How Do You Say...?

The other day I got a call from one of my nurses, Gabi, that a mother had showed up at our gate with three children.  Not strange, we often get families that show up with multiple children, seeking assistance through one of our programs.  Then Gabi said, "I don't know the word when there are three babies.  You know how we call them jimo (the Creole word for twins) when there are two babies?  I do not know the word for when there are three babies."  "Triplets?!" I said.  "I'll be right there."  There are many factors in Haiti that make a healthy pregnancy difficult.  Preterm delivery and low birthweight babies are common for women carrying a single baby, let alone triplets. The infant mortality rate is high.

So Gabi and I worked with the babies' mom and enrolled them in our formula program.  We came up with a feeding schedule for them.  Though they were very tiny, they all had strong sucks and vigorous cries, and they had a mom who was very motivated to meet their needs.  We told her things to look out for and gave her a follow up appointment for two days later, to reweigh the babies and to see how things were going.

Baby J #1 (1.46 kg), Baby J #2 (2.35 kg), and Baby J #3 (2.6 kg)

I was expecting the babies to return this morning for their follow-up appointment.  So when Joel told me, there were triplets here to see me, I didn't think anything of it.  Then he told me that, no, these were not the triplets I was expecting, this was another set of triplets.  I've been working with kids in our formula program for a year and a half now and have never seen a set of triplets.  Surely there must have been some miscommunication, because what were the odds that we were getting another set of triplets in the same week?

When I walked into the pharmacy Gabi just laughed when I asked him if this was really a different set of triplets.  "Yes," he said, "these are three new babies."  There was another set of two month old triplets.  So once again we got to work assessing the babies, checking some bloodwork, coming up with a nutrition plan for them, and helping their mom learn how to care for them.  As we were working with her, our other set of triplets showed up (who all gained weight!).  I think the two moms got a kick out of meeting each other, and seeing another mom with triplets.  That doesn't happen every day in Haiti!

Baby Y #1 (2.55 kg), Baby Y #2 (3.06 kg), and Baby Y #3 (1.83 kg)

So those are our six newest kiddos in the formula program, ranging from just over three pounds to six and a half pounds.  We look forward to helping these moms to care for their kiddos.  So Gabi has definitely learned the word "triplets" now and today I also taught him the world "quadruplets", though hopefully we won't have any of those showing up at our gate any time soon!

Children of the Promise has given permission for the posting of the photos on this site.  Photos taken of  the children in the care of Children of the Promise are not to be posted publicly without explicit permission given by Children of the Promise.