If you’ve ever tuned in to The Learning Channel, you’ve undoubtedly come across America’s favorite competitive fertility families:
“Quints by Surprise”
“Sweet Home Sextuplets”
“OutDaughtered”
“19 Kids and Counting”
These families made household chaos a spectator sport. With each passing season, viewers watched in slack-jawed amazement as coordinated diaper changes, meal prep for nine, and synchronized tantrums became normal.
But nothing could have prepared the world for what would happen on a foggy Thursday in Idaho Falls. One family broke the Internet, an obstetrics textbook, and a few laws of physics all at the same time. Welcome to the first-ever documented case of vigintuplets: 20 babies, one delivery, no epidural.
The Big Burst: “I Think There’s More…”
Emma Blottsworth, 36, had what doctors affectionately called a “suspiciously enthusiastic uterus.” A part-time alpaca groomer and local speed knitting champion, Emma and her husband Jake, the acclaimed cruise ship ventriloquist, had always wanted a large family.
“We were hoping for twins, maybe triplets if we got cocky,” said Jake. “What we weren’t prepared for is a whole damn classroom!”
It was supposed to be a routine checkup at 30 weeks. But when the ultrasound tech stepped out of the room hyperventilating and muttering something about “needing a backup and a slug of scotch,” the Blottsworths knew something was off.
“I was scanning and they just kept showing up,” said ultrasound technician, Rhiannon Swopes, who has since retired to pursue a quieter career in structural skywalking. “At one point I counted 17 heads and thought the machine had a virus.”
By the time Emma went into labor, all of the local hospitals, and 13 Cub Scout troops were already on red alert. St. Agnes Memorial Hospital wheeled in additional OB/GYN teams from Boise, and Salt Lake City, as well as one deeply concerned veterinarian. The delivery took 27 hours, five obstetricians, a choir of NICU nurses, and father-to-be Jake, whose critical job was to “just watch and stay out of the way.”
“It was like a clown car,” said Dr. Miriam Clow, the lead obstetrician. “but messier, and a whole lot louder.”
Meet the Vigintuplets
The babies were born one after the other in what staff referred to as “The Great Unloading.” Spontaneous applause broke out around baby #12. By baby #18, nurses and physicians were hyperventilating around the delivery table. Baby #20 slid into the world to a standing ovation. One nurse who collapsed in slow motion whispered, “That’s it. No more. I can’t even count that high.”
The parents chose to name the children alphabetically, beginning with Aardvark and ending with Zamboni.
“We wanted names with plenty of personality,” Emma explained. “Jake suggested just numbering them 1-20, but I didn’t want it to seem like we were raising a gaggle of lab rats.”
The full line-up includes: Aardvark, Blaze, Cricket, Dingo, Eggbert, Fig, Gristle, Hashtag, iMac, Jort, Kale, Lint, Miso, Nacho, Oprah, Prong, Quiche, Runt, Snort, and Zamboni.
Each baby weighed between 1.2 and 2.8 pounds, with a combined total weight of just under 18.14 kilos—about the same weight as the beer cooler at last summer’s hospital picnic.
The Aftermath: When Life Hits the Fan
Back at home, the Blottsworth residence—formerly a two-bedroom, low rent apartment—is now a full-scale logistical war zone.
They’ve installed:
4 industrial-strength diaper disposal units
A hydration station powered by Pedialyte concentrate
Three refrigerators
Oh, and a wall-mounted spreadsheet the size of a trampoline labeled “Feeding Rotations: Mayhem Edition.”
“We didn’t so much decorate the nursery as surrender to it,” said Jake. “It looks like a Walgreens exploded inside a kindergarten classroom.”
On average, the family goes through:
140 diapers daily
96 bottles of milk a day
4 loads of baby laundry per hour
18 lullabies, sung by a quartet of exhausted uncles
The Blottsworths now employ a rotating cast of helpers: three nannies, two postpartum doulas, one retired Air Force logistics expert, and Jake’s cousin Dylan, who lives in the basement and only emerges for bottle duty when rewarded with Pop-Tarts.
The Experts Weigh In: Science Shrugs
Dr. Linh Astoria, a leading fertility specialist from Seattle Reproductive Sciences, described the birth in technical obstetric terms: “biologically bonkers.”
“There are only a few documented cases of anything beyond decuplets (10 babies),” said Dr. Astoria. “To reach 20? That’s the biological equivalent of winning the lottery while being struck by lightning and scoring the winning goal in a National Hockey Association league finals match—all at the same time.”
The couple did undergo IVF (Inconceivable Fertile Ventures) at a clinic that now denies any wrong doing and refuses to speak with the press without having their lawyer present.
“We implanted two embryos,” confessed the clinic’s founder, Dr. Yuri Feldspar. “Beyond that, we are not liable for spontaneous embryonic multiplication. That’s a whole different ballgame.”
Even the Vatican weighed in, with the Pope issuing a press release that read: “Miraculum perplexus.”
The Neighborhood Adjusts
With the Blottsworths home, their once quiet street transformed into a Ringling Brothers Barnum & Baily Circus of stroller traffic, delivery trucks, and Walgreens drone deliveries every hour.
“You used to hear birds singing in the morning,” said next door neighbor Lurleen Grover. “Now it’s just baby wails and Jake sobbing in the garage.”
Donations have poured in. So far they’ve received:
22,000 diapers from Huggies (with a threatening note that read “No more after this”)
A lifetime supply of mashed peas
20 car seats
Social Media Fame: #TheVigints
The Blottsworths’ Instagram account (@VigintupletCarnival) went viral before Emma was even wheeled out of the hospital. The family now boasts over 7.1 million followers, with regular live streams of bath time, diaper changing, and occasional Q&As like:
Q: Do you know all their names yet?
A: No. We’re still working on it.
Q: Which one is the loudest?
A: Snort.
Q: What are your plans for discipline?
A: A fire hose.
A Netflix docu-series titled “Twenty: A Diaper Love Story” begins filming next month. HBO is reportedly in talks for a grittier sequel, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Frances McDormand, Viola Davis, and The Little Sunshine Singers.
What Happened, and What’s Next
Let’s recap the cast and events:
One couple
Twenty babies
A delivery that rewrote obstetrical textbooks and required crowd control
A feeding and diapering operation best described as a “domestic moon launch”
A social media empire rising faster than you can say “Zamboni needs a bottle”
As for the future, the Blottsworths are hopeful. “We want them to grow up happy, loved, and in a house where nobody ever says the word ‘Vigintuplets again,” said Emma. “If they all learn to sleep through the night by the time they’re five, I’ll call that a win,” added Jake.
But the family isn’t slowing down just yet. Emma recently confirmed she’s pregnant again—with just one. “It’s almost disappointing,” she laughed while cradling five infants and balancing a bottle on her head.
“But I’ll take boring over birthing a conga line any day of the week.”
