Sextuplet dad Joe Perry will spend Father's Day doing what he's been doing over the last three weeks:
Feeding. Rocking. Changing diapers. Then starting all over again.
Not that Perry's complaining. Although he's had to give up ice hockey games, naps and the occasional late-night TV show, Pittsburgh's first sextuplet dad is loving every sleepless minute of it.
"We always said we wanted to have a big family," said Perry, 33, of Ross last week while rocking baby Zoe in the living room of his two-story home. "We thought it would be possible but this never crossed my mind."
Perry was building up his fatherhood resume with Parker, 3, when last fall an ultrasound revealed his wife, Erin, was carrying six babies. The three boys and three girls were delivered March 19 by Caesarian section at Magee-Womens Hospital -- about 12 weeks before their due date. Only Madison remains at the hospital, fighting a kidney infection, although she could be home in about two weeks.
"Things will definitely be different in two months when they're all here and they're awake more often," said Perry, trying to explain why the house seemed so quiet even at mid-morning with five sleeping babies scattered throughout the living room in a line-up of bouncy chairs and cribs. "People walk in the house and say, 'Where are they?' and they're right here."
Perry, himself from a family of five siblings, seems at ease in his new role. He's typically up by 5:30 a.m. every day, often sleeping as little as five hours. At 8 a.m. he's getting up big brother Parker and helping him dress. By 11:30 a.m. he's off to his job in Cranberry as production coordinator for a urethane maker.
"We're living the life," he'll often tell his wife in those rare moments when the two are alone, she cradling two crying babies, he bumping a bassinet with his hip with another baby in his arms.
Perry likes to be organized. He's the parent-in-charge in the mornings while Erin goes to Magee to check up on Madison. The babies eat just about every four hours with the help of relatives, neighbors and volunteers from Assumption Church where they worship. The names of helpers -- who can be found at the Perry home even in the middle of the night -- are neatly listed by day and time on a clipboard that sits on a living room end table.
"There's no way that I could be hands off," explained Perry, who remodeled the babies' upstairs bedroom with the help of some friends. "The days go so fast. There's no time between anything. By the time you eat a bowl of cereal, they're going again."
While the babies sleep most of the day, the Perrys say the sextuplets "seem to go crazy in the evenings." As if on cue, they whimper and wail at the same time. The Perrys figure they're just hungry for more food. All are growing quickly -- big eater Ian chows down 4 ounces of formula in a record 20 minutes -- although their tiny size is a reminder they're preemies after all.
"Erin's due date was June 8 so if you think about it, they're only supposed to be a week old," Joe Perry said.
The outpouring of support, including a steady stream of lasagna, meatloaf and ham dinners, has eased some of Joe Perry's inevitable concerns.
"My concern right now is how am I going to go back to work full-time and who's going to be here at 6 a.m. to feed them, that's what I'm worried about," he said.
His financial worries, however, have not abated. Although it would be nice to have a bigger house -- three bedrooms just doesn't cut it for a family of seven -- he's worried about getting a big enough minivan to transport the whole family. To go out to a relative's graduation party a few weeks ago, it took the Perrys an hour and a half to ready the babies and put them in their two cars.
Eventually, he knows he'll have to worry about life with seven teenagers.
"I hope to God they're good kids," he said.
In case you're wondering how others rate Perry's job as a father, look no further than mother-in-law Pat Driscoll for an unequivocal thumbs-up.
"He is a wonderful man," said Driscoll of Beaver County, the mother of five. Daughter Erin met Joe Perry while both were students at Clarion University. The couple dated five years before getting married eight years ago. "He loves my daughter very much and subsequently loves his children."
Driscoll said her family liked Joe Perry the minute they met him. On his first visit to the Driscoll home, Joe Perry took a liking for dog Brittany, a chow shepherd mix that Erin's brother, Bryan, was using as a "babe magnet," Driscoll said. If he likes dogs, he's a good guy, the Driscolls reasoned.
"He's an all-around good dad," Driscoll said. "What more could you ask for?"
