Estep family full of unique experiences
August 6, 2008
By Laura Geggel
From a hurricane evacuation to triplets, times are busy for North Bend family
For the Estep family, things come in threes.
Stacey and Brian Estep have three teenage sons, three dogs and, as of June 18, a set of triplets.
Although, three years ago, the family was fleeing just one thing – Hurricane Katrina.
Sitting in her North Bend home, Stacey remembered her family’s flight. The Esteps hadn’t planned on evacuating New Orleans for the hurricane, she said, because evacuating “takes hours.”
But Stacey’s mother Gail, who also lives in New Orleans, had other plans. Gail called her daughter early Sunday morning – the hurricane hit New Orleans on a Monday – and told her to clear out.
The family packed a couple days worth of clothes and caravanned in two vehicles to Tallahassee. A regular Tallahassee drive will take about six hours. It took the Esteps 19. Interstate 10 had become a parking lot. When the family exited in Biloxi, Miss. to buy fuel, a state trooper refused to let them back on the interstate.
“It’s pouring down rain by the time we were in Biloxi,” Stacey said. “I’m in tears.”
The trooper gave them back roads to travel. By the time they reached Mobile, Ala., the hurricane had reached a new level of ferocity.
“It was hitting,” Stacey said. “You couldn’t see in front of your face. You’re just driving and you’re praying and you’re hoping that everything is okay.”
Finally, the family found a hotel in Tallahassee. When they switched on the television the next day, they couldn’t believe the devastation the hurricane and broken levees had wrecked on their city.
The family drove to Brian’s parent’s house near Orlando and lived there for almost two months – enrolling the boys in school while Stacey worked as a substitute teacher.
Once New Orleans schools reopened, they came home. Their house had escaped relatively unscathed – Katrina had only damaged their roof.
Almost upon arrival, Brian flew to Seattle for a six-month software contract job. The six months turned into a year, prompting the Estep family to move to North Bend in June 2007 and leave their New Orleans home.
But the surprises were not over for the Estep family.
Brian and Stacey decided to try in-vitro fertilization and wound up with quadruplets.
During the first ultrasound, Brian turned white.
“You hear of people losing all color,” Stacey said. “He lost all color.”
She, too, was speechless.
At another ultrasound the following week, they learned one of the fetuses had not made it, leaving them with three.
“My heart was broken in a million pieces,” said Stacey. “I fully understood it with my head, but my heart – I was so upset.”
But caring for three babies would still be “a major challenge,” Stacey said, as she came to terms with what had happened.
The doctors at Swedish Medical Center monitored Stacey closely, putting her on bed rest for the last two-and-a-half months of her pregnancy.
On the morning of June 18, Stacey could feel something was not right. Later that day, doctors delivered her triplets 10 weeks early via C-section. Leah Grace, the firstborn, weighed only 1-pound 7-ounces.
“She was really red,” said Brian. “Like tomato red.”
Leah’s parents have a photo of her with Brian’s wedding ring slipped over her arm after she was several days old.
“He could have probably put both of her little and arms up through his wedding ring,” Stacey said.
Leah’s two brothers, Jacob Anthony and Joseph Ryan, weighed more, at 3-pounds 2-ounces and 2-pounds 10-ounces.
The babies are staying in the Infant Special Care Unit at Swedish Medical Center while family members from Louisiana and all over the country visit the Esteps. Stacey drives to Swedish every day to see the infants. It won’t be long before she has all six children with her in North Bend.
But her children won’t be together for long. Her two eldest sons, Andrew and Daniel, are traveling to New Orleans for high school this fall. Patrick will attend Twin Falls Middle School this year.
The adventures are far from over for the Esteps.
“We’re hoping definitely to have a baby home by next week,” Stacey said.
Reporter Laura Geggel can be reached at 392-6434 x221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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