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Family celebrating one month with identical triplets

Lauren and Michael Whiteley sit with their boys Nolan, 2, left, Lucas, 3, and identical triplets Alexander, Timothy and Nicholas at their home in St. Clair Shores, Mich.

ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. – A suburban Detroit couple who have two older children are adjusting to life after becoming parents to identical triplets – a multiple birth that’s rare.

The Whiteley family of St. Clair Shores celebrated the one-month birthdays Wednesday for Alexander, Nicholas and Timothy. The brothers were born Jan. 25 at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit but spent nearly a month in the newborn intensive care unit.

The boys are healthy, their mother Lauren Whiteley said. Their older brothers are age 3 and 2.

“I always wanted a big family, and I guess this is the way to do it, get them all at once,” Whiteley said.

Many triplets are the result of fertility treatments, but Lauren, 32, said she didn’t take fertility drugs. She had an ultrasound at about eight or nine weeks to confirm the pregnancy, but didn’t know what she was seeing.

“It was the ultrasound tech that kind of left the room, came back and I thought something was wrong,” Whiteley said. “She said ‘No it’s good news.’ I said ‘Oh my gosh! It’s twins, isn’t it?’ She said, ‘No, I see three.’ This was the shock of a lifetime.”

Multiple births don’t run in either of their families.

“Not even twins,” Lauren said.

Identical triplets also were born Dec. 5 to a woman in Billings, Montana. Dr. Savitri Kumar, a neonatologist at Henry Ford Hospital, said data on identical triplet births by natural conception varies from one in 60,000 to one in 2 million. Most doctors call the chances “one-in-a-million,” Kumar said.

Four sets of triplets were born at the hospital last year, but they weren’t identical, she said.

“This is the very first set of identical triplets I have ever seen,” she said.

For the Whiteleys, it will help that both sets of grandparents live within a mile.



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