‘I was just waiting for three cries’
When Evette Matthews walked out of her six-week dating scan, everything she’d expected had flown quickly out the window.
When Evette Matthews walked out of her six-week dating scan after trying to conceive for some time, everything she’d expected had flown quickly out of the window.
Having been informed that there was not only one but three heartbeats inside her uterus, the Queensland mum says she was in a kind of daze.
“I turned to a total stranger in the waiting room and just kind of blurted out: ‘I’m having triplets!’” she recalls with a laugh.
While the news of a multiple pregnancy brought a whole host of practical considerations (“I burst into tears and told the ultrasound tech I couldn’t have triplets because we only had two rooms upstairs!” Evette says), it also brought a higher level of risk.
“As the pregnancy progressed I was desperate for my obstetrician to schedule a C-section, but he was adamant that we keep them inside until they were ready to come, not a moment sooner,” she says.
After working up until 28 weeks in her demanding and physical job as a scrub nurse, including one memorable liver resection on which she assisted from a special seat, Evette’s bump measured the equivalent of a full-term singleton pregnancy at just 31 weeks.
“I was quite rotund,” she says, “and so very exhausted.”
At just 31 weeks and four days, Evette woke up in labour.
“I was five centimetres dilated when I got to the Mater and the first triplet was crowning,” she remembers, “so it was all hands on deck for a C-section.”
“I remember being so amazed at how many people there were in the room. There were three little incubation pods, one for each triplet, three paediatricians, a midwife for each baby, and a resuscitation team each as well. There were about 20 people in the operating theatre.”
Over the next 90 seconds, all three baby girls were born – Aria, weighing 1.4kg, Charlotte, weighing 1.48kg, and baby Alyssa – who had been stuck underneath Evette’s ribs for the entire pregnancy – weighing 1.3kg.
“I was just waiting for those cries,” Evette says, “and thankfully, I heard all three.”
While the girls didn’t require resuscitation, they did need to be rushed to the Neonatal Critical Care Unit (NCCU), so while Evette’s partner Jesse had been able to cut all three cords, Evette wasn’t able to hold her babies before they were whisked away.
“It was hard,” she says, “but then, as soon as I was taken to recovery, something extraordinary happened. They wheeled me up to the NCCU, still in my bed, where I was able to finally meet them properly.”
Remarkably, Evette and Jesse’s girls had very few complications associated with their prematurity.
“They’d been able to receive a steroid shot to develop their lungs before they were born,” their mum explains, “so while they had some breathing issues relating to their underdeveloped lungs, they were fairly minor.”
Alyssa, Charlotte and Aria only stayed in the NCCU for six days, before being transferred to Mater’s special care nursery, where they continued to grow for another seven weeks.
“All up, they were in hospital for two months,” says Evette, “and I cannot believe the care and compassion of everyone at The Mater. The nurses there were so amazing. They asked me what my plan was for breastfeeding, and I said I wanted to give it a try. A lot of people at my work had told me that I wouldn’t be able to breastfeed triplets, but I really don’t like being told what I can and can’t do. The Mater got a lactation consultant down to me straight away to see if we could express some colostrum, and I got 19 mils. They did such an amazing job supporting me with breastfeeding that soon I was making two litres a day.”
The day the girls were finally allowed to come home was, in Evette’s words, “the best day of our entire lives.”
“Of course, the first night was a different story!” she jokes.
Evette breastfed the triplets for 10 months, with Jesse’s help.
“We had them on a four-hourly schedule, and I’d twin-feed two of them while my partner gave the third a bottle of expressed milk,” Evette explains, “and we rotated them around so everyone got a turn. Jesse was such an involved and amazing partner, and I think that’s partly why we were able to make it work for so long.”
Now, 19 months later, the triplets are thriving, and Evette is, astonishingly, as cool as a cucumber when it comes to parenting.
“We like to celebrate the ‘game-changers,’” she laughs, “it keeps us present and aware of how things are improving each day. For example, it’s a game-changer when we can drop a feed, or when they all learn to go to sleep without us. We celebrate the wins.”
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While each triplet has her own unique personality – Alyssa relaxed and introverted, Charlotte bossy and confident, and Aria “the happiest, most excited baby” – Evette says watching them interact with each other is a singular joy.
“They’re just the greatest kids,” she says with pride,” I don’t know – I think we really did just get a fantastic set!”
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