A MUM-of-eight has revealed what life’s really like juggling her large brood after giving birth to quintuplets while already having three young children.
Kim Tucci, 29, from Perth, Australia, was overjoyed to have fallen pregnant in 2015, but both she and husband Vaughn, 35, were shocked to discover there were five tiny heartbeats in her womb.
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The parents welcomed the quintuplets – one boy, Keith, and four girls, Ali, Penelope, Tiffany and Beatrix – to their already large family in January 2016.
Kim already had son Kurt, 12, from a previous marriage, and daughters Ava, eight, and Indiana, six, with her husband before they conceived the five babies naturally.
But looking after a family of TEN hasn’t been easy for the pair, who are currently separated because of the struggle of raising so many children.
To keep everything under control, super-mum Kim keeps runs a tight ship, ensuring she plans everything meticulously, including her mammoth weekly shop.
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She spends around £115 a week on her grocery shopping bill, stocking up on milk, bread, cheese and fresh fruits and vegetables when she can.
She told Daily Mail Australia: “My grocery bill is cheaper because I don’t buy expensive brands. The kids don’t know any better – no one ever complains as the kids don’t know the difference.”
The mum normally looks out for whatever’s on special, especially when there’s clearance on fruits and vegetables, to keep costs low.
And to maximise her chances of getting better deals, she shops at ‘different stores for different specials’, stocking up on items which she knows she can’t go without.
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Inside the Tucci’s life
Mum Kim Tucci certainly has her hands full with EIGHT kids to look after. Her daily life includes:
- Washing, drying and putting away 20 kilograms of landry every day
- Going through a massive 21 litres of milk and seven loaves of bread a week
- Spending more than £100 per week on groceries to feed hungry mouths
- Meal prepping ahead of time for her three-and-a-half-year-old quintuplets
One such item is toilet paper, with Kim sticking to the ‘cheap brands’, because the family go through so much every day.
To ensure she stays on top of the huge amount of meals she has to cook, the mum preps her three-and-a-half-year-old quintuplet’s food in advance, normally spaghetti bolognese or risotto.
“‘I make pasta dishes with hidden vegetables like pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini and carrots blended together and make a sauce out of that,” she adds.
Together the family go through 21 litres of milk and seven loaves of bread a week, with 20 kilograms of washing done each day.
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“There’s a new challenge every week,” the mum says of her busy life. “The hardest thing right now is toilet training. Trying to train five toddlers is hell.”
Kim rewarded her children for a good week of potty training with a McDonald’s, a rare treat, recently – but with so many mouths to feed, even that cost £50.
Another challenge the mum often faces is giving each of her children ‘one to one attention’ – something which can be difficult with all the household chores that need doing.
Similarly, buying clothes has become increasingly difficult as they get older, with each quint preferring their own style – some liking ‘Peppa Pig’ and the others, ‘The Wiggles’.
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The quintuplets are tucked up in bed by 6.30pm each night and don’t get up until around 7am, giving Kim plenty of time to recharge between days.
It’s been stressful for the mum-of-eight since the beginning, as her five babies were born by C-section at 30 weeks because of heart strain.
And all the stress has meant that she and Vaughn have taken a break in order to prevent the children from seeing ‘their mum and dad arguing and unhappy all the time’.
While they are trying to work things out, she explains: “We need self-love and to look after our own mental health before we can start looking after being a marriage unit. It’s just, there’s so much stress.”
In other news, we showed you inside mum-of-21 Sue Radford’s summer holidays, with three hours of tidying EVERY night.
And Sue recently gave her fans a tour around their enormous home – which has 10 bedrooms but just one bath.
While a dad of SEVEN revealed the clever ways he had baby-proofed his home – from a custom dining table to a ‘baby bus’ with built in TV.
