press coverage

Mike Celezik, TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 6:28 a.m. MT, Thurs., June. 19, 2008

Call Jenny Masche the Marathon Woman. As the mother of 1-year-old sextuplets, that’s what her daily life is like. And somehow during that first year of organized chaos, she also managed to train for and run a real marathon.

But how could a mother of one newborn, let alone six, find the time and energy to train for and run a 26.2-mile race? “Because they’re good sleepers,” Jenny Masche told Meredith Vieira during an exclusive interview on TODAY Thursday in New York. “As soon as I put them down at 7 o’clock at night, I’d literally throw my running shoes on and my friend and I would go and run for like two hours.”

Jenny was holding one of the sextuplets, Bailey, as she spoke. Her husband, Bryan Masche, held another, Cole, and grandparents Laura and Bill Masche and Sue and Bob Simbric held the other four — only one of whom was sleeping.

The babies were tired and some of them were fussing, but Bryan Masche said that the amazing thing about their first year is discovering “just how good they’ve been. They don’t fuss a lot. They’re not really big complainers. They’re just really good babies. They sleep well. It really is less scary than I made it out to be in my mind.”

A difficult delivery
Savannah, Cole, Grant, Molli, Bailey and Blake were born on June 11, 2007, by Caesarean section after 30 weeks of gestation. Jenny went into cardiac arrest during the delivery and nearly died.

“It was really scary because I thought, ‘Am I going to be healthy now to take care of six babies?’ ” she said, choking up at the memory. “I remember my body was trembling, my lip was trembling and being terrified.”

As the babies spent their first weeks of life in neonatal intensive care, Jenny stayed in bed, recovering from the trauma of the birth. “I was on bed rest for so long, all I could imagine was being able to run again,” she said. “I said, ‘When my kids turn 1, I’m running a marathon.’ ” So, on May 31, less than two weeks before the sextuplets’ first birthday, Jenny entered the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego. Her husband ran with her, and waiting for her at the finish line 5½ hours later were her children. “There was no way I was getting out of that,” Bryan said of his participation in the race. “I couldn’t let Jenny run the race after heart failure and sextuplets and a year later be on the sidelines cheering her on.”

Pushing past the walls
“The marathon was so fun for me — until I hit 21 miles,” Jenny recounted. “Then you hit a wall. You push through and you’re so exhilarated.”

It’s not unlike raising six children through the first year of life, she added. “I hit walls taking care of them sometimes. I don’t want to get out of bed. But then you push past them and there’s something exhilarating on the other side.”

It has been a lot of work, the Masches admitted. “Laundry is a never-ending process,” Jenny told TODAY. “We get them up, we feed them, change them, play with them, go for a nap, get them up, feed them, change them, play with them, they go for a nap. The routine is definitely the key to our success.”

The Masches and their parents briefly introduced each baby to TODAY viewers. Jenny held Bailey. “We call her the boss,” she said. “She’s very strong-willed. She’s very mature for her age.” “This is Cole Robert,” Bryan said. “He’s one of the easiest babies. He’s a snuggler. We call him ‘Cocoa Chopper’ because he’s got four teeth coming in.” Sue Simbric held Blake: “He is the rabble-rouser of the group. He’s the first to do everything. He gets into everything. He doesn’t think before he acts. He just goes for it.” Her husband, Bob, was next up with Savannah Jane: “She’s the firstborn.” Laura Masche introduced Molli: “She’s a sweetheart — very, very mellow.” Finally, Bill Masche would have had Grant smile for the camera, but the baby was sound asleep. “He takes after me,” the proud granddad said. “He likes to sleep a lot.”

An exciting marathon
The Masches’ gratitude for their bounty of babies came through clearly. “It may be the marathon of life, but it’s an exciting marathon,” Bryan said. “How many people get to go through the experience of having six kids the same age just to see all their different personalities?”

Jenny told Vieira that she believes that having her heart fail during delivery was actually a gift from God. “I’ve just felt so privileged to be here to be their mom, to get to take care of them. I count it a blessing that he allowed me go through that, because this year has just been such a joy,” she said.

The kids go through at least 30 diapers a day, Jenny Masche said. And they’ve already learned to wait their turns. “If you have one baby, you get to focus on one baby,” she said. “They have to take turns; they have to be really patient.”

The sextuplets each weighed between 2 and 3 pounds at birth. They came home over a period of several weeks after their births. Cole, who needed minor surgery to correct a hernia at his belly button, was the last to come home. Today, the toddlers each weigh at least 20 pounds and are thriving.

Their parents wouldn’t change a thing. “When you first hear you are going to have six babies you think, this is impossible, we’re never ever going to survive this,” Jenny told TODAY. “It’s actually been just a wonderful adventure.”

1 year and 6 kids later...The Masche sextuplets head toward toddlerdom

The Arizona Republic  - Lisa Nicita
Jun. 11, 2008 12:00 AM

Jenny Masche plays with her daughter, Molli (front center) as her other daughters, Bailey (background) and Savannah (bottom right) look on at the Masche's home in Lake Havasu City.

 

It's a good day when Jenny Masche can find time to brush her teeth. Usually, she can't. By now, she's used to it.

Jenny's had a year to get accustomed to her new time-crunched life as the mother of six babies, born seconds apart on this date in 2007. The year has flown by, a journey ranging from near death to optimal health in a Lake Havasu City home now filled with the giggles and cries of a half-dozen teething toddlers.

Yes, all of them are teething at once.

Blessed with an even temperament, Jenny takes in stride the ups and downs of mothering six kids at once. "You just don't have an option," she said. "You can hate every day or love every day. So I love every day." Hers begins at 7 a.m. That's when the babies start to rustle in their cribs, waking up by chattering to each other. Jenny listens in on the monitor. All of the kids are in the same room, each in his or her own crib. If they awake before 7, they have learned to wait. "Bottles don't come until 7," Jenny explained. Once they see the bottles, the kids are squirmy. Jenny, 33, hands a bottle to each, then changes their diapers.

Four of the six kids are crawling. It's normal for children to walk or attempt to walk by their first birthday, but doctors advised Jenny, as they do all parents with premature babies, to measure the progress of their children by their due date. With that in mind, the Masche sextuplets are right on schedule. And they're all healthy.

"My heart really goes out to those who have gone through this and not had a healthy outcome," Jenny said. "It's just plain hard."

Shana Kaznoski, the children's Lake Havasu City pediatrician, is amazed at how healthy the kids are. Kaznoski said they were born healthier than many of the premature single babies she has been involved with.

She thinks the competition in the womb, for food and space, made the babies strong.

"That just doesn't happen every day," Kaznoski said of the kids' health. "We would like to think medicine had everything to do with these kids. God has a lot to do with these kids and how they're doing - and the parents."

But things weren't so rosy a year ago. The babies were born at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, a Phoenix facility known for specializing in multiple births. Jenny carried the babies to 30 weeks and four days.  She became pregnant by artificial insemination after struggling with infertility and several miscarriages. The births occurred without major glitches.

It was the hours following the births that had Bryan Masche praying for his wife's life inside the intensive-care unit. Jenny had suffered heart failure from the rush of blood in her system following the deliveries. She recovered, but then struggled with depression and a visual impairment that therapy eventually corrected.

Time for traveling

Anyone would understand if the Masche family retreated to virtual seclusion. Instead, the kids have grown used to somewhat of a jet-setter lifestyle. They've been to Utah. They've traveled to Los Angeles to film Deal or No Deal, where the family won $121,000 and received an additional $100,000 donation toward the children's college funds.

Next Wednesday, the entire crew will be in New York to appear on the Today show.

A couple of the babies have been to Texas, and all also have been to California to visit Jenny's pregnant sister on a few occasions. The kids didn't make it to Hawaii, though. That trip was just for Bryan and Jenny. The couple took a five-day trip this spring - alone. "It's the only time we've been away alone without the kids," Jenny said. "It was way too long without the kids."

Back home, Jenny and Bryan get help from Jenny's niece, Tiffani Mathews, who has moved in with them while she attends school to become a nurse. "She's been like my wife," Jenny said of her niece.

The assistance allows Jenny to continue her own nursing career, splitting her time between a nearby urgent-care facility and a family practice. Jenny works about 10 hours a week, a couple hours at a time, usually during the lunch hours.

When the niece is gone, Bryan fills in on his lunch break from his job in pharmaceutical sales.

Bryan, 30, takes Monday nights off from family duties. That night is dedicated to school. Amid raising six kids, Bryan decided to get a master of business administration degree. Taking classes once a week in Las Vegas, he's on track to finish in December. "I think it's stressful and ask, 'Why the heck are you doing this?' " Jenny said. "But he wants to do it now while the babies are little."

It's not like Jenny is just sitting around. She recently reached a goal she had set during her bed rest prior to the births: She ran a marathon.  She trained by running three or four nights a week with a friend, after the kids went to sleep. Given the health scare she faced just a year ago, Jenny's parents were worried about her training and participation in a taxing marathon.

Jenny feels that she is in better shape now than before she became pregnant. And she's consulted with doctors, who agree. The babies "just ate everything off my body," she said. "I think the running gives me energy, which I desperately need." The also manages to get out every day to take a walk with all six kids. The folks at Deal or No Deal gave the family a carriage specially made for the sextuplets. "It's so fun. The kids just love it," Jenny said.

A new phase of life
 

Now, it's on to toddlerdom, times six. There will be new adventures in eating, walking, talking. Jenny wants it all to slow down. "I feel like the last year has been a literal blink," she said. "My days go by so fast. You'd think I want them to go fast, but I don't."

In the coming months and years, the couple will have to think about potty training, putting away the bottles and moving the kids from three daily naps to two.

And Jenny needs to squeeze in a shower from time to time.  "It's like, 'How do I go from them being babies to little kids?' " she said. The couple also hope to resume attending church on a regular basis. Jenny has thanks to give. "I couldn't do this without God," she said.

She also has guilt to deal with, explaining that, as a mom, it's hard to be unable at times to tend to all of the children's needs at once. For instance, when one is sick and wanting to snuggle all day, Jenny thinks the others may feel neglected. "If you have one child at a time, the way God designed it, you can really comfort that child and give them what they need," she said. "That's really hard for me. You just kind of feel guilty in your heart."

The Masche sextuplets celebrate their first birthdays

June 11, 2008 7:38am - Associated Press

Happy birthday to the Masche sextuplets.

The three daughters and three sons of Jenny and Bryan Masche of Lake Havasu City turned a year old Wednesday. The babies were seven weeks premature when they were born June 11, 2007 at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix.

Sextuplets Celebrate First Birthdays

June 11, 2008 8:18 am MST - KPHO TV

Happy birthday to the Masche (mah-SHAY') sextuplets.

The three daughters and three sons of Jenny and Bryan Masche of Lake Havasu City turned a year old Wednesday.

The babies were seven weeks premature when they were born June 11, 2007 at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix. Theirs was the first successful sextuplet delivery in Arizona.

The babies' names are Bailey Elizabeth, Savannah Jane, Molli Grace, Cole Robert, Blake Nickolas and Grant Williams.

it's real love

Photo by Mindy Bridgewater

Jenny and Brian Masche of Lake Havasu City share their love story and talk about the challenges and joys of raising sextuplets. Listen to radio podcast.

The Masche sextuplets' first holiday

Today, November 21, 2007

Who can forget Jenny, Brian and their adorable babies? In a TODAY exclusive, mom, dad and grandma give Meredith Vieira an update on their six bundles of joy.

the Masche sextuplets at home

Today, September 12, 2007

The proud parents introduce their bundles of joy and tell TODAY's Natalie Morales about their day-to-day lives.

 

Today's News herald

HavasuNews.com

Pam Ashley

Jillian Danielson photos/Special to Today's News-Herald

At right, several Abbott representatives were on hand to deliver a welcome gift of infant formula to parents Bryan and Jenny Masche at their Lake Havasu City home. From left are Emily Coffman, Jenny Masche, Abbott representative Keri Butler, Bryan Masche, Judy Yolla (the sextuplets' great-grandmother), Tiffany Mathews, and Abbott represenatives Robyn Bueltel and Jeanie Houchins.

Grant Mache sporting a Similac onsie tries out the donated formula.

Bryan Masche, father of sextuplets born June 11, unloaded 144 cases of infant formula Thursday morning at his home. The 9-month supply of Similac NeoSure was donated by manufacturer Abbott Laboratories and has a retail value of $17,000.

Of her sextuplet infants born June 11, Jenny Masche of Lake Havasu City said sons Grant and Blake lead the pack in terms of weight."They're both about eight and a half pounds each, so they're the biggest. Molli, who was the smallest when she was born, is at six pounds, five ounces. They're all growing so fast," she said. And by all accounts, all six are eating well - to the tune of seven feedings a day. That's about 42 bottles to prepare in a 24-hour period for Blake, Grant, Cole, Bailey, Molli and Savannah. The adults eat well, too - when they have the time. There are days when sleeping and square meals are luxuries. "Calvary Chapel delivers hot meals to us three times a week. We really appreciate it because there is not a lot of time to cook," Jenny explained. To keep things simple, the infants wear "onesies" most of the time, Jenny reports. Helping the Masches manage the brood is Jenny's niece, Tiffany Mathews, and cousin Emily Coffman. The extra pairs of hands recently came on board on the heels of the departure of professional nannies. The childcare specialists donated their time the past two months to help the family establish a routine. But as all parents know, even the best training isn't fail-safe. On some days, the Masches learn this truth while the world watches. "We had people here from German and British TV stations, and the kids were being so good and so quiet. And then the minute the live interview started, all the babies started crying. All of them. At once. I was shoveling passies (pacifiers) in their mouths as fast as I could," Jenny laughed. "They have learned very well that the one that cries the loudest gets attention first." The world will get another peek at the family when NBC's "Today" show broadcasts live from the Masche home on Sept. 12.

Advance for Physician Assistants

By Stephen Cornell

When trying to decide on a medical career, Jenny Masche chose the PA profession because she felt that being a PA would provide a little more flexibility than being a physician when it came time for her to raise a family.

That PA-flexibility theory is going to be put to the test. Masche is going to need all the flexibility she can get after giving birth to sextuplets.

Bailey, Blake, Cole, Grant, Molli and Savannah were born to Jenny and her husband Bryan between 8:21 a.m. and 8:26 a.m. on June 11 in Phoenix. Blake was the first to come home on July 19.
“It’s still really surreal to go from having no children to having six in one shot,” says Masche, a 2002 graduate of the Midwestern University PA program in Glendale, Ariz. “They are adorable and precious. God just really, really blessed us.”

Masche conceived using intrauterine insemination, but never expected to become the mother of the 13th set of living sextuplets in the United States. The news stunned Jenny and Bryan, but their personal beliefs wouldn’t allow them to consider reducing the number of babies. 

“We were devastated when we first found out,” Masche says. “The infertility doctors wanted us to (have selective reduction). We couldn’t do that, but we were scared to death. How was I going to survive this? How would the babies all survive? Would they be OK?” Masche’s perinatologist soothed some of her fears.

“We didn’t adjust to it until the meeting with the perinatologist,” she says. “Up to that point, people said, ‘You can’t do this.’ He said, ‘You will have to have a will of iron, but you can do this.’”

Masche’s pregnancy was uneventful. She gave birth to six healthy babies at 30 weeks and four days. And then things unexpectedly went wrong for her.

Masche had been given extra fluids before her C-section in anticipation of complications. Nonetheless, everything went fine with the delivery. She didn’t lose a lot of fluid during the birth, and so the excess fluids caused heart failure.

After a tense few hours, Masche’s physicians identified the problem, and she stabilized. Still, she was in the intensive care unit for a week. Masche later battled a virus that caused vision problems, but she is now doing very well.

Thousands of people have followed the “Masche Miracles,” and the sextuplets and their parents have become national media darlings. “The Today Show” interviewed Jenny and her husband Bryan before the birth and has featured the babies, who recently came home from the hospital. Newspapers across the country ran articles about the sextuplets.

“I’m not really hip on the whole media thing,” Masche says. “But it is such a nice story, and it’s good to have something happy in the news. People have been so supportive and so generous and (media coverage) was the only way to let everyone know what was going on. We roll with it.”

With things settling down, Masche, who was in family practice and emergency medicine before her pregnancy, can even take a minute to consider the future of her PA career.

“I really want to go back,” she says. “I couldn’t be in a better field (emergency medicine), because I could do shift work. It’s so hard to say right now if I’ll be able to (return to medicine) but I don’t want to give up my profession.”

Arizona sextuplets going home, one at a time - Jenny and Bryan Masche had trouble conceiving, then got six babies at once

By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor

Updated: 7:14 a.m. MT July 19, 2007

In the days and weeks after giving birth to sextuplets last month, Jenny Masche had to get her mind around the fact that she actually had brought six new breathing human beings into the world.

Now, a new reality is taking hold. The babies will be going home soon, one at a time.

“We’re very excited that we get to take little Blake home today,” the radiant mom told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira Thursday in an exclusive interview from the Phoenix hospital where the babies have been living since they were born June 11, six weeks prematurely, by Caesarian section.

Masche knows she’s fortunate that the family will not have to cope with all six babies coming home at once.

“I’m kind of lucky that I get one at a time,” she said. “I get one baby for a few days, then I’ll have two babies. We’ll kind of wean me into the process.”

Bailey is also ready to go home and will follow her brother in a day or two.

Next week, Cole is scheduled to leave the hospital after he has minor surgery to correct a type of hernia at his belly button.

Of the remaining babies, “Cole would be the first one home because he’s doing so awesome,” Masche said as she stood with her parents, Sue and Bob Simbric, at a large crib holding six tiny and swaddled infants sleeping peacefully side by side by side by side by side by side. “Hopefully, we’ll have him home Tuesday.”

The other three babies — Grant, Savannah and Molli — are still partially dependent on feeding tubes and must remain in the hospital until they are able to “suck, swallow and breathe at the same time,” Jenny said. All can take partial feedings orally, but must finish feeding by tube.

Mom ‘90 percent better’
When Masche first appeared exclusively on TODAY two weeks after the births, she recounted how she nearly died when she went into heart failure after the deliveries. Today, she shows no ill effects.

“It’s over with and we’re moving on and I’m feeling, I’d say, 90 percent better. It’s a huge blessing,” she said.

At the time of the births, doctors said that Jenny’s ability to carry the babies for 30 weeks was the reason all six were healthy and expected to thrive. A day before Masche gave birth, Brianna Morrison gave birth to sextuplets in Minneapolis after just 22 weeks gestation; four died within two weeks of birth.

The Masche sextuplets all weighed between two and three pounds at birth. They now weigh between three and four pounds.

Bryan Masche, a pharmaceutical company representative, was traveling on business and was scheduled to come home on Friday.

Taped footage showed him in the hospital cradling an infant and remarking about how “before this, I was deathly afraid of holding babies. I didn’t even hold my nephews until they were two years old.”

In the time since the babies were born, the Masches and Simbrics have been training in the fine arts of feeding and diapering babies. Even Grandpa Bob has gotten involved.

“Mom says these are the first diapers he’s changed in his whole life,” Jenny reported.

“There’s no way we could do this without family,” Bryan said in a previously recorded segment. “This is a family project for the next 18 to 20 years.”