Month: April 2016

Googling “Triplets”

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What’s the first thing you do after the news of having triplets begins to sink in? You Google. You Google every question you can think of.  And there are A LOT of questions.

One thing you quickly learn is that triplets are rare and when something is rare the information is hard to come by. We have spent hours researching online, reading blogs from other parents of multiples and watching YouTube videos of healthy and happy triplet babies. Since we have had so many questions about the babies from family and friends, we decided to put together some of the most interesting facts we have learned so far.

Delivery

  • Average gestational age at time of delivery is 32 weeks
  • Average birth weight for triplets is 4lbs 1oz.
  • Average NICU stay is 18-19 days
  • Average days in the hospital is 22-23 days

Zygosity

  • 80.7% of triplets are all fraternal
  • 2.9% of triplets are all identical
  • 11.6 % of triplets are a combination of identical and fraternal
  • Types of triplets: 
  • Trichorionic/Triamniotic (tri/tri) triplets:

TRI TRI

  •  Dichorionic/Triamniotic (di/tri) triplets:

MONO DI

  • Monochorionic/Triamniotic (mo/tri) triplets:

MONO TRI

  • In addition to the three types of triplets listed above, there are also Monchorionic/Monoamniotic (mo/mo) triplets. Essentially these are triplets who are sharing not only one placenta, but they are also sharing one amniotic sac. This is extremely rare. 

Gender

  • 49.51% of triplets are female
  • 49.36% of triplets are male

Random Facts

  • Identical multiples exhibit almost identical brain wave patterns.
  • The rate for identical, or monozygotic, multiples is random and universal; it’s the same in all populations regardless of race, heredity or other factors, and it has remained constant over time.
  • Twins and multiples have been known to develop their own ‘language’ that only they understand. This is known as cryptophasia.

Cost of raising triplets for the next 18 years

  •  Still too afraid to Google this one.

 We will know more about what type of triplets we are having next week so stay tuned!

Telling Family and Friends

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What They Said/What They Were Probably Thinking

Grandparents

 We first told our parents, because who better to comfort you when you think your world has ended?  Of course they said all the right things.  In fact, it was like they each had a copy of the same script, but we know they had additional thoughts.

“God has blessed you with a miracle. / This will be challenging and exhausting but it will be the greatest adventure of their lives.

God doesn’t give you more than you can handle. / I just hope He gives them a winning lottery ticket next!

It will be fine, Melissa. / How is she going to fit 3 babies in that stomach of hers?

You grow those babies and TR will take care of the finances. / Good Heavens!  How is he going to support a family of 6?

You have plenty of people to help you through this. / There goes my vacation, book club, garden club, church work, lunch with the girls for the next couple of years. . .

We are going to adore those babies. / We are going to adore those babies!” 

Great-Grandparents

Brooklyn is blessed to have 4 great-grandparents, all healthy and active and a big part of our lives.  They were the next to hear our exciting news.  The wonderful thing about living so long is you see no need to sugar coat anything so we knew exactly what they were thinking.

“Wow!  How did that happen?

What kind of insurance do you have?

Hmmm . . . that’s a lot to handle!

We can’t wait to meet those babies!”

Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins

We waited until Easter weekend to tell our siblings and their families.  By then, we were somewhat used to the idea and thought we could make the announcement without bursting into tears or a cold sweat.  The shock was not all consuming now but still came in waves. Their initial reactions were stunned silence mixed with nervous laughter.  Then they realized we were serious and jumped in with congratulations.

“Well, we do have twins in the family. / Having twins is one thing, but triplets???

Don’t worry about visiting me in Arizona; I’ll come see you. / Can you imagine flying with 4 kids?

Maybe Disney will give you free passes. / You’ll be lucky to keep up with 4 kids in your own backyard.

You should contact all the baby product companies. /Now is not the time to be picky about what diapers you use.  You’ll need every freebie you can get.

I hope you have a boy. / As a boy with 3 girl cousins, there had better be at least one boy in that trio.

We’ll all be fighting over who gets to hold the babies. / We’ll all be fighting over who gets to hold the babies!”

Extended Family and Friends

This news was too big to keep to ourselves so we began to share it with the rest of our family and friends.  We figured we could use all the prayers we could get and that sentiment was validated when their first words were usually, “Oh my God!” or “Dear Lord!”

“Triplets??? / We didn’t know TR had it in him!

You’re going to need a bigger car. / Nothing screams “soccer mom” like a minivan or suburban.  Poor TR will never own a sports car.

God chose you for a reason. / Better you than me!

You’ll be great parents to these kids. / That certainly takes the pressure off the rest of us to have kids.

That’s amazing. / I don’t know what my girlfriends were really thinking but they felt the need to bring me flowers the next day.

We will shower these babies with love. / We will shower these babies with love!”

Brooklyn

We told our 18-month-old daughter that she is going to be a big sister but she doesn’t quite understand.  It’s one thing to say that mama has a baby in her tummy, but how do you explain 3 babies when she has barely mastered counting to 2?  One thing we know for sure.  She will love these siblings with all her heart!

Oh Baby! Oh Baby! Oh Baby!

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Today I heard the words every woman longs to hear, “You’re pregnant.” Then I heard the words that would strike fear in any woman, “You’re having triplets!”  Those were the last words I remember.  From that point on my body went numb and my brain went dead, and there were a few tears.

I know triplets don’t seem that unusual anymore in these times of in vitro fertilization and large multiples, but to this working wife and mother of a toddler all I could think was, how could this be? How did our well-planned family actually double over night?  Well, it seems this little quirk of nature happens naturally once in every 8,100 pregnancies and our odds go up because we have twins on both sides of the family.

I assume the shock factor was still in place when I almost put nail glue in my eyes instead of eye drops. My husband, although putting on a brave face, missed his work exit by a full 10 minutes.

We are blessed to have a wonderful support system in place, two sets of grandparents and four energetic great-grandparents, along with siblings and friends ready to jump in and help us. We are also blessed to know that God thinks we are the ones to take on this task.

Hang on; this is sure to be the start of a bumpy and joyful ride! For those of you who are wondering, this is no April Fools joke!