Having children is a special time in any parent's life. So, when Angie and her husband Gino Colonna found out that their prayers had been answered and they were about to have a little girl, they were ecstatic. They already had two little boys, but they'd been wanting a little girl for a long time. However, it didn't turn out to be a typical pregnancy, and they had no idea what was in store for them and their family.
Planning To Have Children From The Start
Kids are a huge responsibility, so it's no wonder that more and more people are choosing to wait till they're older to have kids or simply not having kids at all. However, Angie and Gino knew from the moment that they tied the knot they wanted to have kids. Their first son was born not long after they got married. Then, only two years later, they had another little boy.
Their family was growing, and it was growing fast. However, they still were without a little girl. It was the one thing they felt like would make their family complete.
A Great Start
For most people, parenting takes some getting used to. There are plenty of sleepless nights and sacrifices you have to make. However, some people just seem to be naturals when it comes to taking care of kids, and Angie and Gino made it look, if not easy, like they were seasoned professionals. They seemed totally focused on raising their two sons and watching them grow into responsible young men.
On the outside, the family of four seemed content and like life was going to be calm and predictable, at least for the foreseeable future. However, that would not turn out to be the case.
Having Another Child
While the two parents seemed content on the outside, they both talked about trying to have a little girl. To them, three was the perfect number, and they wanted a daughter to round out their family. Luckily for them, it wasn't long before Angie started to notice that something was different. She'd started getting sick in the mornings and went to buy a pregnancy test. When she took it, it came back positive.
Both of them were overwhelmed with excitement. Could this finally be the daughter they'd wanted for so long? Either way, it was a happy moment, whether it turned out to be a boy or a girl.
Time To Find Out The Gender
As the days passed, Angie and Gino talked about all of the possibilities. They both hoped they could give their two sons a sister and finally complete their little family. The closer it got to the day when they'd go to the doctor and learn what they were having, the more excited the couple got. When the time did come, and they went in for the ultrasound, they finally got the news they'd been waiting for.
The doctor told them that they were going to be proud parents to a new daughter. The two were incredibly happy. However, that's not the only thing that the doctor told them.
More Good News For Angie And Gino
The doctor waited a second to deliver the rest of his news. After a moment, he looked at them and said that they weren't going to be parents to only one baby girl but that Angie was pregnant with triplets. She was going to have three more children bringing the family total up to seven, and all of babies were girls. Their prayers had been answered in the most unexpected way.
As exciting as the news was, there was one more thing that the doctor hadn't yet told them. Triplets alone are rare enough, but Angie's pregnancy was a bit more unique than most.
More Than Just Normal Triplets
As you might imagine, Angie and Gino were caught off guard by news of the triplets, but what the doctor said next made the announcement even more special. The doctor informed them that two of the little girls shared one placenta while the third shared another. Basically, this meant that they were having identical twins, in addition to another daughter. This wasn't just a typical case of triplets, which by itself is rare.
Not only had their prayers been answered, but they were about to have a truly unique set of triplets and their family was going to add three more members.
The Odds Of Having Triplets With Twins
The news didn't just catch the happy parents by surprise; it caught pretty much everyone at the hospital off guard, as well. It's not every day you hear of someone having triplets with twins. The actual odds of having triplets and twins at the same time under normal conditions is around 1 in 4,000, according to the staff at the hospital that day. Even the doctor seemed like he was caught off guard.
And while the news was great; it was more than Angie and Gino had dreamed possible, it also meant that they're lives were about to change in a big way.
Getting Ready For Triplets
The couple had always seemed like they were natural parents, but triplets are a big deal, even for those who seem like they have it all figured out. The news meant that it didn't take them long to start making arrangements with work and with family. They'd need to talk to their employers and figure out who was going to take off what days in order to care for all the children.
They'd also need to invest in a new car, preferably something that was a lot bigger. Gino suggested that they employ a nanny so that they could maintain some work life balance, which is exactly what they did.
Potential Pregnancy Complications Of Triplets
Having triplets isn't like going through a normal pregnancy. More babies means more reasons for potential complications, so one of the first things the hospital did was set Angie and Gino down to go over all of the things they needed know about having triplets. They said the risk of complications was going to be much higher than if Angie was only having one little girl and that the family should be ready.
Giving birth was going to present unique challenges too, but for now, it was just a matter of focusing on one thing at a time. Little did they know, it wouldn't be long before something happened.
The Couple Goes Back To The Hospital
When Angie was only around 26 weeks into the pregnancy, she started to feel like something wasn't right. She told her husband, and the two wasted no time getting to the hospital. It turned out that she was right and that Baby B, as the hospital called her, had liquid levels that were too low. At the same time, Baby C's liquid levels were too high. It was a serious issue.
The staff jumped into action, but at the time, Angie and Gino weren't aware of how serious the situation was and just how much it was going to impact their next few weeks.
An Extended Stay
It turned out that Angie would need to stay at the hospital for three weeks so that the staff and doctors could monitor the babies. They needed to make sure that the fluid levels didn't deviate any more than they already had, thus making a serious situation life-threatening. Angie and Gino had to call their bosses and their families to make arrangements for the extended stay over the next couple of weeks.
This didn't only mean that Angie would miss work, but also that Gino needed to figure out his schedule as well so that someone could be at home to take care of the two boys.
Difficult Circumstances
It wasn't long before doctors decided that, to be on the safe side, Angie would need to spend more than three weeks at the hospital. She'd need to stay there until the triplets were born so that the staff could monitor their progress throughout the pregnancy. This was unwelcome news. At first, Angie wasn't ready to deal with the thought of spending so much time away from her home and her family.
However, after the news settled in, Angie decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and that staying at the hospital would be the best possible thing for the triplets while they were still inside the womb.
Making Things Work
It wasn't easy being away from her family, but Angie and Gino did all they could to try and make the situation bearable. Gino would bring the boys around to the hospital every chance he got, and they'd all talk about how excited they were to welcome three new members to the family. The boys would tell their mom they were looking forward to having sisters around the house.
Spending all of your time at the hospital isn't like spending all of your time at a hotel. It was tough for everyone involved, but bringing the kids by wasn't the only thing the couple did to get by.
Date Nights At The Hospital
It took a bit of time, but eventually Angie started getting used to staying at the hospital, at least as use to it as one can get. Some of the best moments were when Gino would stop by and bring dinner. It quickly became a ritual, and the two started referring to it as their date night. They hadn't been on dates since they had their two boys, which was years ago at this point.
As the expected due date approached, the staff started to prepare the couple and others at the hospital for the next phase of the pregnancy and any complications that might pop up during the birth.
Touring Neonatal Extensive Care
The staff wanted to make sure that the couple was aware of all the potential scenarios and what to expect, especially since two of the girls were under threat from potential complications. As part of the preparations, the staff gave them a tour of the neonatal intensive care unit, which was where the babies would likely be staying for a bit after they were born. They also showed them all of the machines and explained what each one did.
For example, there were special cribs or bassinets that were meant to limit the newborns' exposure to harmful bacteria, as well as make it easy for staff to provide them with whatever they needed.
Reassuring The Parents That They Were Prepared
It turned out that the tour was extremely helpful in making sure that Angie and Gino were not only prepared but could also breathe a sigh of relief. They already knew that the staff was going to do everything they could in order to make sure it was a successful birth, but the tour helped give them a sense of all the preparation that was going into doing just that.
The staff was preparing for any possible scenario and making sure they were ready for any complications that could pop up when it was time to deliver the triplets.
Something Is Wrong With Baby B
Around week 30, the staff performed another ultrasound to check on the progress of the triplets. Unfortunately, something was wrong. For some reason, Baby B was a lot smaller than her other two siblings, which meant she was in trouble. Even worse, Angie was only at week 30, and it wouldn't be possible to deliver the babies for another four weeks. That meant that everyone had no choice but to wait.
If the medical team tried to deliver the girls early now, then there was virtually no chance that any of them would survive, so it was the best possible choice.
A Long Four Weeks
By this point, waiting another four weeks seemed like nothing to Angie. She'd already been at the hospital for what seemed like an eternity. However, the four weeks leading up to the delivery were a bit tense. The only thing anybody could do was to wait and watch the triplets' progress. However, they could take some solace in knowing that every day they waited, the girls would be growing just a little bit bigger.
Throughout the four weeks, the couple tried to keep each other going and reassure one another that everything was going to be okay. Still, just sitting around and waiting was difficult.
The Due Date Gets Closer
While the couple sat around and waited, routinely being guided to an ultrasound by someone from the staff so that the triplets' progress could be monitored, Angie began to worry. She wasn't necessarily worried about the delivery. Instead, she was worried that she might go into labor too early and that the girls would need to be delivered before they were actually big enough to come out into the world.
As the time drew closer, the couple tried to stop treating every day as if it were just another mark off the calendar, but that would turn out to be impossible.
Angie Goes Into Labor
It turned out Angie was right to be worried about going into labor too early. Because at around 32 weeks, she started having contractions. She'd have to give birth to the triplets two weeks before the doctor's due date. Still, she put on a brave face and tried to reassure her husband. While she was being rolled out, she said, “I have some hard work ahead of me now.”
Whether anybody wanted to do this right now or not didn't really matter. The triplets were on there and the best anyone could do was to be prepared for all possibilities.
The Delivery
It was now all hands on deck, and the doctors and nurses met Angie in the delivery room. They quickly settled on a C-section since it involved less risk to the triplets. Luckily, the doctors were able to deliver all three girls successfully, and Camilla, Daniella, and Anabella took their first glimpses of the world. However, they weren't completely out of danger just yet. When they were born, they only weighed around four pounds each.
Next, the doctors had to make sure all three babies were healthy, and their bodies were functioning as they should. Gino and Angie would also have to wait without hearing any updates during this period.
The Doctors Examine The Babies
Right after they were born, the doctors took them away and placed them all in the neonatal intensive care unit. Each girl was assigned a different specialist so that they'd have as much care and attention as possible. The fact that the babies beat their due dates wasn't a complete surprise, considering their conditions, so luckily, the doctors were prepared for such a scenario, and everyone was on hand.
While the doctors took care of the newborns and checked them over to make sure everything was normal, all Angie and Gino could do was wait in the other room and hope their daughters were all okay.
The Parents Wait For News
The moment itself seemed like it'd happened in a flash. The couple had spent the last 32 weeks tense and worried about what would happen on this day and during the birth, but now that it was over, they hardly had time to catch their breaths. It was finally over, yet it wasn't. They still had to wait for word from the doctors and hopefully some good news about the newborns.
This was part of the reason that the staff had given the parents the tour of the facility, so that they would at least have somewhat of an idea about what was going on.
Getting A Little Help To Breathe
Before the babies were delivered, the doctors and the parents already knew that they would need help to breathe. After all, their lungs weren't yet fully formed since they had been born so early. So, the medical staff quickly hooked them up to the machines so that their tiny lungs got a bit of help in making sure their bodies were getting enough air. This stage of development was crucial
It's crucial for any newborn since these are their first gulps of air outside the womb, but especially so for the triplets, considering how small they were at this point.
The First Couple Of Hours
The triplets were quickly hooked up to a breathing machine called a CPAP right after they were born. The machine helped pump air into the daughters' lungs so that they could breathe. During this time, the doctors were monitoring the whole thing and making sure that they were stable. The parents also weren't allowed to see the triplets until everyone was certain that they could breathe on their own.
It was torture for Angie and Gino, but it was probably better than seeing their three newborns hooked up to a machine. It also gave the doctors space to work.
All Signs Are Normal
Luckily, the parents wouldn't have to wait for long. It only took a couple of hours for triplets' lungs to finish forming enough to be able to breathe on their own. After that time, the doctors were able to unhook them from the CPAP machine, and they were finally taking their first unaided breaths of air. The speed at which they were able to be taken off the CPAPs was also a good sign.
The happy parents were finally allowed to see their three little girls, and everyone in attendance, including the medical staff, let out a sigh of relief and waited for the parents to be brought in.
Weeks Of Tension Are Finally Over
The couple probably assumed that the weeks leading up to the delivery were going to be the worst part. The two were filled with tension the whole time, and they didn't know what was going to eventually happen. However, it turned out that those couple of hours of waiting right after the birth felt like even more torture. The weeks of pregnancy had seemed more like months, but those couple of hours seemed more like days.
Still, they knew that their three girls were in good hands and that everyone at the hospital was doing all they could to ensure they had the best chances at survival.
Time To See The Triplets
Even though Angie had just given birth and had a C-section, she wasn't about to let that stop her from making her way to see the triplets. The medical staff came into the room and informed the parents that all was well and that it was time for them to see their daughters. A nurse accompanied the happy couple as they made their way through the hallways and to the care unit.
They were so close now. Only a few more turns and they'd be able to say hello to the three new members of their family and be one step closer to going home.
Angie And Gino Meet Their Daughters
All of the weeks of worrying were just about over. The nurse walked Angie and Gino into the care unit and presented the triplets to the happy parents. A member of the staff handed Angie one of the babies, and she took her in her arms. Angie looked up at Gino and said, “It just feels so right.” She started to shed some tears of joy, as did probably a few members of the staff.
One by one, the happy parents walked to each bassinet and greeted their daughters, while everyone in attendance watched and took in the moment. Weeks of preparation had finally paid off.
The Whole Family
All of the girls were given to Angie one by one, and she took each one in her arms and shed a couple of tears each time. She and Gino were getting their first look at their new family members, and suddenly all of the tension and all of the worrying seemed like it was worth it. As they went from crib to crib, both parents were fully aware that this was a very special moment.
When they looked back, they probably wouldn't remember most of what had happened over the last 32 weeks, but they would remember what was happening right now in this very moment.
Gino Gets To Hold The Babies
Right after Angie had finished holding each one of the newborns, Gino had a chance to finally hold his new daughters. He went from bassinet to bassinet, taking a bit of time to hold each one and let them spend time under his shirt because newborns need skin to skin contact when they first come out of the womb to help regulate body temperature. It also helps calm them down and it's especially important for babies that are born prematurely.
Gino tried to talk and comfort each one while they snuggled with him, and he'd have a pretty special moment with one of them while they were holding each other close.
Anabella Looks Up At Dad
If you've ever been around newborns, then you probably know that it can take a while for them to first open their eyes. However, for whatever reason, nearly as soon as Gino took one of his daughters, Anabella, in his arms, she opened her eyes and looked up at him. Her face even seemed to follow the motion of his mouth while he was talking and trying to comfort her.
It was a really special moment for the whole family as both Angie and the staff looked on. “Look at that; she’s opening her eyes, listening to me,” Gino said.
Finally Leaving The Hospital
Of course, the newborns wouldn't be able to leave the intensive care unit for a while, considering how little they were. The doctors kept them there for weeks. However, when it was finally time to go home, nobody was more excited to welcome the new members than their brothers. They'd spent far more time away from Mom than Dad had, and they were happy to all be reunited again when the time came.
The homecoming was nearly as exciting as the introduction, and it took everyone a bit to get used to so many new members. However, soon everything returned to normal, and the weeks quickly turned into years.
The Girls, a Few Years Later
After life returned to normal, so did the passing of time. Before long, the triplets started getting bigger and developing personalities of their own, each one different from the other. If you've ever had kids, then you know just how fast they grow and how time just seems to fly right by. Those six years went by in a flash, and before anyone knew it, the triplets were getting ready for their sixth birthday party.
They're also reportedly getting along with their brothers really well and all five of the children recently went in on a business venture together, according to a post from Angie.
A Family Lemonade Stand
Angie posted this photo a while back, and she said that the boys had an idea for a lemonade stand, so they enlisted the help of their sisters. Together, all three sold lemonade to people stopping by. They apparently had some big plans for the profits, and all three said they were doing it in order to fund a Disney cruise. With a photo like this, we're sure they ended up making more than enough to pay for the cruise.
Either way, it looks like all of the siblings are getting along, and they're all one big happy family. “Please support these cuties…Lemonade and Brownie stand," Angie posted alongside the photo on Facebook.
Angie And Gino Have Their Hands Full These Days
Angie and Gino went into the pregancy thinking they were only going to be adding one member to their family, but they ended up adding three. And while raising five children has certainly been a lot of hard work, it's also been very rewarding. These days, the parents have their hands full with working and taking care of all the children, but it appears they're handling it just as well as they handled it when the family only numbered three.
We're sure that it's not always easy, but both parents seem to be getting along fine and raising their five children as best they can, which is really all any parent can do.
An Inspiration For Others
If Angie and Gino's story says anything, it's that life has a way of surprising you. At one point, the couple had hoped to have a daughter, but they never expected they'd end up with three. And while it wasn't easy, especially during the pregnancy, they persevered and managed to raise five wonderful children. “It’s truly a dream come true to have them come into my life,” Angie has said on social media.
We're sure that neither Angie nor Gino would've thought their family would be where it's at today if you'd shown them this photo when they were first married all those years ago.