Page 30 - link magazine

30 • July 1998
The Link Magazine
It's great to have three

Last month we talked to Jan and Alan Cotterell from Abbey Meads about their first year with triplets.
Here Gina Dennis talks to a family from Shaw with triplets who are getting ready to leave primary school.
Being a triplet is a real advantage - needed help breathing. Katharine, having enough time to give indi- much notice - some won't believe
so say Katharine, Natasha and the lightest at 31b Ooz, was the stur- vidual attention. The nappies were that they are triplets. All three
Oliver Thompson, 11-year-old tri- diest and the only one of the three 'horrendous'. It was a logistical thought this would be different if
plets from Shaw. who Linda could hold initially. nightmare taking three babies out. they had been identical. They are
"There's somebody to play with On Christmas morning, each in- Despite this, the family had a now anticipating the move to Bra-
all the time," said Natasha. "You cubator sported a stocking from holiday in Bournemouth when the don Forest School in the Autumn
can ask questions if you get stuck which tiny teddies peeped out. children were 9 months old. And and an increasing 'separateness.'
on homework," added Oliver. "We were brilliantly looked af- at 18 months, Linda left Nigel hard All the children are keen on
Starting at playgroup and then ter," said Linda. sport, enjoying football, netball,
school was so much easier than for gym, dancing, swimming and
most children because they had rollerblading. Natasha plays the
each other. "They've never had to clarinet and Katharine the re-
experience going to anything on corder, whilst Oliver gained sec-
their own," commented mum, ond place in a recent art competi-
Linda. Friends tend to be shared tion.
and all three are equally happy However, says Linda, "all three
mixing with boys or girls. have very different personalities
Although Linda had been re- and requirements." Katharine ap-
ceiving fertility treatment, she was pears timid and quiet at first, is
amazed when a scan showed she slow to get up and untidy, but will
was six weeks pregnant with 1 ... 2 do anything for anyone.
3 babies (the doctor looked for a Natasha is finicky about food,
fourth). She had just spent the last but tidier and more assertive than
few weeks heaving boxes around her sister.
as she and husband Nigel prepared Oliver explored the world with
for a move from Newbury to Swin- enthusiasm and was the first to
don. Now she was being instructed Looking back, the early stages at work and took off with the tri- walk but is very laid back; he was
to 'take it easy' and having to plan were tough. "You have to write off plets to stay with friends in Italy. described as 'a bit of a chauvinist'
for the triplets' arrival. the first three years in terms of As often happens with the best who likes to get his sisters to do
Natasha, Katharine and Oliver yourself." Linda managed to laid plans, a bureaucratic break- things for him: Katharine does,
were born at PMH by emergency breast feed for six months, express- down saw Linda without help on Natasha won't.
caesarean on the 20 December 1986, ing milk so others could share the arrival at Milan airport. She re- Linda would be the first to ac-
nearly two months early. Oliver, seemingly endless process. She members vividly having to trail knowledge the initial difficulties
the heaviest at 41b 6oz and Natasha felt continually guilty about not up and down the aircraft stairways of life with triplets. She relied
for each child in turn. Oliver, the heavily on support from her fam-
strongest at this stage, 'helped' ily at the pre-school stage. It can
push his sisters in their buggy also be expensive - three of every-
across the tarmac. thing and no hand-me-downs.
When the threesome started But she says, "I don't think there
school, Linda felt a huge sense of was ever a time when we felt 'this
loss. But the children themselves is all too much.' You reap your
settled easily and have never found rewards after the first three years."
it a problem being triplets. Occa- Now, although she knows it
sionally a teacher refers to them as sounds gushing, she feels she and
the 'Troublesome Trio.' Nigel gained "the perfect, ready-
Mostly, their peers don't take made family."
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