After 10 years, new adventures for septuplets

Ann Curry • Profile

On vacation in Mallorca, a Mediterranean island just off the coast of Spain, a family of ten experiences a collection of firsts: their first trip overseas…

Ann Curry: What can you speak in Spanish?
Kelsey: Me llamo Kelsey. And I learned “Buenos dias,” and that is “good morning”…

Their first glimpse of the seashore...

Ann Curry: Did you go in the ocean?
Nathan: Close to it -- and the waves came up on us.

And their first taste of seafood that's never on the menu at home...

Natalie:  I thought it was cheese sticks, but it was actually squid.
Ann Curry: I get those two confused all the time...
Natalie: I’m going to puke if I eat it.

But these were no ordinary tourists. 

For one, the president of Mallorca had invited the family to visit -- all expenses paid to boost tourism.

So for a week in March, the McCaughey septuplets, their big sister Mikayla, and parents Bobbi and Kenny travelled around the island with a private tour guide.

Tour guide: Look at the virgin.  Who can see the sun?

And among the firsts:  the realization that they themselves were a sight to behold.

Spanish teens: Siete es mucho, eh?

They’re famous not just in America, but even in a foreign country, a decade after making news worldwide.

Kelsey: They're like -- oh, I’ve seen you when you were a baby.
Ann Curry: People you never met before said that they knew from when you were a baby?
Kelsey: Yeah, I’m like, “Whoa, you do?”

"Whoa!" is how the world reacted when a young couple in Iowa broke the record for multiple births on November 19, 1997.

Natalie [reading from newspaper]: “At 12:48 p.m., Kenneth Robert came into the world; at 12:49 it was Alexis May; at 12:50 it was Natalie Sue; at 12:51 Kelsey Ann; at 12:52 Brandon James; at 12:53 Nathan Roy; and at 12:54 Joel Steven.
Joel: “...all the infants born to Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey were listed in serious condition...
Kelsey: “The smallest is Kelsey Ann at 2 pounds and five ounces.  The largest is Kenneth Robert named for his grandfather...
Kenny: “Kenneth Robert, who weighed in at three pounds and four ounces, was the first born.  The doctors nicknamed him Hercules because he held up all the others up … Four boys, three girls. All healthy.”

The seven babies would forever be known as the world's first set of surviving septuplets.  Dateline introduced them to the public just days after their dramatic birth and we have closely documented their lives in the decade since.

On our most recent visit, we watched excerpts from our reports that the children once thought were simply their home videos.  Back then, we were amazed by what was happening in their household-- the mischief, the madness, and moments of pure delight.

(In year five)
Ann Curry: Why do you like school?
Kelsey: We get some snacks! (laughter)
Ann Curry: What do you learn?
Kelsey: And you color!
Ann Curry: And what else?
Kelsey: And you sit and be quiet.
Ann Curry: And you sit and be quiet!  (laughter)

Now, we are fascinated by what is going on in their heads:  what they have to say about family, friendship, school, religion, even world events -- including the significance of their birth.

Ann Curry: And when you see how many babies your mom and dad had...
Kelsey: Oh yeah-
Ann Curry: What do you think?
Kelsey: Harsh.
Ann Curry: Harsh? Why is that harsh?
Kelsey: Having my mom do all that work in just six minutes.
Ann Curry: Giving birth to you in six minutes.
Kelsey: Like other people are like two hours.

Video   The lipgloss question Septuplet Kelsey talks to Ann Curry about lipgloss and growing up. Dateline NBC

Bobbi's c-section may have been astonishingly quick -- thanks to the 66 doctors, nurses, and technicians who teamed up for the once top secret "Operation Snow White."

But Bobbi’s pregnancy was agonizing.

(home video)
Kenny: We are now in the middle of our 27th week…

She had been on bed rest for five months while her family helped Kenny take care of one year-old Mikayla.

Kenny: Smile…
Mikayla: No!
Kenny: Yes!

Her goal was to carry the babies as long as possible.  Every day in the womb would save them two days in intensive care.  But by week 30, she couldn't  take it any longer.

(1997)
Bobbi: I just said “Kenny,” I said, “I cannot be pregnant one more day.”
Ann Curry: I understand at delivery you were two times more the size of a normal pregnant woman at full term.
Bobbi: I was 55 inches around.

Ann Curry: When you think back on that, what goes through you?
Bobbi: Glad it's over. You know, once they were born, it was just relief. You know I’m past that part of my life. And I won't be going back.

As tough as her pregnancy had been she says giving a press conference 24 hours after giving birth was practically torture.

Bobbi: I did not want to go out there. I was sitting out in the hallway, balling my eyes out. Pastor Brown comes up and says 'You don’t want to, you do not have to do this.' And I said, 'Yes I do, Kenny said so' -- went out there.

(1997, during press conference)
Kenny to Bobbi: Say what you want to say.

Bobbi: It was so overwhelming, you know, and I think in part because we may have been completely naive.

(1997, during press conference)
Bobbi whispers: I can't…

Bobbi: But the response was not at all what we had expected. When there was 40 satellite trucks lined up in front of the hospital, and reporters from Hong Kong and England -- it was just like what for? Why are they here? 
Kenny: We couldn't figure out why it was so big.
Ann Curry: Now you understand?
Kenny: In some ways, I feel like we're just one hit wonders, you know? That this was our one time claim to fame. It was quite the time, needless to say.

Video   Septuplet interviews Ann Curry Brandon McCaughey asks Ann Curry about her life in New York City. Dateline NBC

Until that time, Bobbi, then a 29-year-old seamstress, and 27-year-old Kenny, a billing clerk at a car dealership, had led quiet, simple lives as missionary Baptists.

(reading newspaper)
Mikayla: Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey met in Bible college where their faith in God and each other grew as they fell in love.  They married, settled down in a small two-bedroom frame house in Carlisle, Iowa, and began building a career and a family. About two years ago, Bobbi gave birth to the couple's first daughter Mikayla.

Mikayla was a hard-won baby, too. After three years of trying, she was conceived with the help of the fertility drug Metrodin.  That's the same drug Bobbi was using when she got pregnant with the septuplets.

Doctors had warned the McCaugheys of the dangers to Bobbi’s health and the grave risks for the babies. But because of their religious beliefs, the McCaugheys would not consider a procedure in which some are terminated for the sake of the others.

(1997 interview)
Ann Curry: Why didn't you consider selective reduction?
Bobbi: Because I believe that the life of a baby starts at the moment of conception.

Several of the septuplets may have suffered the consequences of being multiples born 10 weeks early. 

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