a journey this family is taking one step at a time. .
Christy has a pretty good idea of how long it will take her to feed and change the babies once they come home in a few months. She’s pretty calm about the challenges ahead.
She said Tanner, their 3-year-old who has Down Syndrome, “makes us appreciate the small things in life. He’s an incredible blessing. So are the quints.”
The babies were born on Sunday, Aug. 8, at 28 weeks. There are four girls and one boy: Maggie Mae, Hartley Grace, Allie Joy, Ella Lynn and Easton Avery. They range in weight from 2 pounds, 5 ounces to 2 pounds, 12 ounces. They are so tiny that Bill can slip his wedding band onto their arms.
The only way to tell them apart now is by their name written in big block letters on the isolettes. Christy has a plan to help with the differentiating: they may be the first newborns with different colored fingernail polish to help tell the girls apart.
Christy went home from the hospital on Friday, Aug. 13, but the babies will stay at Kosair Children’s Hospital for several months as they gain weight and grow stronger. Though it will be hard to leave them behind, Christy looks forward to being home and spending time with her other three children.
Southeast member Pat McIntyre has seen the babies.
“They are beautiful,” she said. “Clearly the hand of God brought them into the world.”
Christy and Bill hope to have everyone home by October.
For more information about the quints, log onto Christy’s blog: http://quintsofkentuckiana.wordpress.com.
The “Clark Five Fund” at PNC Bank is taking monetary donations for the Kessingers. Stop in any branch office to make a donation to the “Clark Five Fund,” or mail it to the Jeffersonville branch at 405 East Court Avenue, Jeffersonville, IN 47130.