Focus on triplets impresses judges

• Published date: 16 December 2021
• Publication title: Guardian, The

Older brother Taine, who was 7 at the time, had been excited at the prospect of a younger brother or sister, and “now I’m gunna have three?” he asked

But right from the start the family were told by doctors that the pregnancy was high risk and not to expect to bring three babies home.

As it happened, they were all lucky to be alive.

At 29 weeks, the heart rate of one of the girls dropped.

The vessels in an umbilical cord were failing. They were in grave danger of losing all three babies. They were rushed to hospital and delivered just an hour later by emergency caesarean section.

Kalani was born first, followed by Jesse, and then Tiana (it was Taine that came up with the name Jesse).

The most concern was for Tiana, who had a brain bleed and was given blood transfusions to keep her alive as her pancreas wasn’t working. It was touch and go.

They weighed just 1075g, 1065g and 825g at birth. They spent the first month in Wellington Hospital, then the next seven weeks in Palmerston North Hospital.

Alicia said, slowly but surely, the girls all gained weight and their health improved. They were born in May and were finally allowed home in August.

That’s when the enormity of the task sunk in. Raising one baby can demand complete attention. But three?

There was little or no time for themselves. Alicia said it was about sticking to a 24/7 routine and accepting help when it came. It worked out that they fed and changed every three hours and that left one hour, eight times a day, when they were all asleep.

Taine’s bedtime of 7.30pm soon became everybody’s bedtime. Gareth, who started work at 5am, would wake early to do the 3am feed to help Alicia get some rest. A friend, Jackie Shaw, helped with some night feeds, too.

Extended family stepped up to help. Gareth’s mother was a huge help and Alicia’s parents moved closer to offer support, while an aunty took the girls one at a time on a Friday night to give them individual time and attention with cousins.

“We would not have made it in the early days without them,” they said.

Interestingly, the same time the girls were born, there were three sets of twins from Levin in the same neo-natal unit — all girls. The families had all kept in touch.

They were put in touch with the Horowhenua Multiples Support Club, founded by parents of twins and triplets who had recognised the help that networking could provide. Alicia said they had benefited from having that support.

As challenging as it was, the newborn stage was possibly the...