by They say three is a lucky number and what could be luckier than triplets getting ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ at the same time? Gina Purcell, Nina Rawlings and Victoria Brown were born within four minutes of each other in 1986 — and 35 years later, these triplets will all be giving birth a few months apart.
“We’ve always talked about having babies together when we were younger but since I was the first to get married and have kids, our timelines were different and never thought it would actually happen,” Gina Purcell told The Post. “We never officially sat down and said let’s ‘plan’ this because of the different stages of life we were in even though we’re triplets.”
Brown, the youngest of the triplets, told Fox News that their ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴄɪᴇs are “a dream come true.” “It’s been so exciting just sharing our food cravings, how we feel, like how tired we are, our mood swings – things like that,” she told Fox. “And it’s just so nice to have your best friends there with you throughout the whole experience.”
Brown – who already has a 2-year-old daughter – is due to have a baby boy, first, on July 9. Rawlings, the middle triplet, is expecting to have her first child, also a boy, on August 28. Purcell, the eldest, will have her third child, a baby girl, in November. She already has an 8-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter.
“I was the last to get ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ so when I announced it at Easter dinner, my sisters started sᴄʀᴇᴀᴍɪɴɢ and ᴄʀʏɪɴɢ right away,” Purcell, 35, recalls. “My mom kept saying ‘No way, no way! What?! Are you serious?'” “We were over the moon and so excited because we really didn’t think it would ever happen,” Purcell adds of being ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ beside her sisters, who were all born four minutes apart.
Purcell’s disbelief over the ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴄʏ sᴛᴇᴍs, in part, back to a ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ she sᴜꜰꜰᴇʀᴇᴅ a few years ago. At the time, Purcell and her husband Paul, who live in Foothill Ranch, already had two children, and the ᴅᴇᴠᴀsᴛᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇ ᴄᴀᴜsᴇᴅ them to stop trying for more.
“My husband and I went back and forth on having another since we ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴇᴅ a couple years ago,” she said. “It was on our minds for over a year and then when my sisters got ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ, I definitely was thinking about it way more. It was always in my heart that we were meant to have three babies.”
Since the triplets live within 15 minutes of each other, naturally, their sisterly bond lends itself well to become ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴄʏ pals. However, Purcell said she’s become the go-to for motherhood tips. “I’ve always been the one to give advice since I was the first to have kids,” she told The Post. “I give them tips on developmental things kids go through, how my delivery went, books to read, articles that were helpful for me.”
They will all deliver their children at The Women’s Hospital at Memorial Care Saddleback Medical in Laguna Hills with OBGYN Dr. Daniel Sternfeld, CBS LA reports. “The interesting thing is they had ᴘʀᴇɴᴀᴛᴀʟ appointments all in the same day, so it clicked with me that this is a wonderful story of these three sisters who are all ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ and having babies at the same time,” he said.
