Wichita ? Three of the sextuplets born April 6 at Via Christi Regional Medical Center went home during the weekend, with their siblings expected to join them in a week or two.

Their parents, Eldon and Sondra Headrick, left the hospital Sunday with the three boys and their older sister Aubrianna, 4, bound for the family’s home in the tiny community of Rago, about 40 miles west of Wichita.

The parents arrived at the hospital on Friday and spent time working with neonatologist Katherine Schooley to learn about the techniques for feeding and diapering the babies.

By 8 a.m. the next day, visitors found Sondra yawning and joking with nurses as she prepared to feed the babies. She’d slept only one hour overnight.

“But the good news is, I made Eldon stay awake with me,” she said.

There wasn’t much sleep for the couple the next night, either.

The boys Ethan, Grant and Sean were circumcised on Sunday, and then Schooley saw the family off, with a big hug for the mother and best wishes for all.

“Sondra is an excellent mother who brought these babies through a tough pregnancy and who has come in here very diligently several times a day to learn what she needs to know,” Schooley said earlier.

“But this next part is not going to be easy.”

To help mothers and fathers understand the child care demands of multiple babies, Schooley asks them to stay with the babies in the neonatal unit around the clock for a day or two before going home.

The sextuplets, three boys and three girls, were carried for 31 weeks before being delivered by Caesarean section. The children weighed between 2 pounds 10 ounces and 3 pounds 11 ounces at birth.

The babies all had sleep apnea after their birth, a condition in which they would stop breathing for a few moments. This now happens much less frequently, but their parents have been taught how to perform CPR on the infants.

The time demands of feeding the children every three hours including through much of the night will demand that the parents seek some assistance. That’s something Sondra hasn’t wanted.

But Schooley said help would be needed, in an ideal situation. If every baby took half an hour to feed, then that would take three hours for one person to feed all six.

“And that’s just one feeding,” Schooley said. “The babies feed up to eight times a day.”

Sondra acknowledged she wants to handle most of the child care herself.

“But it’s also true that I’m not stupid. I know I’m going to need help.”

She grinned.

“And I hope I’m big enough to accept it when the time comes.”