Regents Park mum Jacqueline George is juggling life right now, but she doesn’t mind a bit.
Ms George gave birth to twin girls, Theodora and Calliope, nine weeks early. Add to that her firstborn, Alexandria, who is just 16 months old.
“Looking after Alexandria and visiting the newborns in the Neonatal Critical Care Unit is really challenging but seeing them get stronger every day has been really fulfilling,” Ms George said.
Ms George’s babies were diagnosed with Twin to Twin Syndrome (TTTS) during her pregnancy, a rare condition affecting identical twins and other multiples with one placenta shared among all babies.
“One of the babies was taking all the goodness and I had laser surgery in-utero to correct the blood-sharing imbalance caused by TTTS,” Ms George said.
She said she was looking forward to bringing the twins home.
“I’ll be busy setting a sleeping schedule, tracking their milestones, and juggling day-to-day life with three children under the age of two years,” she said.
More than 2000 seriously ill and premature babies are cared for at Mater Mothers’ Hospitals’ Neonatal Critical Care Unit (NCCU) at South Brisbane each year.
Last week was Multiple Birth Awareness Week, highlighting the challenges and joys of having twins, triplets or more.
They’re often premature which means it can be weeks or months in hospital.
Mums of multiple babies need to be masters of multi-tasking.
“I always have my hands full, whether it’s breastfeeding and bottle feeding every four hours, or changing nappies,” one Brisbane mum of triplets said.
