Silje Andersen-Cooke and her husband wanted to give their son a sibling, but her second pregnancy didn’t go as expected. In the ᴜʟᴛʀᴀsᴏᴜɴᴅ, a surprise awaited her, which, as she said, was the most beautiful of her life!
The lawyer and her partner Jordan, already parents to their son Mads, then 18 months old, were feeling confident about this pregnancy. Thinking that, second-time-around, they knew what to expect. Except, that is, being told there was not one, not two, but three tiny heartbeats.
“My ɢʏɴᴇᴄᴏʟᴏɢɪsᴛ revealed to me that I’m expecting not one, not two, but three babies which, a few months later, made me the happiest woman in the world,” said the young mother. “At first I was anxious and started ʙᴏᴍʙᴀʀᴅɪɴɢ the midwife with questions so that the ꜰᴇᴛᴜsᴇs would not be in ᴅᴀɴɢᴇʀ,” she said, adding:
“The pregnancy was not easy. I was in more ᴘᴀɪɴ than the first time, and I was constantly worried about whether my babies would sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇ. At 30 weeks I stopped working and was bedridden for 4 weeks, until the scheduled ᴅᴇʟɪᴠᴇʀʏ.”
Finally, the three siblings were born by ᴄᴀᴇsᴀʀᴇᴀɴ sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ. The ᴅᴇʟɪᴠᴇʀʏ went smoothly. Our triplets were born two minutes apart. First there was Ada who weighed 1.8 kg, then Teddy who was 2.1 kg and lastly Erik who was born 2.3 kg.
The first days they stayed in an ɪɴᴄᴜʙᴀᴛᴏʀ, while our little one had to have an ᴏᴘᴇʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ. Fortunately, everything went well and we are finally all together at home. It may have been a tough adventure, but it was worth every moment! The new members of our family completed our happiness.”
Once home, Jordan and Silje entered ‘survival mode’, working to a three-hourly feed schedule through the day – Silje tandem ʙʀᴇᴀsᴛꜰᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ two and Jordan feeing the third a bottle of expressed milk, and trying to stretch their night feeds, resettling each as they woke. Then waking the next day to do it all over, while juggling a busy toddler. “I loved ʙʀᴇᴀsᴛꜰᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ, but it was very physically demanding and it got very tiring and my milk supply was not going up in the afternoons, so there were lots of top-ups, it got so hard, so we began weaning them at four months.”
Silje has had help from a ‘city’ worth of family and friends to drop off food or entertain Mads. “Having the help that we established was the only reason I could just keep my mental health together, really. It’s just so relentless. I wouldn’t change it, but more help would have been amazing.”