One In 200 Million!

People always ask me what it is like to have triplet brothers.  Well, I really don’t remember what it was like before they came along. I do know that wherever we go, the triplets draw a lot of attention.  In fact, they have been drawing a lot of attention from the very beginning.  Thursday, June 20th, 2013 was they day they finally came in to the world.

Just after midnight, the hospital staff was all ready and Dr. Bonebrake, got to work.  My brothers were all born one minute apart from each other.   Louie came first at 12:42 am.  He was 4 pounds, 3 ounces and 18 1/2 inches.  Giovonni was next at 12:43 am and was 4 pounds, 9 oz and 18 inches.  Then Rocky was pulled out at 12:44 am. He was 4 pounds, 13 ounces and 18 inches.

Here is mom holding each of the babies for the first time.  She was just as happy to see them as she was to have them out of her!

Dad told me that each of the newborns were placed in clear plastic boxes that looked like fish tanks and the nurses got busy working on them.  Because they were born earlier than most babies regularly are, they had to stay in a place called the NICU.  Weird name.

Right before they took them to the NICU, they put them all in one container for the picture you see above.   The nurse then wheeled them into the hallway and that is when the family got to see them for the first time.  Well, everyone except me.  The thing is, it was so late that I had already gone home!  But believe me, I have seen plenty of them since then.

Dad followed them all to intensive care where they were poked and prodded for a few more hours as the nurses did lots of tests on them.  Mom was pretty exhausted from bringing three new people into the world.  But within a few hours, she got to visit them for the first time as you see in the pictures here.

Mom and dad took turns going home and taking care of the rest of us, while the other stayed at the hospital with the newborns.  Every few days they switched and though things were a little crazy during that time, it was just a taste of what was to come.

After 9 days, Louie was released from the NICU and Giovonni and Rocky got to go home the following day.  I was very excited for them to come home because I was too young (by one month!) to visit them in the NICU, well…besides that time my parents snuck me in as you can see in the picture above.

We have been told that the most common combination of triplets is identical twin girls and a boy.  The most rare form of triplets is naturally conceived identical boys like my brothers.  In fact, this article claims it only happens in one out of every 200 million pregnancies!  In 2015, only 4 sets of identical triplets were born in the US.  As rare as that is, the next room over in the NICU also had identical naturally conceived triplets boys!  A local news crew from WIBW came to do a story about it.  The link for that news report is below.

WIBW news article about double sets of triplets!

(written from Journey’s perspective by dad…but partially typed by Journey)