ACC Statistics Professor Raising Quintuplets + 2

“I barely had time to recover from the shock, and then I had to stand up and teach and act like everything was OK,” she says. “It was kind of crazy.”

The Wilkinson Family (photos courtesy Rachelle Wilkinson)

You might think that’s a good way to describe life in the Wilkinson household. In addition to 3-year-old quints, Rachelle and her husband, Jayson, have a 10-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. But Rachelle runs a tight ship.

“I have an organizing obsession,” she admits. “You have to, with seven kids.”

Organized, clear-headed, and methodical: With those traits, it’s easy to understand why Rachelle is a statistician. She began teaching at ACC in fall 2000, right after her first child, Riley, was born. Daughter Kaiya followed 2½ years after Rachelle joined the college.

In 2005, Rachelle and Jayson began trying for baby number three and eventually went through fertility treatments. When she finally got pregnant, they eagerly awaited the ultrasound, knowing there could be more than one baby. Doctors told the Wilkinsons there was a 20 percent chance of twins and a 5 percent chance of triplets.

“We were excited about the potential for twins and a little worried about the prospect of triplets,” says Jayson. “But clearly the odds were against that.”

The quints' first ultrasound

As the doctor began the ultrasound, he identified one heart beating, then two – and then three. When Rachelle saw two more hearts beating, she thought the doctor had gone back to the first two babies. She was wrong. The doctor soon announced there were five babies.

“The word ‘shock’ only begins to describe what I felt at that moment,” recalls Rachelle. “I was almost numb. Things like that happen only to people on ‘Oprah,’ not to real people – not to us.”

Experts recommended reducing the number of fetuses in order to give the other babies a better chance at survival and healthy lives. The statistics support the merits of that approach. And because she’s a statistician, you may have expected Rachelle to go the way the numbers suggest. But already the Wilkinsons had beaten the odds: The chance of conceiving quintuplets while on fertility treatments is one in 56,000.

After weeks of intense reflection, Rachelle came to a decision. She would keep all five babies.

“A feeling just came over me,” she says. “It’s hard to describe, but at that moment, I knew these five lives didn’t come to me by accident.”

Rachelle and her mom, the day before the birth

With such a high-risk pregnancy, doctors weren’t taking any chances. Rachelle went on bed rest in April, so she was forced to cut her semester short. She made a temporary move from her Central Texas home to Phoenix, where she would be under the care of a team that specializes in multiple births. In fact, the Wilkinson babies would the ninth set of quintuplets born at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center.

After four months of bed rest, summer slowly arrived, and it was time to prepare for delivery. Over the previous seven months, Rachelle had gained nearly 70 pounds, and she was 54 inches around – making her nearly as big around as she is tall.

“It was extremely uncomfortable at the end,” says Rachelle. “Even trying to sit was painful.”

Doctors scheduled a Caesarean section for July 31, 2007, putting Rachelle five days shy of the record gestation period for quintuplets. It would be a highly choreographed procedure, with nearly 30 people in the delivery room. In a matter of minutes, the Wilkinson family grew from four to nine, with the addition of Kassidy (5 pounds, 1 ounce), Kaydence (3 pounds, 6 ounces), Rustin (4 pounds, 15 ounces), Kyndall (4 pounds, 2 ounces), and Ryder (3 pounds, 15 ounces). The boys share a first initial with their older brother, while the three girls share an initial with their big sister.

A few days after the quints' birth

The quints began leaving the hospital on day 10. By day 19, all five were out, and the family returned to Central Texas at the one-month mark. A veritable army of volunteers was waiting. Five to 10 helpers were there during the day; two nannies were on hand at night. Every day, the family went through 10 to 15 outfits, 35 bottles, and up to 50 diapers.

“We knew for many months that coming home with quintuplets would be a big adjustment: sleepless nights, endless crying, and a ton of dirty laundry – and that was just the older kids,” jokes Jayson. “What we didn’t expect was the outpouring of generosity we received from so many great people. I don’t know how we would have done it without them.”

After 18 months, Rachelle returned to teaching at ACC.

“I was really excited to come back,” says Rachelle. “I love to teach, and I am passionate about statistics. Plus, it’s great to have scheduled time each week when I get a break from my ‘real life’ and get to talk to adults for a couple hours!”

Even if some of those adults don’t believe her at first.

“The first day of class is always fun, when I tell the students that I have been teaching statistics at ACC for the past 10 years, except for 18 months that I took off to have quintuplets,” says Rachelle. “They always get a slightly shocked look on their faces and turn to each other like, ‘Is she telling the truth?’ At least it gets their attention!”

People across the country recently got an up-close look at life in the Wilkinson household, when cable network TLC aired two special episodes called “Texas Quints.” The filming documented the quintuplets’ third birthday and a family road trip.

“The behind-the-scenes look at how reality TV is made was really fascinating,” says Rachelle. “It was a lot of work! We would film all day and then do interviews for two to three hours after the kids went to bed.”

The quintuplets hit the red carpet at the "Texas Quints" premiere party

The family literally rolled out the red carpet this fall for the big premiere, watching the TV debut on a large screen in a friend’s backyard.

“I love how the shows turned out,” says Rachelle. “They were laugh-out-loud funny, and the production crew really tried to show each child’s personality.”

If you missed the shows, you can still see the family in action. Rachelle’s website includes a rap-style video TLC used to promote “Texas Quints.”

“I’d love to do more episodes,” says Rachelle. “Many reality shows focus on drama. This focused on fun.”

In the meantime, the kids will keep growing, and she’ll keep teaching math at ACC. In fact, her big family may have made her an even better statistician.

The Wilkinson quintuplets, all dressed up

“There is an amazing amount of data involved when you have quintuplets,” she says. “We kept track of what they ate, when they ate it, when we bathed them, what medications they took, how much they weighed, how many diapers we changed – it’s pretty complex.”

Having five toddlers afoot keeps Rachelle equally busy, but the hustle and bustle now feels like the norm – a far cry from the uncertainty she felt when she learned about her multiple pregnancy.

“I realize now that God really did know what he was doing when he gave me quintuplets,” she says. “He knew I was a numbers person and was just trying to give me a bigger sample size.”

Click here to read Rachelle’s blog.