The next time you feel frustrated that your tiny tot is tugging the hemline a little too much during the school holidays, spare a thought for Gloria Hodgins.
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The Cessnock mum and her partner Matthew Dexter welcomed triplets into their lives in October last year and it has been a juggling act ever since.
Gloria, who already had a nine year old daughter and a five year old son, said that she was overwhelmed when she first discovered she was carrying three babies.
“I was in tears because we weren’t trying or anything and I didn’t really want any more,” she said.
“The first scan I found out there was only one baby – but then I went to the 13-week scan with my daughter and it showed three babies.
“I was really upset and my daughter was jumping up and down saying: ‘At least I’ll get a sister.’”
The family welcomed Johnathan, Grace and Rose into their lives in October and Gloria said staff at the John Hunter said hers was the first spontaneous triplets pregnancy at the hospital in three years.
“They were all calling me the triplets mum,” she said.
While admitting she was, at first, overwhelmed with the news, Gloria added that she is loving doting on her three newborns.
“It is really hard, but I’m absolutely loving it,” she said. “We can hardly get out of the house. We wake up every two hours and they don’t always wake up at the same time – while you’re trying to feed one another will wake up – it’s a bit of a juggling act but we love it.”
Gloria added that her family had been fantastic in helping her care for the newborns, especially her nine-year-old daughter.
“She has been absolutely amazing – she loves feeding them and changing their dirty nappies,” she said. “Although she’s not a big fan of all the crying.”
Gloria said that her pregnancy wasn’t without its challenges, including six weeks of bed rest at the John Hunter despite the fact that she worked up to 29 weeks.
“It got to the point that I could no longer get in and out of the car,” she said. “The midwives kept asking me when I was giving up work and I told them until I couldn’t fit behind the steering wheel because I had to get to work and get the kids to school.”
A simple trip to the shops can also be fraught with frustration.
“I have a very long triplet pram and it doesn’t fit between my car and another car so I have to put it behind my car which is unsafe,” she said.
With Gloria and Matthew now juggling five children at home, are there any plans to expand the brood further?
“Absolutely not,” Gloria said. “I told them I wasn’t leaving the hospital until they put the implant in.”
