Octuplets: Grandmother on The Early Show (Part 1)

February 16, 2009

Maggie Rodriguez of the Early Show interviews Angela Suleman, grandmother of the octuplets.

MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: Angela’s is a tale of an overworked, financially-taxed woman having to put her life on hold to care for her grandchildren, angry at her daughter’s obsession with having so many kids, and resentful of the eight new babies — until she met them. Her daughter, Nadya, a single mother, had six kids already, all by in-vitro fertilization, when she had eight more embryos implanted.

ANGELA SULEMAN: I was actually very upset that my daughter had gone and done this in-vitro, but, after I saw them, you know, I thought, ‘My goodness, these are my grandchildren. They’re so tiny and fragile. I’ll have to be there for them.

RODRIGUEZ: Did she tell you before she went to get this last round of in vitro that she wanted to get pregnant again?

ANGELA: She didn’t tell me, because she knew I didn’t want her to do it.

RODRIGUEZ: So she went and did it…

ANGELA: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: …unbeknownst to you. Did she tell you when it was successful?

ANGELA: Well, [laughs], when I saw that it was successful, she admitted to it.

RODRIGUEZ: Oh, so it’s not until she was visibly pregnant that she told you?

ANGELA: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: When she had just the six, were there days when you felt, ‘this is too much. I’m overwhelmed’?

ANGELA [Laughs.]: Every day.

RODRIGUEZ: I can’t do this.

ANGELA: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: How are you handling these kids financially?

ANGELA: Well, my retirement check goes every month. It’s just gone.

RODRIGUEZ: I know you live in a three bedroom house - who sleeps where?

ANGELA: There are two bunk beds in one bedroom. I mean a bunkbed. The other one has a crib and has a nice little bed. Then there’s the master bedroom. One boy sleeps on the mattress and the little ones each have a crib in that bedroom. So it’s crowded.

RODRIGUEZ: How will you accommodate 8 more babies?

ANGELA: Not in that house! I’ll have to do something to, you know, help her get another one.

RODRIGUEZ: Do you resent her already?

ANGELA: I did, but, you can resent your daughter for just so long, and then you see that she’s trying so hard, you know, to take care of these children. And she’s a good mother.

RODRIGUEZ: What is she like as a mother?

ANGELA: She’s a very good mother. [She laughs.] And she had a good example!

[They laugh.]

RODRIGUEZ: I’m sure she did.

ANGELA: There must be a reason, you know, why this happened, and that they’re all healthy. That is a miracle, a total miracle.

***

(1-30) Octuplets: Ethics of fertility treatment?
(1-30) Octuplets: What is really going on?
(2-9) Octuplets: Should not go home with that woman
(2-9) Octuplets: Octuplets: already filthy house unfit for children (pix)
(2-23) Octuplets: Mother vs grandmother caught on tape
(2-24) Octuplets: Cosmetic surgery, IVF, food stamps, disability, bankruptcy & foreclosure
(2-24) Octuplets: Mother before/after plastic surgery & Angelina Jolie (pix)
(2-25) Octuplets: Grandfather on Oprah daughter “not mentally complete”
(2-25) Octuplets: Hospital questioning her ability to care for children
(2-26) Octuplets: Video of inside the home
(2-26) Octuplets: Body language mother vs grandmother video (Part 1)
(2-26) Octuplets: Body language mother vs grandmother video (Part 2)
(2-27) Octuplets: Man claiming to be sperm donor
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother on The Early Show (Part 1)
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother on The Early Show (Part 2)
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother on The Early Show (Part 3)
(2-27) Octuplets: Grandmother’s first interview (Feb 9th)

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