Corona mom carrying sextuplets

Over the last seven years, Digna Carpio went through a lot to have siblings for her son - she suffered two miscarriages before seeking fertility treatments. At last, her wish is coming true … and then some.
She’s pregnant with sextuplets.
Carpio, 31, felt faint while working out at a gym nearly five months ago, and went to the emergency room of Flushing Hospital, complaining of a racing heartbeat. Doctors told her she was two weeks pregnant.
For Digna and her husband John, who emigrated from their native Ecuador, met in Corona, married and settled in Whitestone, life changed completely two weeks later with the results of a sonogram.
At first, doctors reported that she was carrying five fetuses, “and a mass behind the babies that could be a tumor,” she said. Not until two days later did they learn that there was a sixth, making a total of four boys and two girls.
“I’m happy and worried at the same time,” Victor confided. “Just think about it.”
There were worries aplenty. Digna was having some difficulty early in the pregnancy. Because of her history of miscarriage, doctors advised that she abort four fetuses to assure the survival of the remaining two.
Having lost two babies, she refused. Recent tests show all six are doing well.
Soon-to-be older brother Jhancarlos, 7, had a little trouble in the beginning, too. “He was mad, because he thought that his new brothers will destroy his room. But now, he’s changed his mind,” Victor said.
The expectant father is obviously happy to be blessed so many times over, but confessed, “I don’t know how I am going to feed and raise them.” The Carpios bought their three-bedroom Whitestone house less than two years ago.
So far, Digna is in good health but frequently feels weak, so the doctors have recommended bed rest, according to her husband.
“We have to take care of her diet, which is mostly organic foods - whole wheat rice and lots of vegetables,” he said.
Digna will be going into the hospital soon, when she’s at 24 weeks… a few weeks before the time when most sextuplets are delivered.
Victor will be at home with Jhancarlos, trying to come to grips with the quantities of milk, diapers and baby supplies he’ll have to provide on his salary as a maintenance man with the New York City Department of Housing.
“We will leave everything in God’s hands,” he said.
If all goes well, this will be only the second birth of sextuplets ever to a Queens couple. The first was on March 24, 1997, when Rocco and Beverly Boniello - and a team of 20 doctors and nurses at Stony Brook Hospital on Long Island - welcomed Trifon, Olivia, Sabrina, Gerard, Sophia and Stella into the world.
- With additional reporting by Victor G. Mimoni