Hi, today's blog is about being an identical triplet and being an aunt to identical triplets 

"How does it feel to be an identical triplet" a question I (we) always got asked at school and from time to time I still get asked this I don't tell people I'm a triplet very often if I do it's because it's come up in conversation or more commonly for me now is I get asked why I had an early scan when I found out I was having Thea! - the feeling of fear and the wonder of was I having more than one why you ask because from about 4 weeks on finding out I was pregnant I was the size of a house! At 8 weeks I looked like I was 9 months and before anything was confirmed I had people asking me when I was due !!!  I work as a store manager for the perfume shop and so I see a lot of people day to day
and it felt so awkward when I got asked this before I even knew when I was due ha ha ! 

I often joked i would  say I wasn't pregnant just to see how people would react ! 

me left liz centrre bex right taken last year at my baby gender party!

Anyway so you all know the answer I wasn't having 3 I was having one confirmed at 8 weeks! I cried with happiness I was glad - sorry to the mums I know of triplets and twins this just comes across as mean but for me I was so nervous of having one the thought of 2 or 3 made me scared! 

The other reason I wanted to know was because by some freak of nature the myth of it skips a generation somehow missed my sister Liz and she had all girl identical triplets !! So just to be sure I wanted to know for sure how many I was having! A few people say why would it bother you - my husband has 3 all ready and so 3 more would have really taken a risk and then how would I re-turn to work how would we afford 6 kids in my mind to know Is better than a surprise! 

I admire anyone with 1 or more and I have every respect for my mum and my sister and the other mums I know of multiples! I feel bad now knowing how hard it must have been for my mum and dad having 4 kids ! 3 at once and then on top an older sister who must have thought what is going on you came home one random day with 3 crying annoying sisters ! 

Going back to the question of how does it feel being a triplet or what's it like - well honestly I know no different so to me it's normal having 2 people the same age who look the same as you! I do find it interesting the genetics of this because we were natural and random as were lizs girls a completely freak thing ! I also get asked the odds on Liz having triplets - I don't know few and far between?! It's weird enough to have one set of triplets to then have a triplet have triplets well that's just crazy! I always say to Liz she should write about her experience and her story I would read it! 

My view on being a triplet is very different to Liz and my sister Rebecca, Liz was born first I was second and Rebecca I call her Bex it's shorter! Was born last,  minutes apart by c section way back in 1988 - Liz and I keep bringing up we now have to scroll down when inputting our age into things gone are the days of it being at the top ha ha , we all see being a triplet differently 

We still share friends but now days having the separate friend groups really helps as it makes you feel like an individual rather than a triplet people do really treat you like one person sometimes instead of a individual person more so in our younger days than now I think as it's become more common to have multiples people are seeing that it's nicer to see them as their own person instead of dressing them the same and making them feel like they are one person. 

I think for Liz more than me and Bex as a kid was annoyed easily by people confusing us and would get annoyed when she was mistaken for someone else and to be fair this happened all the time we were very alike fast forward to today and now we couldn't be in my opinion  be more different when I say this to other people they say we are still alike - I think I see us as different looks wise  because I'm  looking from the inside out! I see all the things that are not the same to an outside person they wouldn't notice like hair colour / dress sense / ear piecings / hair styles that kinda thing ! I always joke Bex is the mum  of the group dress wise Liz and I dress very alike but still different if that makes sense?!  I also think our personalities couldn't be more different if they tried again people  say we are alike - Liz - very blunt takes a while to get to know ( she will kill me for saying this if she reads this ) Liz comes across as the more to the point kind of person she doesn't waste time with people she doesn't get along with and will tell you to your face if you have annoyed her! Bex more quiet keeps herself to herself kinda personality growing up Liz was the one who followed fashion Bex was more reserved than Liz and I ,  I was more the one trying to make people laugh, Now days I wear way more makeup than the Liz and Bex and we are all into different things but Liz and I are more into similar things like Pinterest beauty products dress sense the only thing Bex and I share with Liz is a love for nail varnish having said that both liz and Bex think my taste in headbands for Thea is a bit much and my love of t.v shows like gypsy weddings and E! they think i watch to much trashy tv although again liz and i do like more similar shows like pretty little liars.

These days  in our older years We have really distanced ourselves i talk to liz way more then Bex but things will prob change now all 3 of us have kids its something in common that may help us get along more lizs girls are now 7 and bex's baby is a few weeks old so only 6 months between her daughter elodie and thea

bex left me right at my baby gender party last year

 I guess we do look alike even now as still at 28 I have people come into my shop and think I'm Rebecca or Liz I'm always polite because it's an easy mistake Liz on the other hand hates it and prob ignores anything to do with the mistaken identity I chat and drop in that I'm not that sister and laugh and I find it funny. It amazes me how people can't tell us apart but then again as later I will go into the fact that although I'm a triplet you would think it would help when telling other triplets / twins apart nope I couldn't tell lizs girls apart until recent years looking back I can now see their differences at the time I couldn't now days they wear different colours and have clear different interests making it easy to tell them apart.
liz's girls are lucky that liz is a triplet i think it makes a unique bond as she will understand their struggles and can relate to the arguments and help them feel like individuals
its really sweet when they explain what a triplet is to people and i always smile when they say " we are triplets like our muma!" and then they remember and slip in oh and like auntie hannah and rebecca! its also really sweet they have twins in their class at school so it helps them not feel to alienated about being identical or a multiple!
when we were at primary school we were the only set if triplets in the school and we are the only set of triplets where we live still - tho i met a lovely woman at work she was shopping for fragrance and we got chatting and turns out that there are other triplets not far away in fact 6 sets i would love to meet them! how confusing would that be!

growing up our parents were of the opinion we were not to be dressed the same and we had colour coded clothes so they could tell us apart! tho somehow my mum still talks about this i got fed twice alot as a baby! even tho we were dressed in different colours! as small kids we used to swap shoes to confuse people but as adults we don't play tricks on people as we consider ourselves to be to different to do that and people who know us well would def be able to tell who's who. every time i call home my dad still has no idea who's calling because we all say hi its me is mum there ha ha and i also have trouble sometimes telling liz and bex apart on the phone unless they call my mob! everyone says our mannerisms are the same but liz and bex growing up always used to tease me for talking with my hands - i still do now! i guess i can see why people who dont know us well cant tell us apart!

to help people at primary school tell us apart we had different badges mine was this bear!

on the subject of being an aunt to the girls its really lovely and whats really nice if we go out together no one stares or makes comments like when we were little! i recently had the coolest day out to the harry potter studio tour with liz and tom with the girls and although we must look alike to other people and the girls are very alike when you dont know them no one said anything! usually if liz and i go out we get asked if we are twins! so to have a day out with the girls and not to be asked was really cool! when we have gone out as us three with the girls people have stopped to look in confusion! we rarely go out all at once these days!

when Liz was having the girls the BBC filmed them for a documentary about multiples as liz was a triplet having triplets -they wanted to film the journey- so they had the birth filmed which was really weird to watch but a good thing for Liz and tom to look back on! Liz had a planned c-section the other part bex and i were invited to spend the day with Liz and the girls to talk to the camera about life as a triplet which included the common questions of " whats it like to be a triplet" but then some random ones like " do you think the girls will know who is their mum?" what a weird question but to be fair maybe someone somewhere wonders that but we know that babies can tell who is who by smell so that's good! even identical triplets will smell different to their babies! 

having said that when we left Thea with Liz and tom recently to go to a wedding i swear Thea had no clue!

article about our birth our mum and dad with us we look like tiny aliens!

We cringe looking back at that little documentary and thankfully it seems to be shown more in Australia than here!

so in conclusion its cool being an aunt to the girls and as for being a triplet its cool to be different if at times growing up it was annoying! i often say to Liz i would love to contact cherry healey because around that time she did a couple of really good parent episodes on her pregnancy on BBC3 and we like her style when she does anything on tv, we would love to have her investigate the genetics behind twins and triplets  and how Liz had the girls! as we dont know of anyone else in the uk who is a triplet who had triplets! (maybe that's just us haha no one else would find it that interesting!) i love all those shows like child of our time and one born!

anyway thanks for reading this massive blog 

hope to write again soon 

Hannah and Thea xx

our christening

liz and her husband tom had their girls christened at the same church by the same vicar! liz and tom with the girls at their christening back in 2010

a newspaper article about our birth our mum with her parents in the picture!