*Trigger Warning: This story contains mentions of miscarriage and infertility.
Kate Gosselin recently opened up on social media about the health challenges she faced while carrying her and ex-husband Jon Gosselin’s sextuplets, as well as the seventh child who did not survive the high-risk pregnancy.
As fans know, the former Jon & Kate Plus 8 stars share eight children– 24-year-old twins Mady and Cara and 21-year-old sextuplets Alexis, Hannah, Aaden, Collin, Leah and Joel.
This week, Kate continued her “Infertility, Pregnancy and Birth” TikTok series, in which she recalled the moments leading up to (and immediately following) the birth of the Gosselin sextuplets, which were initially set to be septuplets. While Kate has previously opened up in interviews (and in one of her books) about the seventh baby who did not survive what turned out to be her last pregnancy, she shared more details about the loss on TikTok this week after recalling the moment she learned that she was carrying seven babies.
“ … So we had our first ultrasound at six weeks and there were seven babies [at the time],” Kate said. “I think they had us come back the next week– it was either the next week or two weeks, I can’t honestly remember– to see how they had progressed. In between that time, the seventh baby stopped growing.”
Despite experiencing the loss early in her pregnancy, Kate went on reveal in the comments that she “always thought” that seventh baby would’ve been a girl.
“Her name would have been Emma,” she added.
After sharing in a previous TikTok that she experienced kidney stones and “hyper-stimulated ovaries” while pregnant with the sextuplets, Kate revealed in Part 4 of her TikTok series that there was “another emergency” she faced “pretty early on” in her pregnancy that left her to fearing for the lives of all six of the babies she was carrying.
“ … At some point I started bleeding,” she said. “I, of course, thought this was the beginning of a miscarriage [and] I was losing them all … .”
Kate noted that the incident– which happened after she lost the seventh baby– landed her in the emergency room, where she underwent an ultrasound that had her “waiting on pins and needles.”
“I was just trying to see that ultrasound so bad and [the tech] was sort of shielding us from seeing,” Kate said. “At some point, she just got really quiet and I thought, ‘Here we go, it’s done,’ and I was really, really scared. All of a sudden, she said, ‘I see six,’ and I said, ‘You see six what?!’ and she said, ‘I see six heartbeats, they’re there.’”
Kate claimed that this was the moment she knew she was “committed to these babies,” recalling the relief she felt after learning that they were okay.
“ … From that point on, I was in it,” she said. “I was going to fight for them, I was going to do whatever. Not that I wasn’t before, but just the fact that it was dangled, I was threatened with losing them, it made me realize how much I already loved them. So that was very miraculous.”
The former TLC star went on to share details of her sextuplets’ birth, which she said occurred two months before they were due. She revealed that all six babies were delivered within the span of just three minutes and while they arrived rather quickly, Kate– who had been on bedrest in the months leading up to the delivery– didn’t get to meet them herself until half a day later.
“That first night around 7 p.m., I got to go up [to the NICU] to visit them for the first time,” she said. “Mind you, they were born from 7:51 to 7:53 a.m. … so it was twelve hours later. Family members had already seen them, and I felt like the last to see them. … I understand I was in huge recovery [at the time], I really had no muscle tone left. I could walk to the bathroom, which was maybe 10 feet [away], but that’s all the walking I had done for months.”
While Kate was discharged from the hospital four days after giving birth, it was nearly two months before all six of the Gosselin babies were able to join her. Kate noted that the sextuplets “did really well” in the NICU– save for a brief health scare with Aaden– and eventually, Hannah and Leah were cleared to go home on June 30, followed by Alexis on July 1, Joel on July 3 and Aaden and Collin on July 9.
When Jon and Kate welcomed the sextuplets in 2004, they were still living in Reading, Pennsylvania, which was about an hour away from the Hershey hospital in which Kate gave birth. Kate shared this week that while the sextuplets were recovering in the NICU, the family moved into the Ronald McDonald House that was near the hospital so that they could be closer to the babies. However, Kate revealed that their living situation soon changed after an unknown person donated their timeshare condo– which was down the road from the hospital– so that the family could be nearby as the babies began coming home.
“I still don’t know who [donated the timeshare],” Kate told fans this week. “Thank you, if you’re watching this. I’m eternally grateful.”
Watch Part 4 of Kate’s “Infertility, Pregnancy and Birth Journey” TikTok below.
@kate.gosselin Here’s the part 4 (of my Infertility, pregnancy and birth journey) you all requested!!! #storytime
RELATED STORY: Kate Gosselin Reflects on Divorce from Jon Gosselin; Says Split “Did Not Turn Out Well” for Their 8 Kids
(Photos: TLC; TikTok)
3 Responses
Well one thing I can say positive about her is that she renewed her nursing license every year, instead of trying to become a DJ. I read somewhere that she is back to nursing.
These “kids” are in their 20s now; it’s time for you to quietly go away.
She cant she is used to a certain lifestyle and the monies run out!