I thought I was just tired carrying miracle triplets – but it ended up being life or death, says super mum
A SUPER mum of rare spontaneous triplets has told how she believes in miracles after her three babies beat the odds to celebrate their first birthday.
Aisling Keelan, 24, and Jordan Duffy, 25, welcomed not one, not two, but three bundles of joy into their lives on January 17, 2023.
However, it wasn't all plain sailing after a sepsis battle during pregnancy left Aisling fighting for her and her babies lives.
Aisling gave birth to identical boys Sonny and Senan and little girl Willow, a rarity given that conceiving triplets naturally occurs in approximately just one in 10,000 pregnancies.
She said: “I’m an emotional wreck, I can’t believe how far we’ve all come and that we all are all here celebrating their first birthday."
The proud couple are already parents to five-year-old Evie.
First birthdays are milestones for every parent but none more so than for Aisling who contracted the deadly infection sepsis when she was just fifteen weeks pregnant.
She said: “I didn't think at first that there was actually anything wrong with me, I thought I just had a bit of a fever.
“It turned out I had an infection in my blood and it ended up being sepsis.”
The mum-of-four underwent an amniocentesis, a test that detects genetic or chromosomal conditions of babies in the womb in the Rotunda Hospital due to doctors concerns about one of the triplets.
Just two days later Aisling was rushed to hospital with what doctors would later discover was a life-threatening infection.
She recalled: “I got the procedure done on the Friday and on the Sunday I felt very tired, I had quite a lot of back pain and I went from freezing cold to having high temperatures.
“Mam rang the ambulance and it came straight out and brought me to the Lourdes Hospital.”
The brave mum said it didn't register that it was a life-or-death situation until after her stint in hospital.
'SCARY TIME'
She said: “I don't think it registered in my brain until a week after when I went for my check up and the consultant said 'Aisling, you are very lucky to be alive and to still have all the pregnancies'.
“It was a really scary time.”
The Meath mum's rollercoaster multiple pregnancy drama didn't end there when signs of Twin-Twin transfusion syndrome, a condition in which the blood flows unequally between twins that share a placenta started to show.
She explained: “Because the two boys were sharing the same sac there were signs at 30 weeks that Senan was getting less blood flow and getting less nutrients than Sonny.
“I was being monitored closely for two weeks after that and then the decision was made then to get them out.
“We went in at 31 weeks and six days. Willow was born first and 12.28pm.
"She weighed 4 lb and then Senan came second at 12.30pm and he was 3lb 12oz and Sonny came last and he was born at 12.32pm and he was 3lb 80z.
“It was a miracle that they were all perfect."
'SHOCK'
Aisling who felt like she was carrying more than one baby from early in pregnancy says she got the “shock of her life” when she was told it was triplets.
She said: “I was about ten weeks and I was very sick and I remember saying to my partner Jordan I think there's two in there, let's go for a private scan.
“The sonographer said ‘Aisling you can see here there is one baby in one sac and you can see there is another two babies in this sac’ and I just remember saying, ‘no there's not’!
“Jordan looked at me and he was green. He kept touching my hand to make sure that I was still in the room.
“I just had this funny feeling there was going to be two and low and behold there was actually three!”
'BEST CARE'
Aisling says she can't praise the Drogheda Hospital’s staff enough for ensuring the safe delivery of her babies.
She said: “I got the best care in the Lourdes. My consultant was just amazing and fought for me to have the triplets there, I wanted to have them in Drogheda and it all worked out, thank god.”
Despite being triplets, each baby is very different from the next as Aisling explains: “The two boys are identical but they are so different in personality.
"Senan is so soft, he listens to everything and is so inquisitive and then Sonny you just know he is going to be the joker.
"He is just so funny and he has a smile for everyone.
“Willow brings the drama, she needs to be on the go all of the time whereas the two boys are so laid back. “
The multiple birth mum says the support of close family has been a “godsend” to her and Jordan.
“I have people coming and going all of the time I have such a big family and I'd be absolutely lost without their help they have really been the best team.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child, I think in my case it takes a city! Evie is such a brilliant big sister too and always wants to help.
“We have four altogether, it's a mad house but we wouldn't have it any other way!”
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Aisling says her family have become somewhat of a talking point in Duleek with people keen to get a glimpse of the trio!
She continued: “I have to leave the house half an hour earlier than I need to leave because I am stopped so many times in the village. it is just crazy!”
