Help The Freels Raise Quintuplets

Hello! Welcome to the Help the Freels Raise Quintuplets GoFundMe page for Stephanie and Graham Freels + their 5 newborn babies! We are Alisha (Steph’s sister) and Jacob (Alisha’s husband) and we have set up this GoFundMe to bless Steph and Graham on this new journey! Below is a note from Graham about their story:

Stephanie and I are so excited to announce that our quintuplets have been born, and Stephanie and all our babies are doing fantastic! We give all the glory to God, and I can't say THANK YOU enough to any and all people who have taken time to help and pray for us and these babies. It truly means the world to us. I feel like I could write a novel sharing this entire story for GoFundMe, but I will do my best to keep it as short as possible.

Finding Out We Were Pregnant

Back in February of 2022, Stephanie and I decided to pursue fertility treatment after not being able to get pregnant for several years. Stephanie had a pituitary surgery in September of 2017, and while the surgery went great, her body never was able to regain the ability to ovulate. I’m not going to lie, the journey of infertility is extremely difficult, especially when you love kids like Stephanie and I do. Ever since Stephanie and I met, we talked about having a big family together. Sadly, there were days I thought we may never even have one. Ha! Boy was I wrong!

We loved our fertility clinic. We told them that we can’t wait to bring the kids to see them, but we promise we will bring the babies after hours so we don’t scare anyone away!

Fast forward to December 23, 2022- after four rounds of IUI plus ovulation induction, we found out that we were pregnant! I will never forget the moment of flipping the test over with Stephanie and seeing VERY DARK lines. There was no doubt in our minds!

A few days later we went into our clinic to test Stephanie’s HCG levels. Our nurse practitioner told us our goal was to have a number around 200, and if it’s closer to 1000, we might be having twins! We got our number back… It was 6,400! I knew right then and there, we were having multiples. However, I NEVER thought quintuplets were even a possibility.

On January 4, 2023 we went in for our first ultrasound at just 5.5 weeks into our pregnancy. We saw two heartbeats and five gestational sacs, which was soon to be confirmed as quintuplets! It was crazy! We felt full excitement and full scared out of our minds all at the same time.

Moving To Phoenix, AZ

Soon after finding out we were having quintuplets, I immediately went into research mode, and quickly found out about a doctor in Phoenix, Arizona through another quintuplet family’s YouTube channel: the Scotts of Five Two Love. His name was Dr. John Elliot, and he had delivered 25 sets of quintuplets. We messaged him to introduce ourselves, and he called us back that day. He was the first medical person to give us hope, but he also informed us that if we wanted this pregnancy to be a success, we had to drop everything in our lives, and move to Phoenix to work with him. He also said doctors' orders were to consume at least 4,000 calories a day to give us the best hope of having babies who had good weights even at a premature age. We listened. By the beginning of March we had sold our business, said a temporary goodbye to our loved ones in Washington, and moved to Phoenix!

Life in Phoenix, before these babies came into the world, has honestly been great! While it was difficult leaving Washington, it was nice being somewhere where we had no distractions, but were forced to fully focus on the pregnancy. Our average day looked like this (if I didn’t sleep in):

It was a great day if Stephanie was able to consume 4000 calories for the day. Unfortunately, Stephanie had Hyperemesis Gravidarum for the entire pregnancy, and we had to be even more intentional about her getting calories in. I know Stephanie loved me through this pregnancy, but I think there were several moments where she didn’t really like me for how many smoothies and Ensures I made her consume. She quickly began to hate the words “You got this!”

While our days in Phoenix were quite simple, I honestly loved them. It felt a little like the calm before the storm, and it was nice to be fully present with each other before our lives got crazy.

On top of that, we met a family at a church we attended who had quadruplets this past year. Not only did it provide hope for us right in front of our eyes, they’ve already been amazing friends to us, and I believe we have some lifelong friends. We also met a family in our community, and the dad (Tregg) works with my little brother, Bradley. Crazy small world! Tregg and I were supposed to go on a hike the morning our babies were born, so I unfortunately had to bail on him- Sorry Tregg!

I think the most difficult part of leaving Washington was leaving our community behind, and God quickly gave us friends here- again we are thankful!

Our Pregnancy Up Until The Birth

Besides Stephanie feeling sick for most of the pregnancy, everything else was nearly perfect. At almost every appointment Stephanie’s blood pressure consistently averaged 120/80, and all babies consistently were gaining weight. In fact, all babies consistently averaged weights that were weeks ahead of the curve. I kept telling people that I thought we were in the running for breaking the world record for heaviest quintuplets! I had no doubt that we would make it to 34 weeks. I tend to be over-ambitious.

Here is the last baby bump photo I got of Stephanie at 26 weeks pregnant. She was in too much pain to take the 27 week bump photo (she was in labor and we didn’t know it….)

The Birth Story

Starting on Wednesday, May 31st, Stephanie started to get swelling in her feet and legs and pretty severe back pain. I think I was so caught up in believing she was going to make it to 34 weeks because there were no complications in the pregnancy, that the obvious was not so obvious to me.

It continued to get worse and that Friday (June 2nd and Steph’s 27 week mark) we went in for a regular checkup appointment. Steph’s blood pressure had risen, she was pretty swollen, and in even more pain. That said, Dr. Elliot seemed calm, but said we’d probably need to admit Steph within one to two weeks.

Friday night was rougghhhhh on Steph. She never slept because she was in so much pain. All I could think about was how was she going to make it to 34 weeks if she was in this much pain…

The pool was always Stephanies’ saving grace. Even when she was in pain or feeling sick, the pool literally lifted the weight for her. Saturday was different though. She never got comfortable in the pool that day, and actually was holding back tears the entire time. I finally asked her if she thought it might be a good idea to go to the hospital that night- she quickly said yes.

I texted both Dr. Elliot and our head nurse at the hospital, and said we were going to come in just for Stephanie’s back pain, and hopefully we could come home that night!

I was so clueless that I even went and got some to-go thai food thinking it’d be good for Steph to have a full stomach before spending several hours at the hospital. However, Steph couldn’t eat because she was in so much pain. It still hadn’t clicked for me, and I thought it might be good to make her another Graham Mass-Gainer Smoothie just to “ensure” she got some good calories in for the night.

Things quickly changed when Stephanie’s mucus plug fell out while she was in the shower. That’s when I knew something was wrong. We quickly got in the car and booked it to the hospital. I only ran one red light (Steph wasn’t too happy about that).

After checking into the triage things only got worse for Stephanie. Her blood pressure stayed around 145/85, her feet were huge and purple, and she was in tears due to pain. The doctor that was there checked her cervix, informed us that she was 6cm dilated, and let us know we would be seeing our babies within an hour.

It was without a doubt the scariest words I’ve ever heard. All I could think about was not making it to our goal. Would our babies be okay, or would they even make it now because it was so early. On the flip, I was terrified for Stephanie, and I was so mad at myself for not taking her in earlier. It was probably the lowest moment of my life. I was even trying to tell the doctor there must be some way to stop the labor. I had no idea what I was talking about.

Dr. Elliot arrived shortly after all of this. He was calm, pinched Stephanie’s toes and joked with Stephanie saying “what have you done?” I joked back with “I’m sorry I messed up your quintuplet gestational age average”, and for the first time started to feel a little more calm.

Stephanie was soon rolled back for her emergency C-section, and there was no going back now! I was amazed at how calm Stephanie was through it all (but I guess that could have been the epidural). Watching each baby come into this world was by far the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced, and they were so stinking beautiful. Luckily I only passed out after the babies had been born! They took the oxygen mask off of Stephanie and gave it to me to bring me back to normal. Sorry Steph!

Dr. Elliot and the team finished the surgery, he told me it couldn’t have gone any better, and he gave me a hug. I finally had some peace. A couple hours later our NICU doctor came back to us smiling, and I knew that must mean good news. He said all of our babies were doing exceptionally well despite how early they were. He told me their weights were amazing. It was time to celebrate!

Freels Quintuplets - Welcome To The World!

Again, all of our babies are doing exceptionally well. It almost felt a little anticlimactic once they were born. We are so happy to introduce them to you.

As I write this, our babies have been in the NICU for about 90 hours. Every time I visit them, the nursing staff keeps sharing how well they are doing and it continues to blow my mind. Apparently our babies are some of the healthiest babies born at 27 weeks they have seen. I don’t have words to describe how much gratitude I have.

How is Momma?

Stephanie is continuing to prove to me how strong of a woman she is. She was up and walking within one day. Crazy! All of her vitals are good, and most importantly, her energy and appetite is back! I’ve been joking with people that I finally get to hang out with my “normal” wife again. I’ve missed her for a few months!

The only tough thing for her is navigating what life looks like after having your abs ripped open. I told her I can finally beat her in a plankhold.

She will be discharged tomorrow (June 8th), and we are both really excited to get back to “normal” life again. Whatever that looks like!

How are we?

To be honest, I feel like I’m in a dream. Stephanie and I keep saying we can’t believe this is real. Our kids are so beautiful, and doing so well. We are SO THANKFUL for every person at Saint Joseph’s who has helped us. It is overwhelming.

I feel like I have a million people to say thank you to: between our medical team, family, friends, and even people I don’t know who have reached out and helped. I’ve never felt so blessed in my entire life.

What is next?

Again, Stepanie will be discharged on June 8th, but we are expecting our babies to stay in the NICU potentially until their original due date, which is September 1.

We will continue to stay in our apartment here in Phoenix, which is only ten minutes from the hospital, and we will visit our babies as much as we possibly can.

It is our hope that we can begin heading back to Washington around the middle of September. Once home, we know we have a tough year ahead of us, but we are both SO EXCITED. These kids are a huge blessing, and while we may not be getting much sleep and a social life this coming year, we have nothing but gratitude for the road ahead. But hey, if you want to come over and help, we will take it!

After this first year, we have no idea what is ahead. But if there is anything we absolutely know at this point, it is that God is faithful. We ain’t worried!

Our GoFundMe Goal

If I had $10 every time someone asked me “Where’s your GoFundMe?” during this pregnancy, I probably wouldn’t have to do a GoFundMe! If I’m being completely honest, this is difficult for me, as I’m bad at asking for help

I’m letting go of this though, and realizing that for me to be the best husband to Stephanie, and father to these kiddos, I need to let other people come in and help.

I’m letting the campaign managers, Alisha and Jacob (Stephanie’s sister and husband) choose the campaign goal, and I just want to say that I can’t thank you enough for your help during this season of life for us. I promise to use these funds wisely and appropriately.

In terms of unexpected expenses from this pregnancy, we have spent around $37,000 (Rent: $12,000, 15 Passenger Van: $19,000, Medical bills before having AZ insurance: $3200, and Misc: Roughly $3000).

We are expecting to spend another $6000-$9000 on rent (Phoenix ain’t cheap).

After that, I know we have a lot of expenses ahead, but I know we are going to be taken care of.

Thank you

Again, I just want to say thank you again to anyone who chooses to help us. It means the world to Stephanie and I, and I can’t thank you enough. We are so excited about raising these children, and we say thank you and bless you for choosing to help us along the way.

God bless,

Graham

If you would like to keep up with our journey raising these kiddos, feel free to visit our blog: wearethefreels.

Last but not least, here are some fun photos we have gotten so far: