By MAGGIE GALE
HOUSEHOUSTON CHRONICLE

It took two minutes to deliver Kelly Phillips’ babies, but in that small span of time the Phillips family nearly tripled in size.  Phillips, 29, delivered quintuplets– that’s five babies – at The Woman’s Hospital of Texas on Oct. 25. She and her husband, Bill, welcomed John, Rebecca, Alison, David and Katelyn, who arrived by C-section.

Mom, who gained 91 pounds during the pregnancy, is relieved and grateful. She’s also happy tobe resting at home in The Woodlands with her 18-month-old son, Mark who didn’t see much of herfrom the time she was admittedto the hospital on Sept. 27 until she finally came home Thursday.

“He is definitely glad to have me home,” Phillips said, “There’s been a lot of changes throughout the pregnancy. We’re trying to get back to whatever normal will be.”

At the moment, all the babies are staying in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Phillips carried them for 33 weeks, about five weeks longer than is typical for quints at birth, ranging in weight from 3 pounds, 3 ounces to 4 pounds, 12 ounces. None are on breathing machines and two of them aredoing all their feeding by bottle.

The Phillipses, who are recording their experience at phillipsmultiples.blogspot.com, are part of a select group of parents. According to the most recentinformation from the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of quintuplets and other higher order births in 2005 totaled only 68 nationwide.The triplet-plus birth rate soared 400 percent between 1980 and 1998, but has trended downward since.

Kelly Phillips had IUI, or intrauterine insemination, for both of her pregnancies.

“Kelly took a significant risk to her life by carrying five babies to 33 weeks,” said Dr. Brian Kirshon, who delivered the quintuplets with help from morethan a dozen medical personnel. “A very distended uterus is at significant risk for bleeding. In addition, Kelly’s blood pressure went up.”

The babies, of course, faced different challenges. During a pregnancy withjust one baby, delivery at 33 weeks means that the baby’s lungs and bowelsmight not yet be fully mature. There’s also a risk of bleeding in the brain because those blood vessels are not fully developed.

“But these risks are actually less when you have multiples,” Kirshon explained. “Multiples know they have to fight for their ground and mature more quickly.  A 33-week-old multiple is more mature than a 33-week-old singlebaby.”

In fact, the smallest babies in a multiple birth are often the most mature. “The smallest babies are more mature because they’re under more stress,” Kirshon said.  “The littlest of a multiple birth will have the lowest initial complicationsof prematurity.”

ONLINE
To watch a video of the delivery, go to phillipsmultiples.blogspot.com.

The Phillipses, members at The Woodlands United Methodist Church, do not yet own a vehicle that will fit the entire family. They plan to purchase a passenger van that can accommodate six car seats. “I tell people I’m going to drive the church bus around,” Kelly Phillips said.

The addition of five new babies also means a whole new arrangement at home. The couple has converted their guest room to a nursery with five cribs.  A walk-in closet off the nursery now houses a rocker-glider chair and a changing table.

Not that Kelly Phillips has seen any of this with her own eyes.

“Honestly, I haven’t been upstairs in months,” she said.

Doctors say the babies should be ready to leave the hospital in two or three weeks. The Phillipses hope to have all their children home by Thanksgiving.

maggie.galehouse@chron.com