SEPTUPLETS: IT'S A MIRACLE

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More drugs might have helped Bobbi delay the inevitable, but, says Drake, "she'd had it." It was time to execute the plan that had been worked out over the previous two months. The delivery took place in a two-room surgical suite that normally serves cardiac patients. At 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Bobbi was partly anesthetized; 18 minutes later, the boy nicknamed Hercules (he'd been supporting the weight of all his siblings in the womb) was lifted out. "There was a lot of pressure," says anesthesiologist Dr. Dirk Brom, "but it all went like clockwork." Bobbi was quiet, Brom recalls, but "there were tears in her eyes as her babies were being born." Before she left the operating room, Bobbi was reportedly given a tubal ligation.

As they were delivered, each infant--Kenneth Robert (a.k.a. Hercules), then Alexis May, Natalie Sue, Kelsey Ann, Brandon James, Nathan Roy and, finally, Joel Steven--was taken to an adjacent room, placed on a warmer bed and given a ventilator tube and an intravenous line; then each was moved to the intensive care unit at the Blank Hospital. All the babies were initially listed in serious condition, which is actually better than expected, considering they were 10 weeks premature. Joel was briefly downgraded to critical on Wednesday because of blood loss. But by evening he had rebounded, and he has as good a chance of thriving as his siblings.

Despite their lack of growing space and premature delivery, the septuplets were surprisingly big, ranging from a respectable 2 lbs. 5 oz. for Kelsey to a (relatively) strapping 3 lbs. 4 oz. for Kenneth. Still, like most preemies, all the babies had trouble breathing at first. Dr. Robert Shaw, the neonatologist in charge of the babies' care, originally predicted that this condition would last four or five days. But by Friday, Kenneth had begun breathing on his own and had his status upgraded to fair. The rest remained in serious condition, but that's par for the course. "We're trying to let them rest, limit their exposure to infections and let them grow stronger," says Shaw. "We're working at maintaining their temperatures, which is not easy to do in an Iowa winter."

If all goes well, the kids will be out of the hospital by late January--which is when they would have been born if they had gone full term. Their mother, who has been visiting her babies by wheelchair, may leave the hospital early this week. In a television interview Friday, Bobbi said she'll be home for Thanksgiving "if I have to walk home."

Over the next few weeks, the medical team will try to wean the babies off their breathing tubes and IV infusions, and then start them on breast milk and formula to get their tiny digestive systems working. All the while, the doctors and nurses will be watching carefully; they're well aware that in the only other live septuplet birth, to a Saudi woman in September, three of the babies died a month later. They'll be giving the parents as many chances as possible to touch, hold and care for their children. On Friday, Bobbi and Kenny held Kenneth for the first time. "It was incredible," said Bobbi. "I can't wait to hold all of them."