La Pine woman gives birth to rare triplets

A La Pine woman recently gave birth to a rare type of triplets. Jennifer Phillips gave birth to Jackson, Jameson and Wyatt on April 4 at St. Charles Bend.

The boys, now 4 months, are natural-born fraternal triplets. It’s a rare occurrence, which occurs when three separate eggs are all fertilized. She said the odds of this type of triplets are one in 80,000.

“I hit the baby lottery, I guess,” Philips said Friday.

Phillips said she was in disbelief when she found out she was pregnant with triplets. She said her doctors at St. Charles were also surprised, as they hadn’t seen triplets in years.

She said she’s hardly gotten a wink of sleep, but she’s enjoying every minute of it.

“It’s something that not a lot of people get blessed with — having three babies at one time.”

“I’m just glad that they’re all healthy and happy, and I couldn’t ask for anything else,” Philips said.

Now all smiles, Phillips said she once worried that there would be complications in her pregnancy. When she was pregnant, her stomach started to shred, and at 26 weeks she was ordered to bed rest. She spent 10 weeks in bed at the hospital.

Then, at 34 weeks, Philips gave birth. The triplets were each born two minutes apart, weighing between three and five pounds.

“They were only in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for 19 days and had no complications. There were expecting them to be there for at least two months. Every day was a huge milestone,” Philips said.

Already a mom of three, Phillips now has an even fuller house.

“I thought it would be very overwhelming with taking care of the house, being a stay-at-home mom, and especially having six children total. But really, I love it,” Phillips said.

She said she looks forward to seeing who each of her little men grow up to be and what individual personalities they will take on.