All parents think their kid is one in a million – but these three bundles of joy really are.
They’re not only triplets, they’re identical triplets!
Yesterday, 5-day-old Kevin Patrick (6 pounds); Declan Gerard (5 pounds, 8 ounces); and Cormac Francis (5 pounds, 4 ounces) made their public debut in the arms of proud parents Desmond and Kerry Lyons of Westchester.
The boys, wearing ID bracelets to set them apart, slept through all the oohs and aahs and camera flashes as they left with their parents from New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for the ride home to Irvington.
“We just feel lucky and blessed that we have these three amazing little babies and they’re healthy and, frankly, kinda cute, to boot, which we weren’t expecting,” Kerry Lyons told CBS’s “The Early Show.”
Desmond admitted that when he learned he and his wife were expecting triplets eight weeks into her pregnancy, he uttered just one word: “Wow.”
“And we’re fortunate we are here with these beautiful healthy babies,” he added yesterday.
Amos Grunebaum, the medical center’s director of obstetrics, called the birth phenomenon “one in a million.”
“Not only that, [the triplets] are healthy,” he said.
Grunebaum said the births are considered especially rare because the couple did not have fertility treatments.
Typically about one in 6,400 deliveries are triplets.
But what also makes these triplets so unusual is that they came from the same egg, which split twice. That means they shared the same placenta, which creates an increased health risk for the fetuses.
Grunebaum said the triplets’ mom, Kerry, who is in her 30s, gained 50 pounds over the course of her 36-week pregnancy.
“You should have seen her belly. She couldn’t walk sideways, but she did a great job,” he said.
Grunebaum said that when the Lyons’ OB/GYN, Robin Kalish, initially broke the news of triplets to the couple, “She was in shock.”
The couple already have two kids, Liam, 3, and Ciara, 2.
He said the delivery room, jammed with neo-natal-care nurses and doctors assisting in the C-section, was as noisy as Times Square during rush hour.
“They were all born within a minute of each other,” Grunebaum said, adding that each boy was placed in a separate bassinet and clearly marked.
Desmond quipped that he has already figured out a way to tell his three sons apart.
“My suggestion was to put tattoos on them,” he said. His wife suggested different color nail polish on each of their pinkies instead.
The medical director said he was certain the happy family would accept volunteers for diaper duty, “especially at night.”
The family is already shopping for a bigger car – and house.