AMARILLO, Texas (AP) - Nothing is ever quite as simple for the Williams brothers and sister as it might be for someone else.
The Amarillo Globe-News (https://bit.ly/2jpAyF6 ) reports that’s because with Aiden, Dixon, Ethan, Mattisan and Garret, it’s always a multiplier of five.
Take their birthday cake. Leah, their mom, put 16 candles per each of their ages on the cake over the weekend. So that multiplied by five might have ordinarily had the fire marshal knocking on the door.
“That’s the thing, ” said Matt Williams, their father. “It’s always a numbers thing. What you might take for granted for one or two, you can’t with five.”
Aiden, Dixon, Ethan, Mattisan and Garret Williams - believed to be Amarillo’s only quintuplets - were born within 10 minutes of each other on Jan. 24, 2001, at Northwest Texas Hospital. Born at 27 weeks, each sibling weighed between just over 2 pounds, to 2 pounds, 9 ounces.
Leah was taking Clomid, a fertility drug, and with each sonogram each baby got a little more company until quintuplets were on the way in the last trimester. That still doesn’t lessen the shock and the overwhelming challenge ahead 16 years ago, one even greater with Dorrieann, then 2½, and the Williams parents were 34 and 43.
“When they gave my wife an epidural, I asked if they could give me one, ” Matt said. “Two’s not bad. Three maybe you can handle. Five was going to be a handful.
“I got pretty worried, but it has worked out. So many people kicked in to help. You do what you gotta do. I wouldn’t trade the experience now for anything.”
According to the National Center For Health Statistics, about 4 million babies are born in the U.S. each year. In most years, there are about 50 quintuplet births. That means the Williams quints are a statistical anomaly. About .00005 percent of the U.S. population is a quintuplet.
“It’s never been a negative,” Ethan said. “It was always surprising and you would get some looks when we would be walking around as kids and people would find out there were five of us all born on the same day.”
It is a statistical oddity greater than the Powerball for quintuplets to all be one sex - and the Williams are not. That’s where Mattisan comes in.
“It’s really made me tougher,” she said. “Everybody always feels sorry for me. I tell people not to feel sorry for me, but it’s them you have to feel sorry for. I don’t let them get to me.
After oldest sister Dorrie graduated from Tascosa High School in May, the other five are now all at Tascosa as well. Ethan is a sophomore. The other four, because of illnesses when smaller, missed a year. They are freshman. That includes Aiden, the oldest, who was born with cerebral palsy. It’s common for at least one baby in quintuplets to have the brain disorder at birth.
Aiden is in Tascosa’s adaptive curriculum class. He may be the sharpest one of the bunch. He loves music, participates in non-varsity choir, and a nurse will often take him to football and basketball games or to the Amarillo Little Theater.
“I get pretty emotional about this one,” Leah said. “He’s got a very big heart. I know he sees other kids his age doing things he can’t do but he’s never told me he’s sad. He never fails to put a smile on someone’s face.”
Aiden lives with Leah, who has been divorced from Matt for five years. The other four live with Matt and his wife.
They are as different as they are alike. They have different friends, different interests. Some love certain foods. Others hate it. Dixon loves to fly fish. The others would rather throw rocks or explore. Matty wants to be a veterinarian. One wants to be a mechanic. Another is into aerospace.
Dorrie, Matty and Garret all work at Malcolm’s Ice Cream. Garret has had his own business mowing yards. Ethan loves computers. And Dixon? “He’s not doing anything right now. We got to get him a job,” said Matt, who repairs computers, printers and televisions.
Sixteen years ago the Williams family received $6,000 worth of gift certificates shortly after their birth. There was a citywide baby shower at Southwest Church of Christ. Jiffy Lube donated a year’s worth of oil changes.
But what of diaper changes? It’s estimated it may take close to 30,000 diapers before a set of quintuplets could all be potty-trained.
“I wouldn’t doubt that,” said grandmother Beverly Boerstler. “I wouldn’t doubt that at all.”
An army of nearly 100 volunteers helped get the family through the formative years. It was such a big task that there was even a volunteer coordinator, Wanda Estes, who kept track of schedules.
“I got to where I could bottle feed three at one time,” Matt said. “On those times when we would go eat out, we had to make sure a restaurant had five high chairs. It did get easier as they got older.”
Turning 16, next on the agenda is a driver’s license for four of them. Everything is a multiplier. It’s hard to afford drivers education for four, so Matt is in the process of teaching the four of them how to handle a vehicle.
“Garret’s been driving one thing or another for about five years - I’m not worried about him,” Matt said. “But I’ve got a couple who haven’t touched a steering wheel in their lives.”
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Information from: Amarillo Globe-News, https://www.amarillo.com
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