<p>Dr. Phil had a good question today about how she has known all these months that she was gonna have seven babies (which turned into 8) and what had she done to prepare for their arrival. It just seems like nothing is in place. There is no way these kids can be released until she has shown some sort of situation is in order to set up for their care. Again, even the most stable parent, with money and resources, would need a LOT of help to care for this many kids, as well as so many preemies at once. Perhaps she can secure the money from things like book deals or other things of that sort, but she has nothing really set up it seems in terms of childcare helpers, living situation, and so on.</p>
<p>Other than the fact that the woman clearly doesn’t plan ahead, a good reason why she may not have had anything in place for the septuplets she thought she was carrying was that there was such a high chance that she would not have had 7 infants to take home.</p>
<p>Good point, NSM…</p>
<p>Planning ahead – wasn’t she in the hospital for weeks? Probably just figuring out what to do with the kids who were not in utero was a challenge. Plus, there was never any guarantee that any of them – or even a few of them – would survive. I wonder how much preparation the McCouney family (sp?) did before the kids were safely stabilized. I’m not trying to defend her really but I’m not sure how much planning most people would have been able to do. I have to imagine being pregnant with that many babies would be physically overwhelming.</p>
<p>oops – didn’t see NSM’s post I guess.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to defend her actions, but I’m sure lack of money was another factor contributing to her lack of preparation.</p>
<p>Not having a lot of financial resources for D and I as she grew up, I always emphasized to “improvise.” I’m trying to put myself in her shoes and to think what I could do. How about 8 “egg-shell” mattresses layed sid/e by side with bedding on them to lay the infant’s on? Would that not work until they started to roll over? God forbid, how about cloth diapers and a washing machine going 24/7. Nadya, ever heard of freecycle, you should have utilized it once you knew you were having many babies. People probably wouldn’t be so harsh with you had you at least been a little proactive to show you gave a dammm about the impending birth of your children. God bless your children, they are going to need it.</p>
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<p>That would be very much against the current SIDS prevention guidelines to use firm mattresses. Which brings up another point, they’re probably going home on monitors. Even if they managed to feed the babies around the clock, living with 8 monitors going off randomly all the time means no one will be sleeping.</p>
<p>I sincerely hope that none of these babies are sent “home” with their mother. It is a disaster waiting to happen with their little lives on the line.</p>
<p>Those babies were born a month ago. A lot can be accomplished in a month. It doesn’t look like she has done much of anything to prepare for the babies, so perhaps at some level she realizes she probably isnt bringing them home. The photos of that house are nasty-- its filthy, there are crayon scribbles on the walls, and it just looks chaotic. She seemed to genuinely believe that she could manage uif she moved into a 4 br house. Thats beyond ridiculous, unless the caregivers that would also need to be there to help with round the clock care (feeding, changing, bathing, monitoring, stimulating etc), not to mention the care of the other 6 kids were expected to sleep in their cars or something. Maybe she is planning to hire all her caregivers from the “welfare to work” program. Whatever she is “planning”, she clearly isnt “planning”. It seems she just expects others will make this happen for her, as she has let others do for her in the past. And every time I see a photo of her hands with those perfectly manicured french tip nails near one of the little preemies, I want to scream. Nevermind the safety issue and clear selfishness-- if she was doing <em>anything</em> to help with the care of the babies or her own kids, those nails would be chipped and messed up. Nope-- not a ding that I can see. Unreal.</p>
<p>I’d love to be a fly on the wall during the discussions the hospital is having with the appropriate authorities about whether to let the babies go home with her. I’m assuming they have a plan in place at this point; they’re not going to wait until the first baby is ready to go home and then start to plan. They probably already know what they’re going to do and where the babies are going to go.</p>
<p>On Dr. Phil, as I understood it, she said that social workers were working with her while she was pregnant. She said that her mother had been looking with realtors for a new home. It seemed like that was the extent of the planning that got done.</p>
<p>Frankly, IMO, it seems like she is looking for others to help her formulate a plan, as well as take care of her and all of her children. Frankly, I think that is what she needs if she is to keep these children under her care. She comes across to me as very bright, and very childlike at the same time.</p>
<p>VH-
Read post# 978… You can then flip it and imagine a healthy conversation with appropriate problem-solving for those kids!</p>
<p>It seems like she would need a much bigger than 4 bedroom home to accomodate all of those children…6 minimum as far as I could imagine stretching their limits…and that wouldn’t even include room for the extra people needed for the care of all of these children.
I am under the impression that real estate is rather steep in that area…I wonder what such a home would cost ?
jym, you bring up some very valid points that I would have never thought of…the babies delicate skin, all of the monitors needed and the electrical system in the home to operate all the apparatus to sustain their lives.
I really hope that these babies are adopted out to people who can handle this instead of being sent to live with their very unprepared mother</p>
<p>According to the news, she made some veiled threats to sue Kaiser if they didn’t let her take the kids home. Good luck with that one. I hope her parents respond by recommending she be evaluated for competence or something.</p>
<p>I thought the house they were living in now was close to foreclosure. How could they possibly afford a bigger house? I think her “plan” while she was pregnant was that people/companies would come forward with massive donations and that she might write a book (I think she mentioned a book on Dr. Phil) and that she would become rich. The best outcome might be that people do not come forward to help and that the children are adopted by people who can actually take care of them.</p>
<p>JYM, I think I speculated hundreds of posts back that she might try to sue Kaiser over some aspect of this case. That’s another way for her to get money out of this. If she can’t sue them over not letting the babies come home, she can claim that Kaiser is responsible for any handicaps the babies might have.</p>
<p>I find post #978 absolutely depressing. I knew that these children would need a lot of care and resources, but I did not think about most of the things listed. Now that I see them, I realize that of course they will all be necessary. </p>
<p>I guess the situation is that several infants are about ready to be discharged, and should not remain in the hospital at enormous expense, taking up beds and care that is needed by others, and also should be going “home” for their own development, and there is no plan. Suleman doesn’t have even the ghost of a plan, and if they children are to be placed in foster care against her will, there must be time-consuming legal processes to go through. I wonder whether the hospital or social services is working on something? It is awful that these very needy babies are, essentially, in limbo.</p>
<p>prefect, I can’t imagine that any lawyer would agree to take a case involving suing a hospital for a bad outcome of an octuplet pregnancy! I find it incredible that all the babies survived. Has this happened before? Lawyers only take cases on contingency if they see a good chance of a jackpot at the end of the years of legal proceedings. Would anyone really believe that there is a chance of the hospital being found negligent in this case?</p>
<p>Now if they were to go after the fertility specialist, that would be another matter. I wonder how much malpractice insurance he is carrying?</p>
<p>NYMom,
The world of OB malpractice is a strange one. It might be unlikely, that the hospital was found negligent, but I wouldn’t say it’s impossible. I sure hope it wouldn’t happen.</p>