Evonne and Deon Derrico from Las Vegas already had a seven-year-old daughter, a three-year-old son and one-year-old twin boys when they learned they were pregnant with five more babies. Evonne gave birth to two boys and three girls at the Banner Desert Medical Center on September 6, two proud parents with nine children under the age of seven have welcomed home the first of their new quintuplets – as they swear they didn’t use fertility ᴅʀᴜɢs to conceive them.
Speaking with the Today show, the parents shared their joy at having most of their family home. Evonne said: ‘I wanted a large family. No one expects that overnight but I wanted a large family… So this is just a blessing from God. It really is. It’s a dream come true.’ The couple hopes to bring another of the newborns home next week and the final baby – Daiten, who was born weighing less than two pounds – the following week. Evonne said: ‘As a mother with nine children, you often think, “Do I have enough love for all of them?”. I think that’s been my number one priority. I don’t want anyone to feel neglected or unloved.’
Their doctor had initially told the Derricos that they were expecting four babies, before revealing that there were actually five. At 22 weeks of pregnancy, after they discovered they were expecting quintuplets, the family moved to suburban Phoenix for care from Dr. John Elliott, a perinatologist and multiple-birth specialist. After spending her last trimester on bed rest, Evonne gave birth after carrying the babies to 32 weeks – and nearly doubled the family in less than five minutes.
Each was delivered between 11.17am and 11.21am on Friday, September 6. In keeping with family tradition, the babies’ names all start with the letter ‘D’: Deniko, Dariz, Deonee, Daician and Daiten. They joined the Derricos’ seven-year-old daughter, Dai, a three-year-old son, Deon, and one-year-old twin Bᴏʏs, Dallas and Denver. The mother didn’t know the babies’ genders prior to birth, hospital officials said, and she announced ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ as each baby was presented to her in the delivery room. Even though they already had twins and have other multiple births in their families, the couple was Sᴛᴜɴned. Doctors said the chances of her carrying quintuplets was one in a couple of million.
Deon told Today: ‘We’re not shocked to have the twins. We wouldn’t have been that sʜᴏᴄᴋed to have had twins again, but we could have never expected this.’ Now the family is just trying to find out their normal routine, but the parents grinned as they said they think they’re already on track. ‘Everything is going good and we’re all getting sleep and it’s working out amazingly well,’ Evonne said. After the births, the family of 11 told the Las Vegas Sun that they have to make some adjustments. ‘We have a vehicle for the family right now, but we don’t have a vehicle for the five others,’ said Mr Derrico, who works as a field property manager. ‘There’s just so much to figure out.’
