Three times a lady and triple the work for mum and dad
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IDENTICAL triplets Katie, Sarah and Julia Patterson are three little miracles for more than one reason.
Identical triplets account for just one in every 150,000 pregnancies and from the very start they face an uphill battle for survival. However, the Patterson girls from Clonmore, Templemore in Co Tipperary have confounded medical opinion and shown they are little fighters.
They were born three months premature at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin on May 23 after being conceived naturally.
Julia, the smallest, weighed just 1lb 12 ounces, while her sisters came in at just under 3lbs. However, this weight disparity is now giving their confused parents, Jayne (32) and Jim (35) a clue when it comes to working out who is who.
"It's chaos, but good chaos. They're our three little miracles," thrilled mum Jayne told the Irish Independent. The babies spent their first weeks in intensive care and were only able to come home to their older brother, one-year-old Callum, at the end of last month.
The girls are thriving with Julia now weighing 5lbs 8 ounces while Katie and Sarah come in at 7lbs each.
After the initial shock of learning they were pregnant with twins - which then turned out to be triplets - Jayne and Jim were warned that none of the babies might survive as multiple births carry a raft of complications.
"At the first scan in Kilkenny, they said we had twins, it wasn't until another scan a week later that the third heartbeat showed up and we knew we had triplets.
"Jim nearly fell off the end of the bed when he heard that," joked Jayne.
"I was transferred up to Dublin for a more detailed scan where they found some complications. We thought we could lose all three and were very upset and came out crying after it.
"I went to a shop and bought three little glass fairies and put them on the shelf. I said 'if something goes wrong, we have to remember that at one stage we had three'."
Prof Fergal Malone, Jayne's obstetrician, told the worried parents that Julia faced the greatest challenge as she had very little amniotic fluid surrounding her. However, Jayne said it was the support of family and friends, along with lots of prayers, that got her through the pregnancy.
Now that they have them all home safe and sound, she and Jim are struggling to identify the tots.
- Breda Heffernan
