The parents of 'one in 200 million' triplets have spoken of the 'best but hardest job' as they reflected on the first year of their sons' lives. Gina Dewdney and her husband Craig were shocked when doctors told them their naturally-conceived babies were such a rare occurence.
Now Jimmy, Jenson and Jaxson are celebrating their first birthday. The boys spent six weeks on a neonatal intensive care unit before being allowed home after being born prematurely on April 26 at Liverpool Women's Hospital.
Gina, from Frodsham in Cheshire told the Mirror : "They've gone through so much already in their tiny little lives so its going to be a big celebration for them and for us as well. Being a mum is the best job I’ve ever had. It’s the hardest job by far but I absolutely love it now, even through the lack of sleep and the hospital visits. It’s tough but I’m loving it, I really am."
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The mum, 34, said she had an "inkling" she was having twins at first - which was later confirmed with a scan - before the couple spotted a third head on the screen. Twenty minutes into the scan Craig said 'is that a third head?' and there was silence," Gina said.
"The consultant said in 25 years of scanning they’d never seen triplets, and they were all sharing one placenta which is super, super rare. Craig, 35, said: "I was just like 'how does that work holding them?' And I was thinking that’s a lot of nappies."
The couple said they had now established a carefully planned routine. "If they are even 20 minutes out of sync from one another, you’ll settle one down and then the other one will wake up and then that one could potentially wake up the baby that you’ve just put to sleep," Craig said.
"Feeding time is interesting. I have to tidy away while Gina is feeding them or if Gina is spoon-feeding two of them I’ll go in with the other. It’s just learning how to work together with them."
The couple have set up the Cheshire Triplets Instagram page to share their daily routines with almost 20,000 followers. "On Instagram I’m getting loads of interest from people from all around the world who are having triplets or twins," Gina said.
"They just want to know life hacks, how to do things, how I manage with three so its been a really positive thing that’s come out of this." Gina was landed with £500 of pink girls clothes when she was told early on that two of the babies were girls.
"I was excited to have the best of both worlds. I purchased bags of girls clothes and accessories such as girly bibs and dummies. We even started looking for girl names. But I totally understand why the sonographer got the gender wrong for weeks as the babies would never sit still."
