We’ve all heard the phrase, “be careful what you wish for.” However, husband and wife Angie and Gino Colonna, from Southern California, certainly got more than they bargained for when they prayed for a little baby girl. It’s not that the couple couldn’t conceive – in fact, they had their first son less than a year after their wedding. Then, just two years later, the Colonnas had another son!
Still, while Angie and Gino felt incredibly grateful for their happy life, they couldn’t help but feel like something was missing: a baby girl! So, the couple prayed for a little girl, and, soon enough, Angie became pregnant! But what the doctor told Angie at her first checkup turned the couple’s world upside down…
1. Dreaming of Becoming Parents
Some people are destined to become great parents, like Angie and Gino Colonna. In fact, on the two’s first date as twenty-something, they actually discussed their favorite baby names! Meanwhile, before a single wedding bell rang, Angie and Gino also decided they wanted at least one boy and one girl. Without a doubt, these two were well on their way to becoming a perfect parenting pair.
It will probably come as no surprise, but just a few months after their wedding, Angie discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s first child, a boy. Just two years later, in the early 2010s, Angie surprised Gino with the news that they were expecting baby number two! Thoroughly enjoying parenting, the couple expanded their family and welcomed another healthy baby boy.
2. Wanting To Expand The Family
Both Angie and Gino loved watching their sons grow up, reaching new milestones every day. For the new parents, it seemed like they already had everything one could want: a beautiful home, each other, and two happy, healthy sons.
While Angie and Gino adored their life in Southern California, the parents did feel as though a certain feminine energy was missing. Even though they thanked God every day for their family, they knew that adding a baby girl to the mix would make their family complete. For a few years, the couple prayed for a baby girl, but none came. That is, until one week, when Angie started feeling some morning sickness. Just to be safe, she decided to take a pregnancy test…
3. Another Baby!
Walking back and forth in the bathroom, Angie excitedly waited for the test results of the pregnancy test. After five minutes she looked: double red lines! Angie was pregnant again! Once she told Gino, the parents could not wait to discover if they would finally receive the girl they wanted. While they would have been happy to add another son in their family, deep down, they both hoped for a girl.
Of course, the same day, Angie booked an appointment with her doctor to have an ultrasound. Not only did they want to know the sex of the baby, but they also wanted to make sure it was healthy!
4. Something Strange
At first, everything at the initial ultrasound went fine. Dr. Daneshmand wheeled them into the room and explained the procedure to Angie and Gino. Of course, having two sons at home, the couple felt comfortable with everything, so the doctor got right to work. Then, just a minute later, he delivered them some incredible news: they were expecting a girl! Incredible happy, the couple exchanged a gleeful kiss in celebration.
However, as Gino looked back at the doctor, he noticed that he did not share the same look of happiness that the couple did. Instead, Dr. Daneshmand looked intently at the ultrasound, staring at it. In an instant, both Angie and Gino knew that something was wrong…
5. Triplets
For a moment, Angie and Gino felt over the moon. Their prayer had been answered – they would become proud parents to a beautiful baby girl! However, as the doctor continued the ultrasound, his expression shifted from excitement to utter shock. You see, he discovered that more than one baby hid inside Angie’s uterus. Believe it or not, the couple has about to have triplets!
As Angie’s doctor performed the ultrasound, he noticed that she had not one, but two placentas. This meant that two of the baby girls were sharing one placenta and had split from a single egg, making them identical twins. Meanwhile, the third baby girl had formed from an entirely different egg. This only made Angie’s pregnancy more rare – and dangerous! While their babies were healthy, the doctor had little other good news…
6. A Unique Pregnancy
For years, Angie and Gino Colonna had prayed for a baby girl. Now, with triplets, their prayers had been answered three times over! Thankfully, the parents felt comfortable raising three girls at once. However, they still felt incredibly worried. You see, as Dr. Daneshmand soon informed them, triplets pregnancy was rare. In fact, the possibility of having triplets are just 1 in 4,000! But it was also more dangerous. Their doctor told them that Angie was now more at risk for a host of diseases, as well as a miscarriage.
Meanwhile, the chances of having two of the triplets be identical twins are even rarer. It also puts those two in even more danger, as they share a placenta. Angie and Gino knew they would need to prepare according to have a successful pregnancy!
7. Preparing Themselves
Of course, Angie and Gino felt eager and incredibly happy to add the triplets to their growing family. However, due to the triplets pregnancy, they needed to prepare like never before. The couple’s life was about to change drastically, to say the least. So, they did the only thing they could: got to work!
Before the second trimester, Angie and Gino had already started to interview nannies. Not only that, but they also purchased a minivan and started reading out to their family, friends, and community for support. Because the couple both had jobs, they also set up parental leave and hours coverages. However, unfortunately, despite all their preparation, Angie’s pregnancy wasn’t going as smoothly as they hoped…
8. Serious Complications
At week 26 of her pregnancy with the triplets, Angie started feeling some intense pain. From there, things quickly became very dangerous and harrowing. You see, the pain came from a “fluid discrepancy,” creating a potentially life-threatening scenario for Angie and her unborn triplets.
“We saw that the liquid for ‘Baby B’ was too low and for ‘C’ was a little high,” Angie explained in an interview. For those not in the know, the levels of fluid around the babies impact how nourished and protected they triplets are while developing. Angie and Dr. Daneshmand knew they needed to take action right away. Unfortunately, in order for her and the triplets to be safe, they needed to take extreme measures…
9. Moving Into The Hospital
As Angie’s doctor explained to her, with the fluid around the babies too high or too low, the triplets were at risk of being born with brain hemorrhaging or even underdeveloped lungs. Because of this, the mother simply could not go on living her normal day-to-day life.
To ensure that she and the triplets remained safe, Dr. Daneshmand urged Angie to spend the remainder of her pregnancy in the hospital. “Unfortunately, at 26 and a half weeks, all of a sudden, there was a fluid discrepancy. So that was time to say, ‘Angie, we belong in the hospital now,’” he later explained. As a “typical” triplets pregnancy is anywhere from 32 to 36 weeks, Angie would need to spend quite some time alone in the hospital…
10. Making It Work
Naturally, Angie felt quite upset with her prognosis. Of course, while she felt more than prepared to do anything she needed to in order to keep her babies safe, at just 26 weeks pregnant, it meant spending at least six weeks in the hospital alone. Not only that, but it meant leaving the two boys along with their father for weeks on end, who himself had to continue working!
Still, Gino and Angie put their triplets first, doing what they needed to ensure their family would grow. They even made time to see each other, every day! On their way home from school, Gino and the boys would stop and visit Angie at the hospital. Thought it wasn’t home, they were together, at least.
11. Home Away From Home
While living in the hospital to save her triplets, Angie Colonna needed to completely change her concept of “home.” To help her out, Gino and the kids did everything they could to turn her small hospital room into an oasis. They would bring her presents and games, and eat their lunch with her on the weekends!
Meanwhile, the nurses felt especially empathetic towards Angie’s situation and would often talk to her when her family was not around. “They’re taken away from everything that’s normal,” Toni Hicks, RN, said in an interview with Sharp Healthcare. “So, by telling them, ‘You know, I understand that this is really hard for you’ — that’s huge for our patients.”
12. It’s A Date
For a moment, try and put yourself into Angie’s shoes. Not only are you going through a terrifying high-risk pregnancy, but you’ve been forced to move out of your home and into a cold, lonely hospital for weeks. Even worse, you cannot help your husband take care of your two sons and need to miss work, providing essential income. It is a sad and scary reality to imagine, for sure.
Even though this was Angie and Gino’s reality, they felt determined to do anything to keep the mother’s spirits up. In fact, they ended up getting quite creative! One of their favorites things was to have “date nights” at the hospital. “This is the date night that we never get at home,” Angie said in a video, while the couple shared a dinner across her hospital bed.
13. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
As any doctor will tell you, when you’re delivering triplets, you need a plan long before you arrive at the hospital. So, even though Angie’s medical team monitored the expecting mother 24/7, they also made contingency plans for anything that could go wrong.
In the team’s eyes, they needed to plan for things to go wrong, because they often do! At best, even with things going perfectly, there was danger. At worst, the triplets could end up in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). So, before Angie’s due date arrived, she and Gino toured the NICU at the hospital. This way, the couple could ready themselves for whatever curveballs life threw at them!
14. Feeling Empowered
To some mothers and expectant mothers, touring the NICU before having a baby would only terrify them more. However, Angie remained positive throughout her stay in the hospital and tour of the NICU. Touring the NICU and having a detailed birth plan actually made Angie feel incredibly calm and courageous. Now, she knew that her team had her back, no matter what!
“You hear a lot of stories, you know, of triplets who don’t make it or especially of identical twins. The body absorbs one of them,” Angie said. “I didn’t see [the NICU] as a sad place, I saw it as a place that was empowering for me.” Soon enough, Angie would need to call upon that calm and courage…
15. Baby B In Trouble
Throughout the entire pregnancy, Angie Colonna and her medical team closely monitored the triplet babies each passing day. Then during a routine ultrasound, the doctors noticed that Baby B was considerably smaller than the other two. Unfortunately, as Dr. Daneshmand told the couple, this put her at a high risk of passing. Once again, Angie and Gino prayed. However, this time they prayed for Baby B to make it through the end of the pregnancy alive.
From that day forward, the team monitored Baby B even closer, always making sure that everything was right as it was supposed to be. Meanwhile, Angie and Gino just prayed for their three babies girls would make it to term.
16. Aiming For Week 34
Even at Week 30, the triplets would be in an incredible amount of premature trouble if Angie delivered them. So, while she remained confined to her hospital bed, Angie and the medical team had their goal in their sights: to make it to week 34. You see, if the expecting mother could make it that far without going into labor, the triplets would have a much better chance to survive.
While Angie and Gino had their goal in mind, that did not make things any easier. As each day creeped by, the only thing they could do was remain calm and pray for good things…
17. Day By Day
Entering the 31st week of her pregnancy, all Angie could do was pray and hope for the best. Inside her mind, the mother could not wait for the triplets to emerge. All Angie and Gino wanted to do was meet the triplets. However, the longer the triplets stayed inside, the more time they would have to develop.
“Anything could happen between now and my due date,” Angie said in an interview with Sharp Healthcare at the time. “We could have contractions that can’t control. We may do an emergency C-section. For us, we don’t count the weeks here, we count the days.” Little did she know the babies were just about ready to come out…
18. It’s Triplets Time!
As previously stated, Angie and her medical team wanted her to make it to 34 weeks before the triplets came into the world. However, fate had other plans for this family. Just a week after she gave her interview with Sharp, at 32 weeks and one day pregnant, Angie began having severe contractions, in mid-2012. After all that waiting, the time to deliver the triplets had finally arrived!
As Angie and Gino headed to the delivery room, they put their game faces on. “Three little stars will be born tonight,” Gino said. “I have some hard work ahead of me now,” Angie added as they wheeled her into the delivery room.
19. Happy Birthday, Triplets!
A few hours later, Angie started pushing, and the baby girls were ready to come out and meet their new family. At the very last moment, Angie’s medical team decided that a C-section was the best option for both Angie and the triplets due to safety concerns. The medical team quickly prepared the room, and Angie’s procedure soon began.
One by one, Angie’s doctors delivered all three of the triplets! Each weighted just under four pounds. As doctors anticipated that Angie might give birth earlier, they were prepared: each baby instantly went onto her own advanced life support team to ensure they remained healthy.
20. Taking Care of Each Baby
As they looked at their daughters, Angie and Gino named their new babies Daniella, Anabella, and Camilla Colonna. Unfortunately, they could not watch them long. The triplets soon when through a window to a room adjacent to the delivery room. Here, doctors assessed, stabilized, and helped each baby with breathing before being transferred to the NICU.
Although Angie and Gino knew that would happen, it still felt heartbreaking not to hold their new children. However, since the babies were so small and fragile, the couple felt comforted knowing the triplets were receiving the help they needed. And they still weren’t out of the woods just yet…
21. Breathing Difficulties
As each of the triplets weighed under four pounds, their small lungs could barely support them. This caused the triplets to have some difficulty breathing. Fortunately, doctors were more than prepared for this scenario, as it’s common with premature babies. They quickly opened the babies’ lungs with breathing tubes, ensuring constant, easy breathing.
Meanwhile, a few hours later, Angie managed to see her babies for the first time, albeit on a digital camera. While it wasn’t the same as holding them, it was all she had for the moment. As you might imagine, it was hard for Angie and Gino to watch helplessly on the sidelines…
22. Stable
Just a few hours after Camilla, Daniella, and Anabella came into the world via C-section, they began doing much better. While they needed to remain in the NICU to avoid further complications, the triplets started breathing on their own within 24 hours. Though they were nowhere near ready to head home, they were prepared to do the next best thing: meet mom and dad!
Angie’s medical team, especially the nurses, was really excited for the couple to finally be reunited with their baby girls. “I love to see the initial contact between mommy and baby,” Alina Harper, an RN, said. “I always look for that, that moment that is just theirs that I get to be a part of.”
23. Meeting the Triplets
While Angie certainly had a long road ahead of her recovering from her C-section, she felt great. By this point, both Angie and the triplets were in stable condition and could finally meet each other. The nurses then wheeled Angie to the NICU. As Gino walked alongside Angie and the nurse, they could barely contain their excitement. They were about to meet the precious angels that they prayed so hard for!
Finally, Angie and Gino were led into the NICU. Anger wheeled over to the individual stations where the nurses watched the triplets. At long last, she and Gino officially met the triplets! As a nurse handed Angie one of the girls, the mother felt in complete disbelief. She then turned to Gino and said, “It feels so right.”
24. Reunited At Last
Even though Angie and Gino were only separated from their girls for a few hours, it felt like an eternity. “I was only a few hours apart from them, and I already missed them,” Angie said. “So it feels good to be reunited.” One by one, Angie got to hold each Camilla, Daniella, and Anabella separately. She relished getting to hold them as they fell back asleep in her alarms. As she said, it felt right.
Angie wasn’t the only one eager to meet her baby girls – Dad was along too! Beside Angie, Gino also took turns holding Camilla, Anabella, and Daniella. The nurses even tucked each of the girls into Gino’s shirt so they could receive skin-to-skin contact. “Look at that, she’s opening her eyes, listening to me,” Gino said. “Beautiful, beautiful feeling.”
25. Time to Go Home
After a few weeks in the NICU, the triplets had grown and developed enough to finally go home. Finally, after Angie spent almost six weeks pregnant in the hospital followed by the triplets spending weeks in the NICU, the entire Colonna family all resided under the same roof for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.
Now, after all this time and hurdles, the family finally felt complete! Angie and Gino had prayed for a baby girl, and they got much more than they expected. As the triplets grew up, they continued to thrive. Meanwhile, Camilla, Daniella, and Anabella each also developed their own individual personalities. So, what are they up to now? Let’s find out!
26. The Triplets’ 6th Birthday
To the Colonna family, it seems like just yesterday that Angie and Gino cradled their newborn girls in the NICU. However, in the blink of an eye, the years flew by, and it was time to celebrate the triplets’ sixth birthday!
These days, quite a bit has changed from those days in the hospital in 2012. In interviews, Angie often comments on how funny time is. The six weeks in the hospital felt like forever, but the girls’ six years flew by in what seemed like second. Thankfully, after their initial stay in the hospital, Camilla, Daniella, and Anabella grew up without any medical complications and have a happy life alongside their loving family!
27. Keeping Themselves Busy
Anyone with kids can tell you how difficult parenting can be. However, being a parent to five children, three of whom are triplets, is definitely a different kind of challenge. Fortunately, Angie and Gino have found a way to make it work. Thanks to their commitment to putting their family first, Angie and Gino do everything they can to make sure their kids are safe and happy.
What’s more, they make sure to always provide a happy environment for their five kids. Meanwhile, the couple’s two sons are delighted to finally have sisters they can protect and love. Even though they make it look easy, we know that raising five children is no walk to the park!
28. A Happy Family of Seven
Just over seven years ago, Angie and Gino were praying to get pregnant with a baby girl. Instead, they received what they now consider the biggest blessing of their entire life: triplets! Despite all the hurdles along the way, Angie and Gino know that raising their family of two boys and three girls will be the most significant thing they do in life.
Today, they are no longer a happy, healthy family of four – they’re a happy, healthy family of seven! With all five kids close in age, Angie and Gino definitely busy, though they wouldn’t want things to be any different. In fact, Angie and Gino called their life “fun chaos.”
29. Wishes Do Come True
Now that Daniella, Camilla, and Anabella are growing alongside their big brothers, it’s hard for Angie and Gino Colonna to imagine their life any other way. With two wonderful boys and girl triplets, the couple surely feels like they have their hands full. However, to them, it’s perfect.
“It’s truly a dream come true to have them come into my life,” Angie said in a recent interview. Now, Angie and Gino are living proof that if you want something with all your heart, it might just become a reality! And, believe it or not, they are not the only parents who have ever prayed for a change and received it…
30. Meet Sarah and Andrew Justice
Just a few years into their happy marriage, Sarah and Andrew Justice realized they needed something else. They desperately wanted a family, knowing deep inside they would make great parents. Soon, the Justices decided to expand their family. However, just one week after receiving the blessing of a set of triplets, the family received a call from their doctor. During the call, he revealed some life-altering news.
Suddenly, the Justices’ journey to start a family got a lot more complicated. Along the way, they faced many hurdles and challenges, each testing their desire to become parents. Read on to discover if, at the end of their journey, all their efforts and perseverance finally paid off…
31. A Happy Marriage
Sarah and Andrew Justice are a picture-perfect couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma. At first, the couple felt as though they had a perfect life. The first few years of marriage went exactly as you’d expect: they fell in love deeper and established a life together. However, eventually, they wanted something more out of life. Like most couples who have been married for years, they felt like it was time to share their love with another human being by expanding the family.
Of course, the Justices’ started by evaluating their life. Were they ready to raise a child? After talking, though, the Justices’ felt prepared to bring a new life into the world. Unfortunately, fate had a very different plan for the couple. Click “Next Post” below to find out how their life changed!
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