One baby is a miracle. Two is a surprise. And three? Well, three is just simply amazing.

Karen and Ian Gilbert already had one beautiful child, Faye, and when they found out that Karen was pregnant again they were very excited.

They assumed that they would only be having one baby, and the thought never crossed their minds that they would be having three. However, eight weeks into the pregnancy, Karen started experiencing intense pains in her stomach. She believed that she was experiencing a miscarriage. That was not the case. The three tiny babies were fighting for space in the womb, causing her pain.

Karen said that they could not believe what they had heard, when they were told that they were pregnant with not only one child, but three.

“We were just very shocked,” she said. “The lady doing the scan had to call somebody else into the room to check what she was seeing was right. We pretty much left the hospital laughing, crying, laughing, crying… But we were over the moon”

After the discovery that they would be having triplets, the doctors gave the Gilberts the option to abort the pregnancy. The doctors were fearful because the babies all came from one egg and shared the same placenta. They proposed an abortion because there was a chance that, because the babies shared fluids and space, they could accidentally kill each other.

“The risks were so high to me and the babies because they shared a placenta,” said Karen. “There was the chance of twin to twin syndrome, where one baby can starve the other two babies of food and other fluids. But we just couldn’t do it. The babies are ours.”

They continued their pregnancy and now have three precious, and identical, daughters to show for it. Ffion weighed 3lb 8oz, Maddison was 3lb 5oz and Paige weighed 3lb 4oz. They are now eight weeks old and are happy and healthy.

Identical triplets: rare. Their facial expressions: even rarer. pic.twitter.com/0DErK1X0tA

— Yahoo Comedy (@YahooComedy) September 30, 2013

“It’s been crazy,” she said. “Their personalities are already starting to shine through and I can’t wait to get to know them better.”

“At first they didn’t look real and you could pick them up with one hand. It was a bit of a shock,” said Ian. “Now we’ve got them home we are coming to terms with it. They are starting to feel like our own.”

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