Rural couple in Henan raises quintuplets for 17 years: every day is like a war, tired and happy-

The traditional Chinese concept is that the more children you have, the more successful your family will be and the happier your life will be.

However, this is also based on the premise of having children one by one.

For pregnant women with multiple births, having more children is not necessarily a good thing.

Multiples are 16 times more likely to die young than normal babies.

Pregnant women who are carrying more than three babies face great risks during labor, not only the risk of the fetus dying, but also the life of the woman herself.

In the town of Micun in Xinmi City, Henan Province, a rural woman named Zhang Xiaomin was pregnant with quintuplets, and became a well-known news figure.

The survival rate of quintuplets is extremely low, and there are only a few dozen documented cases of quintuplets surviving worldwide.

This puts Zhang at great risk.

But she persevered, not giving up on any of her children, and eventually gave birth to five, adding another case of fully viable quintuplets to China's medical history.

Now, 17 years have passed since Zhang gave birth to the quintuplets.

During these 17 years, what kind of life did Zhang Xiaomin lead with her husband Li Canjun, and how did she struggle to bring up the quintuplets?

In the dark and windy night, a mine in Henan Province is still ringing with the sound of work all night long, and the miners are still working hard underground.

Among them, 46-year-old Li Canjun did extra hard.

He is a famous hard-working man in the townships, digging work done famously well, has been down the mine for more than 20 years, is a lot of miners old-timers.

But even so, Li Canjun still come to the mine early every day.

Other miners find a few days off each month, but Li Canjun works overtime almost all year round.

The underground work does not distinguish between night and day, and after an unknown period of time, the dawn appeared on the horizon.

Li Canjun also came out of the mine, shaking the dust, rely on the rising sun slightly dispersed the tiredness of the whole night, mounted his motorcycle, embarked on the 20 kilometers of the way home.

Returning home, Li Canjun's wife, Zhang Xiaomin, happened to be doing housework.

Seeing her husband back, she hurriedly wiped her hands and went up to Li Canjun to take off his dusty jacket, and then opened up to Li Canjun to cook and eat, so that her husband could hurry to eat and go to bed.

The day and night are reversed, working more than ten hours a day, this is the daily life of Li Canjun.

Such a tense and tiring way of working, many people can not do a few days, Li Canjun has been insisting on 17 years.

The reason why so hard, naturally, or because Li Canjun family has six children to raise.

In 1998, after an acquaintance's introduction, Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin, who were just in their early twenties, met and had a one-year relationship before deciding to get married.

Married life was originally very successful, in 2001, Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin gave birth to a daughter.

The family was happy, and after a while, the two wanted a second child.

I didn't realize that the idea of a second child would make Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin carry a heavy burden for the next 17 years, but also enjoy the happiness that others can't.

In 2004, Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin had to work together for the first time in the world, but they were not able to do so.

In 2004, Zhang Xiaomin successfully conceived her second child.

But this second child behaved strangely, leaving Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin feeling a little overwhelmed.

A normal pregnant woman in the first month or two of pregnancy, usually can not be seen from the appearance of the identity of the pregnant woman, only to four months or so will show the pregnant.

But Zhang Xiaomin's belly was already getting bigger at a staggering rate in her first month of pregnancy.

In her second month of pregnancy, Zhang's belly grew even bigger, and her reaction was so strong that she couldn't eat, and she vomited every day.

Li Canjun do not know what to do, people around them also said they have not seen such extraordinary pregnancy reaction, everyone suggested Zhang Xiaomin go to the hospital.

So, Zhang Xiaomin, accompanied by Li Canjun, went to the county hospital for examination.

The results of the examination surprised the two men.

Initially, the doctor judged that it might be twins, but after doing a check on the medical equipment, the doctor said it was quadruplets.

There were four children in Zhang Xiaomin's belly!

This scared the young couple, they originally just wanted a second child, but did not expect to be pregnant with four at once, the two people's hearts both happy and sad.

The first step is to make sure that you have the best possible chance of getting the best out of your child, and the second step is to make sure that you have the best possible chance of getting the best out of your child.

But the worry is that four children plus the eldest daughter, a **** five children's expenses, is likely to make Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin two people can not support.

In this regard, the hospital doctors also said that they hope that Zhang Xiaomin can be reduced to handle.

Because once a pregnant woman is pregnant, her body is not as strong as it used to be, and the nutrients will be shared by the child in her belly.

Zhang Xiaomin's health condition itself is average, if she is forced to give birth to quadruplets, it may pose a threat to her life, or may leave after-effects during the delivery process.

What's more, giving birth to quadruplets at the same time would have had a probability of premature death.

Reducing the pregnancy beforehand will benefit both Zhang Xiaomin's body and the survival of the children.

Listening to the doctor's advice, Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin were caught in a dilemma.

Each of the children in Zhang Xiaomin's stomach is the crystallization of their love, to abandon any one of them, but do not abandon, and will bring risks to Zhang Xiaomin and the children.

After thinking about it again and again, Li Canjun couldn't make up his mind, or Zhang Xiaomin made the final decision - to give birth!

Zhang Xiaomin feels that no matter which child she abandons, she won't be able to face the surviving children when they grow up.

What's more, at the time of the decision, Zhang Xiaomin was already three or four months pregnant, and the baby in her belly was already very big.

Even if she had to lose one or two of them with a fetal reduction surgery, the rest of the children could still be in danger.

In this way, Zhang Xiaomin and Li Canjun returned home, pregnant with four children in the belly, and began to raise the baby.

In a flash, Zhang Xiaomin was 30 weeks pregnant.

During this 30-week period, Zhang Xiaomin's belly got bigger incredibly fast.

Later, neighbors said Zhang Xiaomin's belly looked like it was about to burst, which was very scary.

Such a belly also brought a lot of inconvenience to Zhang Xiaomin's life, cooking has been very difficult, and also completely unable to go to the toilet independently, must have family members to help her.

One night during the 31st week of pregnancy, Zhang Xiaomin suddenly felt unwell.

When she woke up from her sleep, she realized that her lower body was abnormal, and immediately contacted the hospital and was sent to the Maternal and Child Health Center in Henan Province for treatment.

The journey was very scary for Zhang Xiaomin, who was afraid that her baby would not survive.

I didn't realize that after arriving at the hospital, the doctor made a simple judgment that the amniotic fluid had broken, which was a precursor to the impending birth.

Generally speaking, the average pregnant woman will not go into labor until she reaches 40 weeks of pregnancy, which is why Zhang Xiaomin thought she was having a miscarriage, not a birth.

The fear that she was about to give birth to her baby has turned into joy, but she is also worried

- her pregnancy is a quarter of a year shorter than that of other pregnant women, and there are still four more babies in her tummy, so these babies are really going to be able to live healthily

This is the first time I've ever seen a baby in the womb.

- I've been pregnant for a quarter of a year.

But in that moment of urgency, there was no time for Zhang Xiaomin to worry.

She was wheeled into the operating room for a C-section.

November 21, 2004, was the day the baby was born in Zhang Xiaomin's womb.

She still remembers the hectic but heartwarming scene.

As Zhang Xiaomin recalls, the doctors and nurses thought she had quadruplets, both during the initial checkup and when she entered the operating room for the C-section.

So with four children born in succession, many people thought the operation was over.

What they didn't realize was that while everyone was happy to welcome the four newborns, the doctors discovered that there was another baby in Zhang Xiaomin's belly.

This immediately puts the medical staff on edge, and they go back to work on the fifth child.

In the end, Zhang gave birth to quintuplets, one more than the quadruplets doctors had expected, surprising everyone in the room.

But this was not the time to be reassured, as Zhang was only 31 weeks pregnant, which is premature.

There were five more children in her belly, each sharing the nutrition from Zhang Xiaomin.

So all five children weighed between 1 kilogram and 1.5 kilograms, which is extremely low weight for a preterm baby.

By way of comparison, a normal baby born at full term should weigh more than 3 kilograms.

As you can imagine, the quintuplets that Zhang gave birth to were in far worse physical condition than the other babies.

Shortly after the birth of the five children, Li Canjun outside the operating room received a notice of the children's critical condition.

All five children were in critical condition and were admitted to the intensive care unit for treatment.

This is an emergency for Li Canjun, but also brings a lot of economic pressure on the family.

Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin originally thought that the birth of a child with a few thousand dollars would be enough.

This few thousand dollars is not a very good economic situation, they can come up with a large part of the savings.

But who knows after the birth of the quintuplets, the cost of rescuing the five children and the cost of caring for Zhang Xiaomin, adding up to as much as 100,000 yuan, so that Li Canjun can not afford.

But his wife and children are still in the hospital, can not not save.

Li Canjun began to find relatives and friends to borrow money, before and after the loan of seven or eight million, only barely to pay the hospital required fees.

There are still more than 30,000 costs left, Li Canjun had to discuss with the hospital related to the person in charge, played a note, and then slowly pay.

Well, Zhang Xiaomin and the quintuplets body after a period of treatment, are gradually restored to health, mother and child safe.

This is a rare case in Chinese and world history where all the quintuplets survived.

Soon, Zhang Xiaomin and the five children were discharged from the hospital, and Li Canjun's heart has been hanging on a big stone finally fell to the ground.

However, the next waiting for Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin, is an incredibly busy life.

In the quintuplets born to Zhang Xiaomin, the first four are girls, the last one is a boy, the couple named the five children:

The oldest Li Ke, the second Li Zhan, the oldest Li Ning, the oldest Li Chang, the oldest five Li Yan.

The children were brought home, how to raise them became a big problem for Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin to consider.

At first, when they got home, the couple couldn't tell which of the five children was which.

After all, the children look almost the same, and are quintuplets, only the oldest five Li Yan because it is a boy, easier to distinguish.

The first day back home, Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin did not close their eyes for a day and a night.

From morning to night, they have been busy with the children's meals and defecation.

Because there are too many children, Zhang Xiaomin's breast milk is not enough, Li Canjun can only buy milk powder to give them a drink.

Because the children were so small, they had to be fed every few hours, which kept Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin very busy in those days.

Sometimes after feeding a child, you turn your head and realize that five children are mixed together, and you don't know which one you just finished feeding.

Often, some children are breastfed twice, while others are crying from hunger.

The situation with elimination is similar, the children are too young to express themselves when they want to eliminate, so they just cry.

And the five children cry at different times and for different reasons, leading Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin to often misjudge.

Take the child who doesn't want to go to the bathroom and leave the one who really needs to go to the bathroom in bed to pee his pants.

Later, for convenience, Li Canjun put a corresponding sign on each child's head to alleviate such confusion.

"Every day with the war like, exhausted, always feel not enough sleep, 10 o'clock at night to clean up after the head to sleep."

After a while, Zhang and her family were comfortable taking care of five children.

Li Canjun then rushed to the mine and began working more than ten hours a day, as the family was spending more than they could afford.

The babies were in the process of growing up, taking eight feeds a day and consuming almost a bag of formula a day.

Li Canjun can not afford to buy imported milk powder, only to buy domestic.

But even domestic milk powder, a month to consume 1,500 yuan, and this is just to maintain the children survive the cost of rations.

When the children grow up a little more, the cost of the children's clothes, tuition, life in the miscellaneous miscellaneous expenses, are enough to make the family rely on Li Canjun mining for a living feel great pressure.

So Li Canjun had to work day and night, often more than a dozen night shifts a month.

The hard work that ordinary miners can't survive, Li Canjun was willing to do, so he came home every day with a dirty face.

Often the night shift, the day to make up for the way of work, but also makes it difficult for him to have a good interaction with the children.

However, no matter how hard and tired, every time Li Canjun saw the five children and his eldest daughter's lovely face, bright and shiny big eyes, he felt motivated to make money, but also the responsibility to make money.

Zhang Xiaomin once thought of himself to go out to work to subsidize the family, but the family has too many children, only rely on the age of the parents is not to watch over.

The family can only rely on Li Canjun's income of more than 4,000 per month.

4000 dollars to support the couple, plus six children, so that the couple had to be careful with their lives.

Once the kids are a little older and can eat regular food, the family's consumption of rice, flour, oil and vegetables is unprecedented.

The couple often go to the wholesale market and buy several large bags of vegetables each time, in such a way as to keep the unit price down and try to reduce the expenditure.

Clothing, the couple may not buy a new piece of clothing for years.

When old clothes are worn out, they get patched up and continue to wear them.

When they buy new clothes for their kids, they also go around the wholesale market and buy 5 pieces at once when they see something suitable.

So many wholesalers think they are businessmen who come to wholesale children's clothing, but in fact it is only because they have quintuplets in their family, and there will be a discount for buying 5 pieces of clothes at once.

Such a tight life, Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin 17 years.

Although the family has not been rich, foreign debt has always existed, but the family supported each other, step by step to today, can be considered happy.

Li Canjun said, their biggest wish is to let their six children can go to college, not because of the family's economic situation, so that the children because of the poor and can not afford to go to school.

So far, the children's performance can afford the hard work of Li Canjun, but also towards Li Canjun's desire to move forward.

When the quintuplets were two years old, they learned to call mom and dad almost at the same time, which made the couple who had been busy for more than two years feel very pleased.

What's even more gratifying is that the eldest daughter, who was born three years earlier than the quintuplets, is less than six years old, but she already knows how to help Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin take care of her five younger siblings.

As they grow older, the six children have their own development.

The eldest daughter was 18 when she got into the medical school in Xinxiang, and became the first of her six siblings to go to college, which was a good start for Li Canjun's aspirations.

The rest of the quintuplets are doing well in elementary and middle school.

One of the best results is the oldest four Li Chang, every day home will be focused on learning, very hard.

The oldest, Li Ke, the third, Li Ning, and the youngest son, Li Yan, have also won a lot of school awards.

Only the second Li Zhan is too playful and not particularly motivated to learn, but he can still keep up with the school.

From the beginning of elementary school, Li Canjun bought a tricycle to facilitate the five children to go to school.

Every morning, Li Canjun went to work in the mine after breakfast, Zhang Xiaomin drove the tricycle to take the five children to school.

When school is over, she also rides the tricycle to pick up the children, causing a lot of envy in the village.

On weekdays, the children are very understanding, as long as they are home from school, they will take turns to help their mother to do household chores, brush the dishes, sweep the floor, wash clothes and so on.

Like in school duty, according to the weekly schedule, lined up every day in the end is the oldest should do housework.

The children grew up watching Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin saving money for them to go to school, but also has been in the heart, usually never asked mom and dad to buy them anything.

Sometimes they give them some pocket money, they will save up, wait for the holiday, to buy gifts for Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin.

Zhang Xiaomin ten years hard to do housework, as the children grow up, watching the children take the initiative to help themselves to reduce the burden of life, so that they do housework less and less, the heart will always be very touched.

When Zhang Xiaomin returned home with five children, some people in the village said to Li Canjun, you can send the children out one or two, so that other people to adopt, or the family's economic conditions can not support five children, all the people's lives will be very poor.

Send out one or two, they follow the rich family life, may be more happy than stay at home.

These suggestions were rejected by Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin.

Many years later, their eldest daughter, who went to college, and the spectacular five children on the pedicabs put the villagers, who had offered to give their children away, to shame.

Also let Zhang Xiaomin and Li Canjun feel some fear:

If the couple listened to the villagers, perhaps the economic conditions will become a little better, but this happy family will be broken up.

In the afternoon of February 6, 2021, Yue Jianhua, president of Zhengzhou Zhongkang Hospital, once again came to the home of Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin to visit the quintuplets, but also after a lapse of 17 years, to reveal to the crowd the family's recent living conditions.

Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin's daily life is not much different from before, Li Canjun will work in the mines, and rely on the monthly income of more than 4000 to support the family's consumption.

Zhang Xiaomin, on the other hand, spent less time caring for her children as they grew up and had more time at her disposal.

She then chose to farm, the family's three acres of responsibility for their own fields are responsible for Zhang Xiaomin, spring planting and fall harvesting, but also can bring part of the income, you can subsidize the family.

After learning about the economic situation of Li Canjun and Zhang Xiaomin, the relevant departments applied for low income for the family.

The family receives 1500 RMB per month, which has greatly alleviated the family's financial pressure.

In addition to this, kind-hearted people in the community also provide daily necessities to the family from time to time.

President Yue Jianhua, after the birth of the quintuplets, came to Zhang Xiaomin and Li Canjun's home every year to check on the quintuplets' living conditions.

Every time he came, he would give the children a 500 yuan red packet each, 17 years down the line, Yue Jianhua is also close to the children as a family.

2022, the eldest daughter in Xinxiang Medical College in the third grade, academic performance is very good, is preparing for graduate school.

Yue also admired her and said that when his eldest daughter graduated, he could help her find a suitable job in the hospital.

The quintuplets, except for the second one, Li Zhan, the other four have gone to high school, and their academic performance is very good, and the awards are plastered all over one wall of the house.

The second child, Li Zhan, suffers from congenital heart disease and has not been in good health.

Six years ago, she also fell in the school playground because of an accident and hurt her head, hospitalized and spent 30,000 to 40,000 yuan.

The good news is that it didn't leave any after-effects, but only delayed some of her studies.

By the time she finishes middle school on time, getting into high school and eventually college is not an impossible task.

Li Canjun is very satisfied with the current living conditions, although the work is still tiring, the children's growth is better than he expected.

He believes that he can still work for two more years, until the children are admitted to the university, after graduating from the university to find a good job, his task is completed, the future of life is to enjoy the endless happiness.

Every time I think of this, Li Canjun's mouth will smile, that is, the day better and better expectations and aspirations.

This is the first time I've ever seen a man with a gun.