Anna and Jeremy Pyle with their seven children aged under seven - Eliane, 6, Georgia, 3, Olivia, nearly 2, and James, 4, with their new identical triplet sisters Sophia, Adeline and Gabriella.
Anna and Jeremy Pyle with their seven children aged under seven - Eliane, 6, Georgia, 3, Olivia, nearly 2, and James, 4, with their new identical triplet sisters Sophia, Adeline and Gabriella.
A one-in-a-million “miracle has given a Whangārei family seven children under the age of 7, with the birth of identical triplet girls last week.
With four children aged 6 and under, Anna and Jeremy Pyle, from Takahiwai, decided that their next child would be their fifth, and last.
But, a one-in-a-million chance has seen the family now grow to nine, with the couple’s identical triplets - Sophia, Adeline and Gabriella - born in Whangārei Hospital’s maternity unit on July 29 by caesarean. It means they now have seven children under the age of 7 with Eliane aged 6, James, 4, Georgia, 3, and Olivia coming up 2.
Research by US baby and pregnancy site The Bump says while the probability of conceiving triplets naturally is around one in every 10,000 pregnancies, the odds of those triplets being identical is at least a one-in-a-million chance. Anna and Jeremy said they consider the new arrivals “little miracles”.
Jeremy said when Anna fell pregnant, he joked that it would be interesting to have three boys then the boys would outnumber the girls in the siblings - and it would mean brothers for James.
“I was only joking really, but thought an extra boy would be good. But we didn’t expect this.”
He said the plan to stop at five children was shattered when Anna had a scan at 10-and-a-half weeks as she was feeling ill and the experts were a bit worried about how things were progressing.
The Pyle identical triplet sisters, Sophia, Adeline and Gabriella, were born in Whangārei Hospital - identical triplets are a one-in-a-million chance
“[The person doing the scan] said ‘oh, there’s some news I’ve got for you’, and we joked ‘is it twins’? He said ‘no, look, it’s triplets’,” Anna said.
The initial shock was soon replaced with excitement at the news their young family would swell so much.
The couple also did not want to know the gender of their naturally conceived identical triplets, leaving it as a total surprise until they were born.
“We like the idea of it being a big surprise, and thought we would wait to find out when they were born...and I’m really glad we did, it was really nice having that surprise,” Jeremy said.
“We just really wanted to focus on them being healthy. We feel that God has chosen these three babies for our family to love and care for,” Anna said.
The Pyle identical triplet sisters, Sophia, Adeline and Gabriella, with their delighted big siblings James, Olivia, Georgia and Eliane.
The caesarean at 36 weeks went well, with one of the newborns needing to spend a little time in an incubator, but all three are healthy and happy.
And their four older siblings are delighted at the three girls being added to the household, anticipating years of playing ahead of them.
She said the couple would home school their children - so the constant expense of school uniforms for seven would not be an issue - and they had plenty of support from family to ensure a whole village was around to help raise and love them.
The couple were so relieved, and happy, that all three girls were doing well, and that Eliane, James, Georgia and Olivia were so enamoured with them.
They will have to expand their home for the new arrivals, but the couple, and their family, are looking forward to a life filled with children and laughter - and maybe the odd little sibling disagreement.
“We couldn’t manage this journey without the incredible support from our family, friends, church and the Northland Multiples [multiple births group]. We are profoundly grateful to them and God for His many blessings,” Jeremy said.
When one single egg is fertilised by one single sperm and this fertilised zygote quickly and evenly divides into three separate zygotes, identical triplets are formed. Another possibility is that the fertilised egg splits into two and then one of these eggs divides again. These are what are known formally as monozygotic triplets. This splitting occurs shortly after fertilisation and before a woman even suspects she is pregnant. There is nothing she or her partner can do to influence the likelihood of this occurring. It is pure biological luck.
