The parents of “one in 200 million” identical triplet boys are celebrating their sons’ first birthday after they were conceived naturally against all odds. Gina Dewdney and her husband Craig were shocked when doctors their babies were such a rare occurrence.
Now triplets Jimmy, Jenson and Jaxson are celebrating their milestone birthday. Gina , from Frodsham, Cheshire, said: “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.”
The boys spent more than a month being cared for on a neonatal intensive care unit at Liverpool Women's Hospital before being allowed home, reports the Mirror. Gina, 34, said she thought she was having twins at first - which was later confirmed with a scan - before the couple spotted a third head on the screen.
She added: “Twenty minutes into the scan Craig said ‘is that a third head?’ and there was silence. 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.”
Mr Dewdney, 35, said: “I was just like ‘how does that work holding them?’ And I was thinking that’s a lot of nappies.” The couple now have a carefully-orchestrated routine to care for the boys.
“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 started the Cheshire Triplets Instagram page to share their daily routines with almost 20,000 followers.
Mum Gina said: “On Instagram I’m getting loads of interest from people from all around the world who are having triplets or twins. 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.”
Amazingly, Gina was told early on that two of the babies were girls and she collected £500 worth of girls' baby clothes in expectation. She explained: "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'II totally understand why the sonographer got the gender wrong for weeks as the babies would never sit still.”
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