Michigan couple finally welcomes baby girl — 14 boys later

Kateri and Jay Schwandt, both 45, started with Tyler. Then they had 13 more boys: Zach, Drew, Brandon, Tommy, Vinny, Calvan, Gabe, Wesley, Charlie, Luke, Tucker, Francisco and Finley — until Wednesday night, when their youngest, Maggie Jayne, was born.

She weighs 7 pounds, 8ounces, is 20 inches long, and ready to take on a world with 14 older brothers.

The Schwandts — who have been featured for years in local and national news every time there was a new arrival and have a livestreaming program, "14 Outdoorsmen" — will likely need to adjust, and perhaps even rename their show.

"My parents were finally blessed with the little girl they never thought they'd end up having," Tyler Schwandt, 28, said. "It's been about 12 hours since my dad told us, and I still haven't quite wrapped my mind around it."

There's no pink in the Schwandt household.

"I don't even know if my mom owns any pink clothing — or anything," he added.

Tyler said he also didn't think his parents were prepared with any girl names because they never had to use any. Maggie, he said, came from his mom, whose middle name is Margaret, and Jayne, a clever variation of his dad's first name, Jay.

One big adjustment Tyler said his brothers would have to make is remembering to put the toilet seat down. But that might take years, he said. The house, he pointed out, has been full of boys for so long they just aren't used to thinking about what it's like to be a girl.

In the past few years, every time his mom was expecting, news organizations would start asking if the next one would bring the boys a sister.

Tyler, who recently bought a home of his own about 20 minutes away, is engaged to be married.

"We are overjoyed and beyond excited to add Maggie Jayne to our family," Jay Schwandt said, after his wife gave birth at Mercy Health Saint Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids. "This year has been memorable in so many ways, for so many reasons, but Maggie is the greatest gift we could ever imagine."

The Schwandts started dating as high school freshmen in Michigan. They married in 1993, before they attended Ferris State University and had three sons before they graduated. 

They both earned advanced degrees, even as their family grew. Kateri earned a master's degree in social work from Grand Valley State University, and Jay, who also is a land surveyor, a law degree from Thomas Cooley.

In 2014, before Francisco was born, the Today show asked, "Oh boy! Couple with 12 sons expecting baby 13; will they finally get a girl?" They had already made headlines the year before when Tucker was born, as baby boy No. 12.

“If we were to have a girl, I think we would go into shock,” Kateri told Mlive in 2014. 

At the time, Jay said, he'd love to have a girl, and to see how she would affect the nearly all-male household. He added that there's always a lot of roughhousing and wrestling, but a little girl might change all that.

And earlier this year, after Kateri announced she was pregnant, she said that "there's enough testosterone" in the house to "fill a stadium" and if they had a little girl, she'd be "the most spoiled and protected child her entire life, especially during her teenage years."

Good luck, Maggie Jayne, bringing dates home.

USA today