If the kids are wearing you out, spare a thought for Christchurch mother-of-five Amanda Mitchell who gave birth to triplets of Wednesday.
Becoming a mother of eight might not be exceptionally rare, but that fact that the baby girls are identical is.
The odds of having identical tripletsare believed to be about one in 200 million - 50 times the odds of winning Lotto's first division. The odds of conceiving triplets naturally are about one in 8100.
The Multiple Birth Association knows of only two other sets of identical triplets in New Zealand, all female and living in Auckland.
Ms Mitchell, 42, gave birth to Amelia, Lucy and Madeline on Wednesday afternoon at Christchurch Women's Hospital.
About 18 weeks ago, an unwell Ms Mitchell went to her doctor.
"He felt a mass in my stomach and he said I should go for a scan. I thought I had cancer," she told The Press.
The scan revealed she was 12 weeks pregnant with triplets.
A test a week later confirmed the babies were identical, meaning that the fertilised egg had split in three in the uterus.
"We weren't having any more. We hadn't been trying," said Ms Mitchell, who has five children aged between seven and 21.
"My 21-year-old told me off. She thought it was absolutely ridiculous."
The babies were due to be induced a few days before Christmas in their 32nd week, but were delivered on Wednesday by caesarean.
They are likely to remain in the hospital's neonatal intensive-care unit until their full-term due date, about February 15.
Ms Mitchell said she could only tell them apart at this stage by their slightly different sizes. The girls' birth weights ranged from 1.42kg to 1.59kg.
"If no-one moves them out of the incubators, we'll be fine," she said.
A new car purchase will be necessary to transport the brood.
"I sold my eight-seater car in March and bought a Suzuki Swift," said father Rob Mitchell, 51.
