From Perth, Western Australia, Kim and Vaughn Tucci welcomed five healthy children in January: a son named Keith and four daughters named Ali, Penelope, Tiffany, and Beatrix. Ms. Tucci has shared the challenges of raising her darling children with her husband, who also has two young daughters and a nine-year-old boy from a previous marriage.
However, despite the sleepless nights, just one look at the babies’ endearing expressions will convince you that the difficulties were worthwhile. The pictures depict a radiant 26-year-old Ms. Tucci holding her five infants, wrapped in delicate pastel blankets. This is the first time the babies have appeared in a professional photo session, despite the couple having previously shared images of their kids.
The sweet images show the sleeping quintuplets in what must be a rare peaceful moment. To cope with life with seven children, all of whom are under five, the young mother recently acknowledged that she sometimes “walls herself in the bathroom and cries on the floor.” The logistical difficulties the family faces on a daily basis have been taking their toll on the young mother.
The pair feeds each infant eight times daily and changes 350 soiled diapers every week. Despite being overwhelmed by the significant workload, they are “happier than they have ever been in their lives.” There was a pitiful chance that any baby would live and be healthy. But over the course of a grueling 27 weeks, Ms. Tucci’s body expanded to make room for each child, who by the time she gave birth weighed more than a kilogram.
Professor Jan Dickinson, her obstetrician, said Ms. Tucci had a “super W” since she delivered each healthy baby within two minutes. The quintuplets were taken immediately to intensive care and watched over there for six weeks, 24 hours a day, until they were strong enough to go home. The couple uses feeding, diapering, and sleeping schedules to keep track of each baby while receiving daily assistance from family members and volunteers to care for the quintuplets.
Ms. Tucci wrote about her severe back discomfort during her pregnancy, as well as how she made 12 bathroom trips every night and consumed the prescribed 6,000 calories per day to nourish her five babies. She stated on her blog, “I’m battling to eat and force-feeding myself, leaving me with GERD for hours.” More than 123,000 individuals have followed her online articles on coping with pain, nausea, physical changes, and needing to use the restroom 12 times every night, most of whom are parents who relate their own personal experiences.
Photographer Erin Elizabeth captured the expectant mother at 24 weeks along to document her journey. On Ms. Tucci’s website and Ms. Elizabeth’s social media, the pictures quickly gained popularity. To enable the Tucci family to travel safely as a family, a Go Fund Me page has been established to assist in the purchase of a nine-seater vehicle.
