- So I'm 30 weeks pregnant,
we find out now,
our surrogate is having twins,
and we're basically going to be having triplets.
So now we have these three babies at home,
and I find out, surprise,
I'm pregnant again.
We went from praying to God
that we would have one child,
and doing everything possible.
Hedging our bets with the surrogate,
and then having four children.
- [Pete] You know, three years ago,
we were getting married,
and now we have this massive family
with these beautiful, healthy children.
We are very, very lucky.
- Of course, we were overwhelmed,
but we really felt like we hit the lottery.
This for us, was probably our dream.
So we're a family of seven.
Pete and I have five children.
We have Hunter, who is 13 years old.
We have Harlow who's 26 months,
we have Piper and Presley,
who are twins, at 22 months,
and then we have Dylan who's 13 months.
- We had worked together.
We became good friends,
and we started dating seriously,
about seven years ago.
We got married in June of 2016.
Fast forward,
a little bit over three and a half years,
and here we are with five kids.
- I had Hunter from a first marriage,
and I was around 30,
and so it was very easy.
Fast forward, Pete and I get married,
and I'm closer to 40,
and so now it's a lot harder,
and so we tried naturally for a long time,
and then we decided,
well we had to go the IVF route,
that even became really trying.
I felt very defeated.
We were having no luck.
Like nothing seemed to be working,
and I actually approached Pete and I said,
"I really think I want to use a surrogate."
So I just started learning about surrogacy.
I talked to an agency.
I just kind of started setting things up.
On our fourth IVF try, I did get pregnant,
but again, I wasn't feeling all that confident.
So that morning, I found out I was pregnant,
and then by that afternoon,
I actually called the surrogacy agency,
that I was already teeing up and I said to them,
"I'd like to move forward."
And they thought I was crazy.
I said,
"I just found out I'm pregnant,
but I don't know if this is going to happen."
And I really just did not want to wait
anymore to have a baby.
I felt like if both of us
were attempting to do this at the same time,
hopefully one of us it would take with,
and so I wouldn't be so nervous
going through the process of being pregnant.
For some reason, I never in my right mind
thought we would both end up with children,
and then I never in a million years
thought she would end up with twins.
A lot of people ask us,
"how many embryos did we implant in the surrogate?"
We did implant two, and so people say then,
"Why were you surprised about having twins?"
So what happened is that
we had embryos and they basically get graded.
I took the best two embryos that we had,
and I basically put them in me,
only one took.
So here we are,
I put two in me,
the best, highest quality and one takes.
So now with the surrogate,
we're going down a level.
The embryos we're putting in her,
are not as good as the first two that we used,
and so we felt that we of course
have to put two,
to basically just ensure that we even
get one to potentially take,
and never in our right mind,
did we think that one level down, frozen embryos,
would they both take.
The odds were really stacked against us
for that to actually happen.
So our entire life changed,
the second we got that call,
and found out we were having twins.
We have to think about every scenario possible,
now that we may really be bringing home triplets.
Everything was beating the clock,
like I was already 30 weeks pregnant.
I mean, it literally was like we have to try
and get our life in order.
It was pretty wild.
(whimsical music)
- [Pete] Tracy was complaining about
some swelling in her abdomen.
- I literally kept pointing it out,
and so all my friends and family say,
"Look at at this,"
I have this pouch that's growing.
- And then she called me at work and she said,
"Can you bring home a pregnancy test?"
And I said,
"Okay."
- No, you said,
"For you?"
- True story,
and voilà, she was pregnant.
- We find out that I had placenta accreta.
When we basically got pregnant,
his embryo was implanted in my scar tissue,
and as a result,
the placenta was attached to my uterus.
So Dylan was born at 29 weeks.
Being premature, some things did not fully develop.
Unfortunately, he does have congenital scoliosis,
which means his vertebrae didn't correctly form.
So that's something that we're really,
we're basically going to have to be on top of forever.
It's an issue.
It's complicated but,
- [Pete] He's a fighter.
- He's a fighter,
that's for sure.
He's our warrior.
Hunter!
Hunter, yours is going to be ready in one minute.
- Big bite.
- Okay, next.
Good job.
We basically have four right now,
under 26 months and so we keep a very strict schedule.
I think that's the only way
to make it work with multiples.
Seven o'clock, no matter what, everybody is up.
We all come out here,
and we do breakfast.
eight to nine bath time,
then nine to 12 is open,
so that's our playtime.
A lot of times, we'll go to the park,
we'll go to Gymboree.
We tire out the kids.
They have a good time.
They love getting the fresh air,
but then by 12 o'clock,
they are back in their seat ready for their next meal.
Then one to three is nap time.
At three o'clock they have to get up,
so that they'll actually sleep at night.
Now we have another two hours to play.
Five o'clock we're back in the high chairs for meal time.
From six to seven every single night,
All seven of us go into our playroom,
and we play with the kids,
and that's sort of like our family time.
Everyone gets to stretch their legs,
run around, just have fun,
and then by 7:30,
we're putting them down.
It's funny because a lot of people will say to us,
"well, can you come over?
Can you do this?"
And we can't.
We're really strict to the schedule.
In order for our life to be efficient,
we really make sure that the schedule
is the same and they're doing all the same activities,
but they're completely different people.
(singing) Y and Z. Now I know my
ABC's. Next time won't you
sing with me.
- Harlow is definitely our performer.
She loves to sing.
She loves to dance.
She's always the center of attention.
The twins, Piper is extremely athletic.
She loves to run anywhere.
If you will chase her,
She will run away from you,
and she enjoys it.
She loves to take things from the other kids,
and run away with them,
smiling and laughing the whole time.
She's also fearless.
She falls down she gets up right away.
She's extremely determined.
She always gets what she wants.
Presley, I would say is the most intuitive.
She always struck me as very intelligent,
from the day she was born.
She's always very aware of what's going on around her.
Always very aware of her surroundings.
She is always playing with all four of the children.
She definitely has the best relationship with Dylan.
She'll actually go over to him and say,
"Baby," "Dylan."
She'll crawl,
she'll try and interact with him,
and get him involved in everything.
Dylan is our fighter.
For some reason.
I worry about Dylan the least.
I know mom is very worried about him all the time,
but I feel like he's been through so much,
and he is so easy going about everything,
and he complains so little,
he's always kind of just rolling with the punches.
I also think having three older sisters,
who are extremely strong-minded,
will be very beneficial to him as he grows up.
- So Hunter has begged me forever for a sibling.
I mean now,
I don't know if he wanted four.
- There's seven of us in this house,
and it's crazy.
I thought I was gonna have like one sibling,
and then my mom's like,
you're gonna have triplets,
and I'm like, wow,
and then my mom has Dylan,
and then it's pretty like...
Woof.
- [Tracy] Hunter is a straight A student.
He's class president.
He is an athlete.
He's like the perfect role model for the girls,
so Hunter's role is to play with them.
- It's so nice, having a lot of siblings,
and I know it could be hard,
because it's just so much work,
but my mom makes it so fun.
- Okay, ready?
We're gonna go outside.
Okay, you have to put your jacket on Piper,
before Hunter can pick you up.
- We live in New York City with five kids,
and it's a fantastic experience.
The setup is very, very convenient for us.
If we need to take them to a doctors appointment,
if we need to go to their school,
if we need to meet with a teacher,
whatever that day calls for,
we want to be able to spend as much time
being involved in the kids lives,
while maintaining a career for both of us.
- And the kids love it.
The kids love the hustle and bustle.
You know, people say it's noisy,
there's a lot of people around.
That's all they know.
I think that's so normal for them.
We're never leaving.
We actually plan to have our five children here to stay.
Uh oh, one, two,
we're missing one.
I see.
Oops.
I just counted.
I'm like, oops I see four.
There's five.
For safety purposes,
I count the kids all the time.
I just say,
"Could we do a count?"
and I just go, one, two, three, four and five.
You never know when one of your children
could just slip away.
We're outnumbered, right?
It's dangerous.
- And whenever she counts,
I immediately look for the three girls,
because Hunter I'm kind of comfortable
that if he's walked off,
he can handle himself.
Dylan really can't move around yet.
Whereas the three girls will dart off
in every single direction
if you give them the opportunity.
So once we can get a hold of the three girls,
that's the emergency count,
then I feel like we can expand it to the five.
A lot of dads approach me who have multiples.
I tell them just take things not even a day at a time,
take things a minute at a time.
Just do what you can in that moment.
Do the best you can.
Don't think too far in the future,
and try and enjoy it as much as you can.
There's nothing you can do.
We are completely outnumbered.
They are going to win,
and the sooner you accept that,
the better you are at managing the day to day.
Three years ago,
we were getting married,
and now we have this massive family
with these beautiful healthy children.
We're very fortunate.
We're very blessed.
- You know, fertility is a very scary thing,
and we obviously lived it,
and there were times where we did feel completely defeated,
but I don't take it for granted at all,
that we have these children.
I know that we are the lucky people.
We did hit the lottery with this crew.
It's amazing.
It really is truly amazing.