A proud mum told today how she defied odds of 2,000,000-1 to naturally conceive three identical girl triplets.
Mum Melanie Thornton, aged 33, said: “Sometimes I just sit and stare at them and think wow… 1 in 2 million chance of me naturally conceiving identical triplets.
“But mostly I just think… WOW I love these little girls.”
Husband Martin, 27, persuaded Melanie to try for another child even though the couple already had a daughter Tia, 13.
They found out on Valentine’s Day that Melanie was expecting – but were stunned when a 12-week hospital scan revealed triplets.
The identical sisters were delivered by cesarean section at Torbay Hospital more than seven weeks early.
Mika was born a minute after Mika, weighing 3lbs 1oz, and Hope, weighing only 2lbs 13oz, was delivered last. Boe was the first to come and weighed 3lbs 3oz.
Melanie said: “I’d looked up pictures of premature babies before so I expected them to look a bit weird, but they weren’t – they were perfectly formed tiny little babies.
“It was amazing. My babies took up the whole room. It was so reassuring to see how perfect they were and they didn’t need any help or anything with breathing – just a little tube for food.
“They are such content and happy little babies. They love to cuddle. They put their arms around each other and love to hold hands.”
“Their favourite way to be is with Mika in the middle, and she holds both their hands.”
“In fact, my living room resembles a Mothercare store, and my washing machine is always running. It takes a lot of balancing, juggling, and holding bottles while I’m feeding and burping them, but it is worth it, of course.”
“I can’t really remember life when my family was half the size.”
The Paignton, Devon, couple buys over 100 liters of baby formula in bulk each month for the triplets and has set up special trash collections to handle the more than 200 dirty diapers a week.
Melanie acknowledges that she was initially taken aback by how dissimilar her second pregnancy felt from the time she was expecting her eldest daughter Tia.
The mum said: “Before the scan I had been saying something felt really different this time round.
“I said a few times ‘I’m sure there’s more than one’ but I never said anything about triplets.
“When they told me I just burst out laughing and asked ‘where are the cameras?’ I thought it must have been a joke, a set up.
“When they were finally born it was so nice to finally see them – I didn’t know who to go to first, who to touch or who to talk to first.
