A Birthday Party of Six: LI Sextuplets - Believed to Be the Largest Multiple Birth Ever Here - Celeb

Apr 06, 08:18 AM

Current Headlines: By Ridgely Ochs, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Apr. 6--Rocco and Beverly Boniello of Williston Park insist their lives are no different from anyone else's.

"You might see it as different, but to us it's just normal," said Rocco, 41, a Verizon employee, shrugging.

The humdrum they refer to is being the parents of sextuplets born March 24, 1997, at Stony Brook University Medical Center.

Yesterday, the four girls and two boys held his or her own cake as Stony Brook celebrated their 10th birthdays in the campus' Wang Center. Campus President Shirley Strum Kenny renewed her pledge, made when the children were born, to send all six to Stony Brook free if they qualify to get in.

"These are the first recruits to the class of 2019," said Kenny, who added she gets a Christmas card each year from the family.

Despite the Boniellos' insistence, their children's births and lives are indeed remarkable.

Beverly's 29-week pregnancy is believed to be the longest recorded among mothers carrying sextuplets, and the six children are also believed to be the largest multiple birth ever on Long Island, the university said. When they were born, they were only the third known set of sextuplets to survive in the United States. To get ready for their births, a team of about 20 doctors and nurses rehearsed the births for a month.

"It was like an assembly line," Rocco said of the deliveries.

Dr. Richard Fine, now dean of the school of medicine, was then chairman of pediatrics.

"I remember many, many consultations," he said. He added that the usual risk of having a premature baby is manifold when there are six, especially when each infant is so small. The babies ranged in weight from 2 pounds, 3 1/2 ounces (Sophia) to 2 pounds, 12 ounces (Gerard). "Fortunately, these sextuplets didn't have any major issues," he said.

Now, they are healthy and thriving fourth-graders at Center Street Elementary School in Williston Park.

And each of the nonidentical siblings has grown into his or her own person: Stella collects rocks, and her favorite food is cornbread. Olivia is a knitter. Sophia likes bowling. Gerard is into math and pasta. Sabrina is a history buff. Trifon plays soccer and wants to run track.

Gone are the shifts of relatives and friends who came in daily to help. As infants, the sextuplets required 70 to 80 diaper changes and 72 bottles a day.

The boys have a bedroom in the family's three-bedroom cape. The girls -- along with their 6-year-old sister Nadia -- share another large bedroom. Each girl has a bed, a night table, an allotted number of drawers, and closet space.

Mom is home for the kids when they get out of school, where each sibling has a brother or sister in class. If one has a soccer game or gymnastics class, they all pile into the van and go together, Beverly said.

The family eats together every night. Two pounds of pasta -- some with red sauce and some with butter -- are routine, Beverly said.

But there's little room for pickiness. "I tell them it's not a fast-food restaurant. If you don't like the corn tonight, you'll like the beans tomorrow," she said.

Homework is done at the dining room table -- all together. The girls said they fight over clothes, but the parents said there is little internal competition over schoolwork or anything else between them.

And their status in the community as sextuplets is noted but not fussed over, the parents said. As for younger sister Nadia: "She runs the whole show," said her mother.

"My philosophy is I'd probably be doing the same thing if I just had one [child]," Beverly said. "I try to keep them grounded. Each child is wonderful and special and they blend in with the neighborhood. "

But yesterday, as they stood facing the phalanx of cameras and lights, the sextuplets' collective specialness was acknowledged. Trifon, the oldest, born at 10:51 a.m., spoke for the other five: "My family is glad to be here, and thanks for the scholarship."

Stony Brook's Kenny pledged to send the sextuplets to the college for free. Here's how much it'd cost:

$5,416 SUNY tuition cost per student for residents, 2006-07

$9,150 Cost per student in 2015, when the sextuplets are college age

$240,170 Total cost of putting the six Boniellos through college

NOTE: Estimates assume a 6% tuition increase each year.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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