Lisey Plus Three

Michelle Finding out you are having more than one baby when you’ve never had any reproductive therapy is just crazy. It’s never really even been on my radar. Telling your family, friends, and so on is just insane. We decided that day to tell our parents that day. My mom simply said, “Don’t tell me that.” As if I could try to pull off a joke like that. She has accepted the idea, and even enjoys getting reactions out of people herself now.

Ben First off, we’ve got to rewind back to when we tried to tell my parents that we were pregnant again, before triplets were even a thing. We dressed Elise in a shirt that said ‘BIG SISTER’ in very large letters. She walked around the house with it for what seemed like an eternity. Michelle and I kept on exchanging glances like, “How have they not noticed yet?” In my head I was thinking like Kristoff from Frozen, “someone’s gotta tell ’em.” Eventually, we had to point out the shirt. My parents were very surprised and happy, but my dad admitted he ‘never reads shirts.’

When it came time to let them know we were having triplets, we really weren’t trying to be slick about how we presented it to them, but Mom was traveling and Dad was home so it required two separate phone calls. I told my dad first and after he came down from the initial surprise, I told him to call my mom and have her call me but also, DON’T RUIN THE SURPRISE! (My dad has been known to let a secret or two slip in his lifetime.) He agreed.

Two minutes later my mom calls back. I tell her she should be sitting down for the news she’s about to get. She says, “What are you, having triplets or something?” After a bit of confusion, we figured out that G-Pa had not spilled the beans, rather Nana simply took a wild guess at the most ridiculous news she could think of. Murphy’s Law, being what it is, meant that Nana was exactly right.

Michelle I was completely overwhelmed and terrified. We waited what felt like a long time for another baby, and now we had this risky pregnancy. I called Larissa, who is one of those people you can talk to whether it’s been a day or a few months. I forget details, but I know I was less shaky.

My sister I texted an ultrasound photo to. Her reply:

Congrats! I have no clue what that blob is but it looks like A baby is coming!

A baby, and B baby, and C baby!

Ben I called both of my sisters to let them know and they were incredibly excited with a side of ‘Holy S***!’ My nephew Sean and my niece Hannah now will have triplet cousins on both sides of the family. What are the odds of that? My sister Erica runs a daycare, so we joked that they should just move south because we have an entire daycare waiting for them.

Since I found out around basketball season, the only two friends I told were my assistant coaches, Dave and Sam. They could tell something was bothering me and Dave nailed it right away. Being a twin himself, he had some interesting advice about how close an eye we should keep on the wee little trio. Sam, the math teacher, was interested in the odds of this occurrence as well as the odds of them being identical.

Word eventually got around the school and the students knew. We probably wasted a few too many classroom minutes answering questions about triplets. Students were genuinely interested in how things were going; even the ones who didn’t love English class seemed like they wanted to know more.

Before we knew genders they figured out the odds of each combination and proceeded to hazard guesses as to what they would be. After, they would just pepper me with daily questions about what we would eventually name the babies, but they never figured them out despite heavy persistence.

Michelle After a few days I was still basically walking around not only feeling sick and pregnant, but shaking with anxiety and fear. How was I supposed to deal with this and keep it a secret? I’m pretty sure my coworkers were going to think I was on drugs or something since I was already a mess from being sick. If something happened and we lost the trio, I would never be able to hide it. I decided to just let it come out as it needed to. I told a few people I was closer to first, and it gradually came out. These were people who work in the field and understand the risks I was facing. We even have an NP there who had her own triplets! I am so grateful to them for helping support me along the way. They continue to help me keep going when I am still pretty nervous about bringing these guys home.

We were going to wait the standard 12 weeks before sharing with the online community… but that coincided with April fools week, and this was nothing to joke about. So we did the week before, and the responses were great. A lot of “Oh my god!” Most people are just curious, I know. But even those people share kind words and supportive sentiments. I know we both have needed the support and I don’t regret sharing our story.

Social media has also given us the gift of connecting with other moms and families near and far who have gone through or are currently going through the same adjustments. I have learned so much and enjoyed being part of the 2018 Triplet community. I’m not sure how anyone could go it alone. Seeing families who already have their babies home for a bit makes us feel that we can figure this craziness out.