Joliet couple welcomes triplets at Silver Cross

Joliet couple welcomes triplets at Silver Cross

JOLIET — A Joliet couple is celebrating the birth of triplets, born Aug. 17 at Silver Cross Hospital and just recently brought home healthy and happy.

“They are absolutely 100 percent miracles from God,” new mother Amanda Winterroth said. “Our intent was to have one and be done, and we got blessed with three.”

Winterroth, a legal secretary, and new father Jason Holley, a truck driver, are now at home busy learning how to care for three little girls — Abigail, who was born first at 3 pounds, 4 ounces; Megan, the second-born at 3 pounds, 8 ounces; and Quinn Holley, who weighed in at 3 pounds, 1 ounce.

The babies spent a few weeks with the nurses in the hospital until each went home, one at a time, when they reached 4 pounds, 7 ounces.

Big news
Winterroth said she was told when she was young that she would have difficulty getting pregnant. She and Holley had been together 10 years when they decided to try in vitro fertilization.

“Our first try, all three took,” she said. “I am so blessed.”

Her reproductive specialist, Dr. Marek Piekos, made the process easy, she said, by letting her come in early morning hours so she wouldn’t have to miss work.

Winterroth wasn’t altogether happy when she first heard the news about triplets.

“At first, I was really, really scared for medical reasons,” she said. “I was worried about them not being healthy. I’m not a very big girl. I was also worried about having to have a lot of bed rest, because of my job. I was a complete nervous wreck, then after about three weeks, I embraced it.”

Winterroth said Holley was her rock.

“He was surprisingly calm,” she said, “but he was surprisingly calm for me, I think, because I was breaking down. He was strong for both of us.”

Smooth pregnancy
Her pregnancy went well. She went through what most pregnant women went through, only multiplied a bit, and was given medication for morning sickness and heartburn. It all seemed normal to her, she said, because this was her first pregnancy.

The babies were born at 31 weeks, six days. The normal gestation period is around 40 weeks.

The babies were born by Caesarean delivery about one minute apart.

The babies were all healthy and didn’t need ventilators.

Winterroth had her own share of medical needs in addition to recovering from childbirth. She had gall bladder surgery almost right away, was sent home, then went back in because of complications.

When she recovered and was released, she and Holley spent their days and nights with their babies at the hospital, talking to them and massaging their tiny limbs.

“Leaving the hospital was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said. “I cried all the way home. It got easier as I got to know the nursery workers, though. They were phenomenal.”

Abigail, the first-born, was also the first to come home, on Sept. 22.

Now that all three are home, Winterroth said the couple is busy learning how to best care for their babies and keep them on three-hour feeding schedules to make things run smoother.

Winterroth’s obstetrician was Dr. Francisco Garcini, who by chance delivered a second set of triplets at Silver Cross just a few days ago, the second set of his career.