Massillon quints are all at home

By Kathy Antoniotti

Akron Beacon Journal

MASSILLON

The Spicocchi quintuplets of Massillon are home for Christmas.

Gia, the youngest — two minutes separate her from first-born Ilah — went home Nov. 10. Enzo, the only boy in the bunch, left the hospital three weeks later.

“[Gia] was the last one out and the first one home,’’ said Dr. Harriet Feick, Gia’s neonatologist at Akron Children’s Hospital, where the infants were taken after their Aug. 3 births at Akron General Medical Center.

The quintuplets, children of Vince Spicocchi, a Massillon firefighter-paramedic, and Amie Spicocchi, a pediatric nurse at Aultman Hospital in Canton, were born by cesareab section 14 weeks shy of their due date. Each baby weighed less than 2 pounds at birth and had to remain at Children’s until they could take nourishment well, Amie Spicocchi said.

Ellie now weighs more than 10 pounds, and the others weigh more than 9 pounds each. Feick attributes their healthy growth in great part to the care their parents provided while they were in the neonatal unit.

The Spicocchis employed kangaroo care — a method of holding a baby that involves skin-to-skin contact on their bare chests — for one to two hours each day.

“It made a huge difference,’’ Feick said.

The girls were sent home to join big sister Taylor, 14, and brother Grady, 5, before their mother’s original due date, Feick said.

Paige, who went home Nov. 26, was labeled ‘’Poppy’s present,’’ because she arrived in Massillon on grandfather Mark Lambright’s birthday.

The premature babies have thrived on breast milk provided by their mother — their only nourishment since birth. Is has only been in the past two weeks that the babies began drinking some formula with their meals.

“We do seven feedings a day. At five bottles each feeding, that’s 35 bottles a day,’’ Vince Spicocchi said.

The babies have set feeding and changing times, he said, and “whoever is the loudest gets fed first.’’

They go through between 45 and 50 disposable diapers each day, he said.

Since the babies’ arrival, the Spicocchis’ living room has become “Baby Central,’’ said their father. The infants sleep in two cribs that are set up in an alcove of the room.

Twenty to 25 close friends and family members volunteer to assist in the babies’ care each day, including the 1:30 a.m. feedings. Each volunteer was asked to get a flu shot and a Tdap vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.

The door is barred to anyone who might bring flu or cold germs into the house. Shoes come off, and hands are washed before they touch babies, Vince Spicocchi said.

The couple sleeps in shifts, and the babies are never left alone, Amie Spicocchi said.

“If you get four hours a night in our house, it’s a good night’s sleep,’’ she joked.

On the one night the couple agreed to take a break and go out to dinner, Amie said she asked Vince what he wanted to do.

“Can’t we just stay home and sleep?’’ Vince said he responded.

The Spicocchis were looking forward to Christmas, but relatives have to visit the children at the Spicocchis’ house, Amie said.

She seemed stumped when asked about what presents the quints can expect for Christmas.

‘’Santa’s bringing diapers,’’ she said.