Octuplets' Grandma, Mom Patch Things Up

The grandmother and mother of the almost month-old octuplets have made peace with each other.

In an exclusive interview, the grandmother, Angela Suleman, told Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez the turning point was when she laid eyes on the eight newborns.

Angela's is a tale of an overworked, financially-taxed woman having to put her life on hold to care for her grandchildren, angry at her daughter's obsession with having so many kids, and resentful of the eight new babies -- until she met them.

Her daughter, Nadya, a single mother, had six kids already, all by in-vitro fertilization, when she had eight more embryos implanted.

"I was actually very upset that my daughter had gone and done this in-vitro," Angela told Rodriguez, "but, after I saw them, you know, I thought, 'My goodness, these are my grandchildren. They're so tiny and fragile. I'll have to be there for them, you know, like I was for the others." '

Angela says Nadya didn't tell her about the latest in-vitro procedure "because she knew I didn't want her to do it."

Chuckling, Angela said she didn't know about the new in-vitro until she "saw that it was successful." In other words -- until the pregnancy was visible. At that point, says Angela, "she admitted to it."

Angela readily conceded she felt overwhelmed helping to care for her daughter's first six children.
"Every day!" she laughed, agreeing with Rodriguez' characterization of her feelings as, "I can't do this."

Paying for their care is quite a challenge: Angela says her "retirement check goes every month. It's just gone."

Just having six youngsters in the three bedroom house is "crowded," Angela observed, so, once the new eight babies come home from the hospital, "I'll have to do something to u know help her get another (house)."

She says her resentment is fast becoming a thing of the past: "I did (resent Nadya), but you know, you can resent your daughter for just so long, and then you see that she's trying so hard to take care of these children, and she's a good mother.

" ... She's a very good mother," Angela continued, "but then," she laughed, "she had a good example!"

Angela says, "There must be a reason, you know, why this happened, and that they're all healthy. That is a miracle, a total miracle."