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'Relieved' Family Adds 6 Babies

Indira LeVine / News Channel 8

Ben Byler, center, talks about being the new father of sextuplets. Dr. Karen Raimer, right, and Dr. Sosa, left, meet the media.

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By STEVE KORNACKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2007

Updated: 09/03/2007 12:11 am

ST. PETERSBURG - Most of the 35-member team that helped bring the Byler sextuplets into the world during three hectic minutes held hands with Karoline and Ben Byler before the Caesarean section delivery. Then they prayed.

Ben Byler said that was the most memorable moment in the Saturday night births of the couple's five sons and daughter at Bayfront Medical Center.

They were the first sextuplets born in Florida and the 14th in the United States.

'Thanks to the Lord above,' he said Sunday morning. 'It's sunk in now, and there's a lot of relief, except for this one. We've just got to pray.'

Ryan Patrick was experiencing breathing problems, and he and two siblings were on ventilators. Karoline Byler remains in Bayfront and was 'doing extremely well,' according to physician Karen Raimer, who delivered the babies.

'They lowered the oxygen they are providing Ryan, so he can take some outside air,' said Ben Byler, 30. He said Karoline, 29, still was heavily medicated and unable to speak with the media.

The father wore the hospital bracelets of his six new children on his right wrist. They were moved next door to the neonatal intensive care unit at All Children's Hospital shortly after being born between 9 and 9:03 p.m. Saturday.

The boys came first as breech births. MacKenzie Margaret (2 pounds, 9 ounces) came after her brothers. Brady Christopher (2 pounds, 8 ounces) was first, followed by Eli Benjamin (3 pounds), Ryan (3 pounds), Jackson Robert (2 pounds, 10 ounces) and Charlie Craig (2 pounds, 5 ounces).

'They wanted to go feet first, and the girl came head first,' Raimer said.

Eli weighed about a third of an ounce more than Ryan, making him the heaviest.

All told, they added up to 16 pounds of joy for the Bylers. Roberto Sosa, director of neonatology at All Children's, said the babies' weights were normal for their gestation period of 29 weeks and four days.

'The babies are still developing,' Sosa said. 'The lungs are developing, the brains. Those are the problems we face. But I am cautiously optimistic everything will turn out all right.'

On Sunday evening, MacKenzie and Charlie were listed in serious condition, while Ryan and Jackson were in critical condition. Brady and Eli were in stable condition. Eli, MacKenzie and Ryan are on ventilators, said their father, who added he was not aware that their conditions had deteriorated since the afternoon.

He expected them to stay in the hospital until November, which would have been the end of a normal 42-week gestation period. He said the babies would weigh about 5 pounds by then.

'Basketball Team And Cheerleader'

'They were just so tiny,' said grandmother Patty Kiewra of The Villages. 'But they were beautifully formed babies. We're thrilled, shocked. It's amazing, exciting.'

Ben Byler exited the delivery room after the births to give a thumb's-up to more than a dozen family members and friends waiting anxiously outside the swinging double doors. His grandfather, Pete Petersen of Wichita, Kan., said he could see Ben smiling through his surgical mask.

'We got a basketball team and a cheerleader,' Petersen said.

That made grandfather Grant Anderson of Wellington, Kan., laugh. 'He stole my line again,' he said. 'They truly are a miracle.'

Petersen brought six purple Kansas State University Wildcats caps he said were donated, admitting it would be some time before they fit.

Family members were getting ready to watch the Kansas State football team play Auburn on Saturday night at the Byler's Wesley Chapel home when Byler received a call about 7 p.m. saying his wife's water had broken. He had just returned from the hospital but rushed back.

The day that began at 3 a.m., when he awoke to run his Pepperidge Farms bread and bagel route in Tampa, didn't end until 1 a.m. Sunday.

'I slept in my wife's bed at the hospital from about 1 to 7 a.m.,' he said. 'People have asked me about what I am going to hand out, but I haven't left the hospital to get to a store and buy some chocolate candy or chocolate cigars to hand out to people. But what am I going to give them? Do I have to give six cigars to everybody?'

Names Honor Family Members

Three of the names weren't selected until Sunday morning, and the Bylers decided to honor friends and family with middle names. Eli received his father's first name as a middle name, while Charlie Craig got his middle name from his father's uncle, who died three years ago from a heart attack.

'That was very touching,' great-grandmother Betty Petersen said. 'I couldn't hardly handle it because it meant so much.'

The Petersens and Andersons arrived Tuesday to help take care of the Byler's oldest child, Zoe, 4, and to put together closet organizers, shelves and hangers.

Ben Byler has converted the garage of his three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home into a future playroom. Grandparents Jack and Patty Kiewra helped set up the bedrooms.

Everyone's pitching in to help make a challenging life change a little easier.

'They won't have a normal life for a long time,' Petersen said.

The staff at Bayfront organized a delivery team larger than a Major League baseball team and its coaching staff. Raimer, who delivered quintuplets in 1997, said everything was color-coded for each child, 'right down to the umbilical cord clamps.'

On Sunday morning, 'our prayers were answered,' she said.

Today, Ben Byler will be up at 3 a.m., running his route. Now, there are six more mouths to feed.

To follow the family's story, go to www.bylerbunch.com.

Reporter Steve Kornacki can be reached at (813) 731-8170 or skornacki@tampatrib.com.

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