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Four babies in one year for British mom who struggled to conceive

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PHOTO: Gallo/Getty Images
PHOTO: Gallo/Getty Images

Charlotte Parker (32) and her husband, Billy (29), always dreamt of having a big family.

But their dream was shattered when doctors told them Charlotte’s egg count was low and even fertility treatment wouldn’t work.

The couple were determined to have a family and wanted to try all options available to them.

With that in mind, they started looking for egg donors without realising Charlotte was already pregnant.

She gave birth naturally to a healthy baby boy, weighing 7lbs (3,2kg) on 6 September last year.

Then just as she started enjoying being a first-time mom to then two-month-old baby Lewis, she found out she was pregnant again – this time with triplets, reported the Daily Mail.

The Sun reported that Charlotte welcomed her trio by Caesarean at 32 weeks at St Peter’s Hospital in Surrey, England.

The triplets were born prematurely on 4 August, with Adam weighing 3lb 11oz (1,7kg), Jamie 4lb 4oz (1,9kg) and Ella 3lb 8oz (1,6kg).

“The doctors said it was hard to get close to full term in a triplet pregnancy so I was really pleased. They looked tiny, like little dolls, but I bonded straight away,” Charlotte told The Sun.

The mom-of-four explained that she and her husband had started talking about having children in 2014 after buying their house which they intended for a big family.

"At the time I’d gone to the doctor as I was having abdominal pain and had a blood test. It was then that I was told I had a low egg count,” she said.

"I decided to get further advice and we had investigative tests privately. The consultant said to me, 'You have an extremely low egg count. It's so low that IVF wouldn't work. You need to look for an egg donor.'

"It was devastating. It felt like our future plans had been taken away from us – you think about buying a house, getting married and having a family and it felt like that had gone.

"I came off the pill straight away as there was no point staying on it,” she told The Sun.

Despite the disappointment of being told her chances of falling pregnant were slim, the couple never lost hope.

A week before Billy and Charlotte went to a fertility clinic, Billy persuaded her to take a pregnancy test after she realised her period was a week late.

"I told him and my mom who was also there that there was no point in doing a test but they insisted. I had two tests from when we first decided we wanted children and used one of those. I did it and it was positive,” she said. 

"I was shocked; we all were. I just kept thinking, ‘How can so many experts tell me what they did and within two months I'm pregnant?’

"Billy and I went out and bought more pregnancy tests. I ended up doing about six and every single one came back positive,” Charlotte told the Mirror.

"We couldn't believe it. It was a massive shock but we were obviously delighted.

"We felt very lucky to have Lewis and thought we’d like another baby. We didn't think we would be so lucky again but just thought we’d see what happened,” she said.

Charlotte said her second pregnancy wasn’t easy and she faced several complications as she’d become pregnant with triplets so shortly after Lewis’ birth.

"I remember saying to my mum and Billy that I felt there was more than one in there as I felt so much more tired and sick than I’d done with Lewis.

"When we went for our scan, Billy and I immediately saw two sacs and we were overjoyed. I looked at Billy and he said 'I can't believe it; it's twins', but then the woman interrupted and said, 'Actually there are three in there'," Charlotte told the Mirror

"Four children under the age of one. My first thought was, 'What are we going to do? Do we have the space? When will we ever sleep?’

"It’s daunting but very, very exciting. We feel incredibly lucky,” Charlotte said.

“‘It’s amazing for us to be together now as a family after everything. We’re really happy to all be home and feel lucky to have four happy and healthy babies.

She added, “So many people are told similar things to what I heard and don’t get the happy outcome they want, so we feel very fortunate.”

Sources:   The SunDaily MailMirror 

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