Three's a crowd: 'Over the moon' mum Ellen Campbell welcomes triplets, two years after giving birth to twins
Meet the Northern Ireland mum who has defied the odds by giving birth to triplets, just two years after she welcomed twins.
Ellen Campbell and husband James had their first kids, twin sons Finley and Malachy, in July 2023. At the end of last month three more came into the world – little Mabel, Sadie and Lily.
Born prematurely at 33 weeks, the triplets spent a fortnight in the Ulster Hospital’s neonatal unit, but are now settling into their family home.
Now proud parents of five children, Ellen said with a smile, “After Finley and Malachy were born, we thought we would have one more child. I booked an early scan and we were a bit shocked when the Midwife said there was three babies, not just one.
“James went very quiet in the corner. I think we were both quite shocked to learn we were having triplets; it still does not feel real. During the car journey home we were in disbelief.
“We are very blessed that we have two boys and three girls now. Even that in itself feels so unique to have twin boys and triplet girls; Sadie and Lily are identical twins, and then little Mabel.”
The girls’ October 30 birthday was one of the busiest in the hospital’s records, with 16 babies making their big debut that day – including three sets of twins, as well as the triplets.
Explained how she tells her baby daughters apart, Ellen said: “To me, Mabel looks very different to her sisters and at the moment Sadie is a bit bigger than Lily – but I think as Lily catches up, it is going to get a bit more tricky.
“They still have their hospital ID bands on at the moment to help us. A lot of people have said to put some nail polish, a different colour on each toe, so we can tell them apart, but I think we will have to keep them labelled until we can definitely find some way of telling who is who.
Proud Dad James added: “This is a new normal for us, we are a good team and we have great support from our family. We are looking forward to getting home and being together.”
Ellen has shared her family’s story to mark World Prematurity Day today (17th), which helps to raise awareness of the challenges faced by families whose babies are born early and to celebrate the dedication of neonatal teams across the world.
“The staff [at the Ulster] have been absolutely brilliant, they are just like part of our family,” said Ellen. “They look after our girls 24/7 and could not do more to make us feel at home here. The girls have really flourished and thrived over the past two weeks and that is all down to the staff in the unit.”
Beaming with pride about her new additions, Ellen described the family as “over the moon – we have nearly got a whole football team now”.
She added: “We are looking forward to being home, all seven of us together. It will be pure relief to have the girls home. The fact that they are going home when they should even be in the unit for another five weeks is phenomenal, we are very excited.”