Octomom Puts Family in Front of Cameras to Pay the Bills

Nov. 24, 2009— -- It's a scene that would send shivers down the spines of even the most experienced parents -- bedtime with 14 kids and one mother.

There's the usual screeching and crying and pleading from the older six children. And, on one particularly harried evening, the oldest even lobs a screwdriver at his mom.

But for Nadya Suleman, who is known round the world as Octomom after giving birth to octuplets in January, it's just a reminder that she has the big family she dreamed of, even if life isn't always how she pictured it.

"I've basically been a science experiment for the last 10 years," she told "Good Morning America" today in an exclusive interview from her La Habra, Calif., home.

Suleman put her family in front of cameras earlier this fall for a one-hour documentary that has already aired in the United Kingdom and will air in the United States as well. The production company has the option to produce more installments and will likely resume shooting around Christmas.

Suleman earned an estimated $250,000 for the first year of access to her family.

Half of that money went straight to the care of her children, all of whom were born through in vitro fertilization.

It's the only way, she said, to support her enormous family.

"I'm dammed if I do and dammed if I don't," she told the filmmakers. "Because if I don't do what I need to do in the media to take care of and support the kids, I can't take care of them."

And yet, despite her harried everyday life and the scathing criticism she has faced in the past year for bringing more than a dozen children into the world with no way to support them, Suleman said she would not be averse to having more children in the future.

"If I wanted to do it the traditional way and get married, that's like another chapter," she said.

But, for now, she said, more children is not a consideration.

Suleman said she goes through $1,000 in food and 700 diapers in one week. She also goes through 4½ gallons of milk and at least eight loads of laundry each day. She employs a team of five nannies -- four during the day and one at night -- at a cost of about $10,000 a month.

Suleman told "GMA" that she gets two to three hours of sleep each night. And when she takes the octuplets to the park, she splits them into pairs and spends 10 minutes at a time bonding with each pair.

Octomom Nadya Suleman Stands by Fertility Doctor

Suleman has stood by her decision to carry the octuplets to term even as doctors suggested selective reduction.

"Because which one should I have murdered?" she said in the documentary. "Noah? Isaiah? You know, Jonah?

Dr. Michael Kamrava, Suleman's fertility doctor, has since been dropped by the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, which told ABC News he had "persistent problems adhering to the standards and guidelines of the organization."

Suleman defended Kamrava, saying the doctor used the same procedure each time she went through the in vitro process. Before the octuplets, Suleman had twins, who recently turned 3. She also has four older children.

"He did nothing wrong, nothing different," she said.

After having six children through in vitro fertilization, Suleman still had 17 or 18 frozen embryos in storage and wanted to use them to try to have one more child.

Suleman told "Good Morning America" that selling or destroying the embryos was not an option for her. "Some people can do that," she said. "That wasn't appropriate for me."

She bristled when asked about the children's biological father, saying she had no interest in either naming him or speaking about him.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said. "I don't talk about that. It was my choice, and that individual is not in their lives."

Off camera, Suleman said the man is aware that he is the father of all 14 of her children.

The babies are old enough to sit by themselves at a special children's table in the kitchen and are starting to learn how to climb out of their cribs.

The clan is already starting to outgrow the four-bedroom house they moved into in April.Suleman is working on a book telling her life story. If it sells well, she said, she may be able to buy a bigger house.

She said she is at peace with her life. She avoids going out in public and prefers spending time with her children at home.

Still, Suleman said last summer that she has had regrets.

"I screwed up my life, I screwed up my kids' lives," she told Radar Online in June. "I'm like, 'What the heck am I going to do?' I have to put on a strong facade, and I have to pretend like, 'Oh, I don't regret it.'"