CAN you imagine? You're feeling a little worse for wear after enjoying the festivities and you end up in hospital being checked over. Then they tell you you haven't made yourself ill - but you are expecting triplets. Here, in an interview I did for Pick Me Up magazine, one young mum remembers the Christmas her life changed forever.
See also: My three little miracles
Me and my mate Maxine, 20 were having a few drinks.
“I wish it could be Christmas every day,” sang Roy Wood on the juke box and I knew how he felt.
My boyfriend David, 27, had spoiled me. I’d never seen so many presents.
“You shouldn’t have,” I protested.
“If you can’t spoil someone you love at Christmas, when can you?’ he smiled.
Tonight though was a girls’ night. We laughed as we went from pub to pub.
“Shall we go to mine for some Baileys?” I asked, not wanting the night to end.
We crept into my house – my mum Julie, 43, stepdad Steve, 38, and brother Daniel 14, were asleep upstairs.
“Sssh!” I laughed as Justin Hawkins belted out: “Don’t let the bells end” on the stereo.
After Maxine went home, I felt a little giddy. We’d finished the Baileys between us.
“Whoops!” I giggled to myself. But it was Christmas, Mum wouldn’t mind.
I slept terribly and my head started to throb.
When I woke up, I still felt rough.
“I’ll be all right,” I muttered and set out to walk to my friend Debbie’s house. I’d promised her I’d come round because she couldn’t make it the night before.
But I never got there. Instead I was doubled up in the street. A passer-by stopped me. “Are you all right love?” he asked.
When I couldn’t answer, he phoned an ambulance.
“This is one hell of a hangover,” I thought to myself as stabbing pains gripped my tummy.
“Trust me to end up in hospital for overdoing it on Boxing Day.”
What happened next is a blur, except for Christmas lights twinkling in the hospital corridor.
“I hope the drink hasn’t done permanent damage,” I thought.
“You’re pregnant,” a doctor said and I realised I had much more to worry about. What on earth would Mum say?
There’d be plenty of time to tell her. First I had to break the news to Dave.
But worse was to come.
“The baby may not be in the right place, you’ll have to have a scan later this week.”
Now I was even more scared but I knew David would be there for me.
That night, for the first time, we discussed our future and even though I was so young, I was happy to be expecting David’s child.
Then the scan shattered our plans.
“It looks like the baby’s gone,” said the nurse and I began to cry.
You’ll have to come back in a month to make sure.
Now I was in limbo. Yet even though I couldn’t explain it, I still felt pregnant.
I feared the worst. At the next scan, the room went quiet and the sonographer looked confused.
When she said: “Congratulations, you’re having twins,” I could’ve jumped for joy.
Tears of relief began to fill David’s eyes.
“Oh I’m sorry, you’re having triplets.”
I nearly fell off the couch. I’d never known anyone who’d had three babies at once.
Now I had to tell my mum. I rang her as soon as I could.
She was out shopping and went quiet. She told me after she nearly fainted.
A day after my 18th birthday, I went into labour at just 24 weeks. Stabbing pains shot through my tummy again and I had to ring an ambulance.
I was given steroids to slow the labour down and was out of hospital within hours.
Then I went into labour at 33 weeks and had to be slowed down again.
Taylor-Jean, Lewis and Lily Sue were born weighing 3lb 8, 4lb 10 and 3lb 13oz on July 24, 2004, at 35 weeks, one of 162 sets born that year in the UK. They came home after a month in hospital. It wasn’t an easy time but we managed. Our first Christmas together was hectic. We bought them far too many presents, but if you can’t spoil someone you love at Christmas, when can you?
*If you would like to know about how to go about appearing in a magazine, and being paid for it, please contact me here, replace the (AT) with @.
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