Adam Busby gained prominence as the father of America’s first all-female quintuplets. His family has featured in TLC’s “OutDaughtered” since 2016, with millions of people watching in utter fascination as the babies grow up and reached new milestones each year. Raising this many children who were going through the same thing all at once was quite difficult, even if they had help, but Adam was steadfast in his love and commitment to them. Much had been written about him and his wife, Danielle, not all good, but he’s been quick to explain or defend their actions.
The Busby couple’s love story
Adam met Danielle in 2003 at Target, as they both worked for the same department store in Lake Charles. He was attracted to her, but it took him months before he worked up the courage to introduce himself. They hit it off, and were soon spending their free time at work together. After asking her out on a date, he canceled on her to hang out with his friends, not a great way to start a relationship, but he made it up to her.
When they went out on their first official date, he took her to meet his family, joining them for his sister’s birthday dinner. By the end of the night, he’d asked her to be his girlfriend, and she said yes. They were engaged by Christmas Eve 2005, and were married on 22 July 2006 in their hometown. Hurricane Rita made landfall in Louisiana the previous year and caused a lot of damage in Lake Charles, but they found a little chapel for the ceremony. They didn’t really care much about where it would take place, as she said, ‘We were young and in love… We were just looking forward to the day we would officially commit in front of God to be together forever.’
Fertility issues
By 2009, Adam and Danielle felt ready to have kids, but both had problems that prevented them from conceiving the natural way. His sperm count and motility as well as testosterone levels were low, and Danielle had irregular ovulation. They took fertility medication to stimulate ovulation, and underwent intrauterine insemination – IUI – in which the sperm was placed directly into the uterus when the timing was right. It took some time and a lot of attempts before she became pregnant; Blayke Louise was born in 2011.
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Wanting to have more children, they went through the same process and faced the same challenges, but it was all worth it in the end. At first, she thought she was pregnant with twins, but as the doctors continued to monitor her condition via ultrasound, it soon became apparent that they would have five babies. It was all so surreal that they could only laugh that this was happening to them.
Once they got over the shock, the reality of what they would be facing began to sink in – it was scary, but Adam believed that God would get them through it, saying ‘I truly believe that God is working in our lives to orchestrate a pretty awesome story.’ However, their first visit to the specialist dampened their spirits. The doctor naturally talked to them about the risks involved, and worst-case scenarios, but what they found hard to accept was that he was ‘scaring’ them into reducing the number of babies from five to two. As Christians, they refused to do the ‘reduction’ procedure, as they held onto their faith that God was holding all five babies in His hands. Adam admitted to being a little bit disappointed that he’s not getting a boy, but said, ‘Coming home with my beautiful wife and 5 baby girls is all that I care about.’
About the show
“OutDaughtered” chronicled the lives of the Busby family, beginning with the births of the babies. At 28 weeks and two days of gestation, the quintuplets were born on 8 April 2015, via cesarean section, at the Woman’s Hospital in Texas. The delivery took about four minutes, with five medical teams on hand to care for the newborns. Ava Lane and Olivia Marie were twins, while Parker Kate, Riley Paige and Hazel Grace were fraternal triplets. They were quite tiny, weighing only between 2lbs and 2lbs 6oz, not much over 1kg. The preemies stayed at the Newborn Intensive Care Unit – NICU – until they had grown to where their organs were fully developed, and could regulate their body temperatures.
As thrilled as the Busby couple was when the quins were finally brought home, they were also quite overwhelmed by the time and attention that caring for these delicate babies would entail in feeding, burping, changing diapers, grooming, dressing, and soothing them. On top of that, they had to make sure that their eldest, Blayke, who was only four when the quins were born, wouldn’t feel neglected.
They were fortunate that they had people who were willing and able to help them through it all. Not much was known about Adam’s parents, but they were always present in time of need. They could also count on Danielle’s mom Michelle, and siblings Crystal and Ashley along with their husbands. The community and members of their church were generous with their time too.
For five seasons, from 2016 to 2021, viewers saw how the Busbys were able to overcome the challenges of raising the quins. No matter the hardships, it was clear that the joy these kids had brought into their lives was incomparable.
Adam Turns 40! https://t.co/WPefpW0KfY
— The Busbys (@ItsABuzzWorld) June 30, 2022
In late 2014, Adam and Danielle started a blog called “It’s A Buzz World”, on which they could update family and friends about their journey – they never imagined that they would share it with the rest of the world through the TV series. He said, ‘We have been working with them [TLC] since before the birth of these very special quins, and are so excited to have documented this incredible story of God’s grace poured out on our lives.’ Just as they couldn’t help but smile whenever they saw their ‘little miracles,’ they hoped that they would also bring some happiness to the viewers.
There were some concerns that being on the receiving end of so much attention would have a negative impact on a family. However, Adam said that they surrounded themselves with people who would help them stay grounded, and hold them accountable for their actions.
What happened to Adam Busby?
Underwent vasectomy, or not
Adam and Danielle still went on dates when they only had Blayke. However, as they became a family of eight, spending time as a couple had become complicated. One time, Adam joked that the baby in his wife’s arms was ‘definitely ruining his mojo.’ Raising his eyebrows suggestively, he said he wasn’t able to do anything with her, especially when they were in a room full of sleeping babies around them. Danielle said that nothing was going to happen unless he underwent a vasectomy. He hadn’t gone through with it because he was nervous, to which she said, ‘Please. I’ve had like six kids for you – you can’t do one thing for me?’
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They were of the same mind that getting pregnant again was something they should do well to avoid, so he went through the procedure. However, some time later, Danielle’s period was late, causing Adam to freak out a bit, confessing to her that he’d had the vasectomy, but hadn’t returned for a follow-up visit to see if it took. He said that it just slipped his mind, and never thought it would become a problem since his doctor was the best in his field. Fortunately, she wasn’t pregnant, and sometime later she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and underwent an hysterectomy, so having more kids was no longer possible.
Suffered from postpartum depression
People usually associate postpartum depression with women, so it came as a shock to many when Adam revealed in 2017 that he experienced it too. Being a father of one to a father of six had changed his life in ways that he might have been unprepared for, and had difficulty dealing with. There was this constant worry for the babies, and pressure in providing for his family that made it hard for him to focus on anything else. Sometimes it felt like he’d given everything to them that by the end of the day, and there was nothing left. He felt different from the Adam he used to be, not just with work, but with relationships as well, and it drove a wedge between him and his wife because he sometimes wanted to check out. Adam told his dad about it, and the latter told him that part of what he had been experiencing was normal parenting, but multiplied by five. The struggle was very real, but he learned that he wasn’t the only father who was going through it, although hearing about it was rare. He said, ‘It’s a hard thing to talk about, because you’re scared that nobody is going to understand.’
He said it was gradual, but it had become worse the more he tried to hide it. Adam kept it from Danielle because he didn’t want to burden her with it, and add to the stress that he knew she had been under on a daily basis. However, his wife didn’t care about that, and even said, ‘Then let’s live miserably!’ She hated hearing that he was suffering from it from the time the quins were born, and was only made aware when they were about to turn two. She was confused about it too, as it was something she didn’t experience, so it wasn’t easy for her to understand. Danielle had days when she felt lost, and would tell Adam that she needed him to just be with her, ‘But it’s sad because I don’t remember him really getting the chance to feel broken like that.’
Adam opened up about his struggles to the public because he wanted to help raise awareness of what fathers had been dealing with, and remove the stigma that surrounded mental health. In sharing this, he was criticized by people who simply didn’t understand, and would say that he just had to put things in perspective and appreciate all the things that were great in his life. However, Adam said, ‘whenever you struggle with depression, your mind just doesn’t let you go that way.’ He turned to psychiatrists, psychologists and a pastor to help him overcome it. His advice to dads who might be suffering from postpartum depression was to talk to someone they loved and trusted, because hiding it and trying to fix it on their own, as well as thinking that it would go away on its own, would only make it worse. Adam was grateful for his wife, who had been his rock and who loved him through it all.
Judged for their parenting style
As Adam and Danielle shared their lives with the world through “OutDaughtered,” it went without saying that there would always be people who would nitpick on everything they said and did, particularly when it comes to how they raised their children. They were criticized for many things, including taking ‘too many’ vacations away from their daughters, one of the quins skipping a grade in school, not removing locks on the quins’ bedroom, and cheering on his eldest as she dived off the roof into the swimming pool. Adam often offered explanations about most issues that cropped up, to defend their decisions or actions, but at times, he would snap back at parent shamers online.
It was all a learning experience for them, as Adam said that they were doing the best they could, making decisions based on what they knew, and on their intuition as parents. ‘There’s no manual on raising quins’, he said, and further ‘There’s nobody out there who knows the intricacy of the decisions we make. It’s just crazy that somebody out there is criticizing us about something they have no idea about.’
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Defended his wife against haters
When Danielle revealed that she had some health problems, some were concerned while others believed she was faking it, to add some drama to the show, as viewers were left wondering what was really wrong with her. Over the years, she had been suffering from migraine and neck pain accompanied by arm numbness or tingling, and at one point, she felt like her heart was going to explode. She consulted with many specialists who conducted various tests, but they could only rule out possible disorders and couldn’t determine what was causing her symptoms.
Adam came to his wife’s defense whenever someone would bash her for her mystery illness. It was tough trying to explain something when they didn’t really know what was going on with her. Recently, they had come to believe that Danielle had autoimmune disease, but they hadn’t figured out everything about her health issues. So far, they were managing it with diet and medication, and they continued to monitor her by getting her bloodwork done and checking her hormone levels. She had good days and was making the most of it, which caused some people to misunderstand and think that she wasn’t really sick. During bad days, when there was too much pain and inflammation, she would refrain from blogging or filming.
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Taking a break from the show
Adam and Danielle knew what they signed up for when they agreed to star in their own reality TV show. Despite being bashed for whatever it was that they said or did, it was important for them to keep things as real as possible.
It had been over a year since the eighth season finale of “OutDaughtered” aired on 4 May 2021, but there was still no news on when the sixth season would premiere; loyal viewers had been wondering if the show had been canceled. The couple addressed this issue on their YouTube Channel, “It’s A Buzz World,” in a video they posted in July 2022. It delighted their fans to hear that the show wasn’t canceled, and that there was no animosity or anything like that between them and the network or the producers.
The Covid-19 pandemic made it really difficult for them because of the restrictions on where they could film and what they could do, saying that the content would have been boring if they only film inside the house. However, this wasn’t the only reason why they felt like taking a break would be good – with all the things that had happened in their lives, they wanted to regroup as a family, and take time to rejuvenate. Adam said, ‘We decided to take a year off of everything. Let the girls do what they want, go have some fun.’ Ever since they’d become a family of eight, the cameras were there, so going through life without it being documented for the show was ‘healthy’ for them.
However, fans were puzzled by this, as the Busbys continued to film their adventures and shared them with the public through their YouTube Channel. Danielle said that it was their family footage too. They loved capturing special moments on camera, and posting them; it was just how they rolled. There was no set date as to when they would resume filming for the show, but they were still in talks with TLC. Adam said, ‘We’re not saying no, but we’re just not saying yes right now.’
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