Mom Of Three Boys Hopes One Of Her Sextuplets Is Girl, Sets Up Six Boxes At Church Gender-Reveal Party

Apr 05, 2020 by apost team

Courtney and Eric Waldrop, who already had three boys, were hoping for a girl back in 2017. But fate had other plans, and Courtney discovered that she was pregnant with not one but six babies. In the beginning, the couple had trouble conceiving, and so after several miscarriages, they decided to pursue fertility treatments. Little did they know that their family of five would more than double to 11 after their sextuplets were born.

According to Insider, the odds that a woman gives birth to sextuplets are estimated to be one in 4.7 billion. To put those numbers into perspective, you have a far greater chance of winning the Mega Millions jackpot — a one in 302.5 million chance — than having sextuplets. And yet, that’s exactly what happened to the Waldrops in 2017.

As anyone might imagine, not only is six more kids a parenting challenge, but it is also a financial challenge. Luckily, the Alabama community came out to support the Waldrops with a public fundraiser, which included a 5K run and gender reveal.

Friends, members from their church and other community members gathered for the well-attended outdoor event. Rather than simply telling attendants the gender of their sextuplets, the Waldrops went for something more festive and spectacular. With the help of the event staff, including Courtney’s best friend, they arranged four pink boxes in a row on stage. The boxes — labeled A through F, based on the babies’ names on the sonogram — included multi-colored fireworks. If the fireworks were blue, it meant that the baby was a boy, and if the fireworks were pink, then the Waldrops would be having a girl.

The crowd cheered as Courtney, Eric and their three sons stood on stage and lit the fireworks for the grand reveal. Blue smoke erupted from the boxes labeled A, B and C, meaning that there was a chance that the Waldrops would have a total of 9 boys. But then, pink smoke emerged from box D — and boxes E and F were also pink. 

“I’m so excited. Oh my gosh! Three girls and three boys. I mean, it couldn’t be any more perfect,” Courtney told Inside Edition on that night.

Since the Waldrops festive gender reveal in 2017, the family has made a name for itself on YouTube and TV, where they have their own show: TLC’s “Sweet Home Sextuplets.”

“We love every second of it but it is something, having to feed around the clock,” Courtney told TODAY of raising her children in September 2018, ahead of the show’s first season.

“It’s a different kind of exhaustion now,” Eric said. “They’re doing great, even in those moments where we think we’re going to lose our minds.”

In the same interview, Courtney said — perhaps surprisingly — that being on “Sweet Home Sextuplets” actually made their chaotic lives a bit more organized.

“It was almost like they knew if it became crazy we’d stop and they’d let us get everything calm,” Courtney told TODAY. “We honestly never had to say turn the cameras off. They sensed it.”

Fans of the show will be disappointed to hear that during a July 2021 Q&A session on the Waldrops’ YouTube channel, Courtney and Eric announced that they wouldn’t be continuing with the TLC series.

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In the video, the couple explained how they were approached about being on TV just a week after they announced Courtney’s pregnancy with sextuplets.

“Filming is extremely hard,” Courtney said of the experience.

“With me having a full-time job, a business to run, coaching the kids and then trying to film, and then Courtney trying to juggle a million things she had to do. I mean, it was just a lot,” Eric added.
Courtney continued and explained that filming was very hard on their older boys.

“We had said from the very beginning that if filming the show ever got in the way of our family, and it ever made any of our kids unhappy, then we would have to stop. If we’d continued, we were afraid that’s where we were going,” she told viewers on YouTube.

That’s why Courtney and Eric ultimately decided not to continue with the show’s fourth season. With that said, Courtney spends much of the video fighting back tears and thanking their fans for following their journey and offering so much support.

If the comments section is any indication, it seems like the Waldrop family’s fans understand and support their decision. 

“This is heartbreaking, but I knew y’all weren’t coming back. You guys deserve privacy and to live life peacefully. Thank u so much for sharing what you did with us, we all love you. You and Eric are such an amazing couple and set such a good example. I think the reason we will all miss u so much is because of all the things you represent- God, family, true love, service to others, joy and laughter… it’s rare in this world and y’all were just a burst of sunshine and fresh air,” Chelsea commented on YouTube.

What do you think of the Waldrops and their decision to stop filming? What would you do if you were pregnant with sextuplets? Let us know — and be sure to pass this interesting story on to others.