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SPECIAL DELIVERY by Becki Dilley

SPECIAL DELIVERY

How We Are Raising America's Only Sextuplets...and Loving It

by Becki Dilley & Keith Dilley with Sam Stall

Pub Date: June 5th, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-43706-1
Publisher: Random House

This tale of life with sextuplets is so lively and good- humored it almost makes you wish they were yours. Becki and Keith Dilley are blessed with energy, determination, a sense of humor—and four boys and two girls who will be two years old in May. Aided by Stall, editor of the Indianapolis Monthly, they recount in alternating chapters their courtship, marriage, and attempt for more than five years to have a baby. Finally, a state-of-the-art fertility drug led to a multiple pregnancy. Doctors detected five fetuses; it wasn't until the babies were delivered by caesarean that the obstetrician discovered number six—at 2 pounds, 13 ounces, the largest and lustiest of the group. The infants spent nearly three months in the hospital's neonatal unit, gaining weight and maturing. Moving in with her parents, Becki scrambled to care for the babies while Keith worked long hours at a fast-food restaurant. Sleep was a dim memory, as was any other piece of normal existence. Ultimately, Becki went back to work—as an experienced nurse, she could make more money—while Keith stayed home as Mr. Mom times six and proved a natural, organizing feedings, naps, playtime, and household chores with a minimum of frustration for everyone. Thanks to income from carefully selected interviews and endorsements (they accepted an offer from an infant formula company but turned down the National Enquirer), they were able to buy a custom-designed house in an Indiana suburb with a childproof playroom. Watching the toddlers explore and test their new skills there, Keith describes it as ``our own entertainment center.'' A chapter of tips for future parents of sextuplets or any set of multiples closes with the advice, ``Always remember how lucky you are that you were chosen to be uncommon parents.'' Endearing without being saccharine. (b&w photos, some not seen)