While Brangelina might have their hands full taking care of 6 children all at the same time, that ain’t nothin’ compared to the baby work ahead for a new mother in California. Doctors at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Bellflower, CA announced yesterday that they delivered the US’s second set of octuplets Monday from a woman (who wishes to remain anonymous) who was expected to only birth 7 babies. After the 7th baby was delivered, SURPRISE!, doctors found one more little person crammed all up in there. Amazingly, all 8 babies (born 9 weeks early) are doing fine and are breathing on their own … mother is also doing fine:

A woman in California delivered what may be the nation’s second live-born set of octuplets on Monday morning, surprising doctors who expected seven babies. The six boys and two girls — ranging in weight from 1 pound 8 ounces to 3 pounds 4 ounces — were generally doing well in incubators following their Caesarean-section delivery at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, California, doctors said. Three of the babies need breathing assistance, but otherwise the eight don’t appear to have serious problems, doctors said at a news conference Monday evening. “It was a truly amazing delivery,” said Dr. Karen Maples, chief of the hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology department. Doctors initially believed the mother — whom they did not identify — was pregnant with seven fetuses. The woman was 23 weeks pregnant when she was hospitalized seven weeks ago and ordered to bed rest. Over a seven-week period, a team of 46 physicians, nurses and other staff prepared for the births. When they started the delivery Monday — more than nine weeks before the babies would be full term — they were in for a surprise. “After we got to Baby G, we were surprised by the discovery of a Baby H,” Maples said. Getting the number correct with ultrasounds before delivery is difficult with so many babies, said Dr. Harold Henry, the hospital’s chief of fetal medicine. “It is quite easy to miss a baby when you’re expecting seven,” Henry said. The hospital said the woman didn’t want her personal information released to the news media, and it would not answer questions about whether she’d had fertility treatments. Preliminary research indicates this is the second set of live-born octuplets in the United States, according to the hospital. Eight babies believed to be the United States’ first set of live octuplets were born in Houston, Texas, in 1998. One of the infants died days after birth. The seven other siblings recently celebrated their 10th birthday, the Houston Chronicle reported last month. The first three to seven days will be critical for the California babies, said Dr. Mandhir Gupta, one of the doctors at the news conference. The infants could be in incubators for six to eight weeks and in the hospital for 10 weeks, Gupta said. The mother is doing “very well” after the deliveries, which took about five minutes, Gupta said. “She is very excited that she [has] all these babies and that the babies are looking good so far,” Gupta said.

Altho the mother/family wishes to remain anonymous at this point, I think they should seriously consider going public. With 8 babies to take care of, they’re gonna need some help … and mebbe a TV series? Jon & Kate Plus 8 could use a little competition, I think. At this point, the babies are only known as A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H which (it must be said) are even more odd than even the wackiest celeb baby names. And to clarify, this CNN report states that the babies require breathing assistance but I just heard a report this morning that they have been taken off respirators and are all breathing on their own … which is happy, happy news. Much congrats and love goes out to this family … they’ve got a wee bit more than they had bargained for but I wish them all the love and happiness in the world.

UPDATE: I just found out that the US’s first octuplets born (about 10 years ago) have their own website HERE. LOL!

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