Meet the Getting triplets — the adorable trio of identical sisters who, according to experts, were born at odds ranging from 1 in 1 million to 1 in 200 million.
Happy and healthy Charlotte, Cora and Emma, now aged 10 ½ weeks, are finally home from the hospital and living with their devoted, slightly shell-shocked parents, Lauren and Andrew Getting.
“They are true miracles,” New York City school teacher Lauren, 34, told The Post in between round-the-clock diaper changes and feedings.
The babies, conceived naturally and consequently known as “spontaneous,” resulted from Lauren’s one fertilized egg splitting into three, causing the embryos to share the same placenta.
She learned about the extraordinary occurrence at her six-week checkup in March and broke the news to Andrew, whom she had married only four months earlier, via text.
“I was driving and Siri translated the message for me,” said Andrew. Fortunately, he didn’t crash the car when he heard there were three fetuses in total. Still, the surprised dad thought Lauren was joking at first. As a result, Siri parlayed his immediate response: “Bulls–t!”
Lauren’s triple pregnancy was considered high risk, so she secured the care of specialist Dr. Victor Klein. Vice chair of obstetrics and gynecology at North Shore University Hospital, the renowned OB-GYN is based a half-hour drive from the couple’s Lido Beach, LI, condominium.
Klein said reports in medical literature of the chances of identical triplets range from 1 in a million to 1 in 200 million.
Lauren, who teaches biology at John Bowne High School in Flushing, suffered from extreme morning sickness — “The hormones were triple,” she noted — as well as heartburn, acid reflux and high blood pressure.
“At the end of my first trimester, I was already as big as most women are in their third,” she said. “It was the hardest physical thing I have ever done in my life.”
Mercifully, her discomfort ended on Sept. 4, when Klein performed a C-section near the milestone of 32 weeks. Charlotte was delivered first, weighing 3 pounds, 15 ounces, then Emma arrived, at 4 pounds, 7 ounces, followed by 4-pound, 4-ounce Cora.
The newborns, needing assistance to breathe, were whisked to the NICU. They stayed in the hospital for more than seven weeks, until their discharge on consecutive days toward the end of October.
Since then, the Gettings’ domestic life has been hectic. “My mom always said: ‘God only gives you what you can handle,’” said Lauren, before quipping, “And my answer is: ’I just wish he wouldn’t trust me so much!’”
The new parents took turns feeding and changing the girls in 12-hour shifts, and have quickly picked up on their individual personalities.
“Charlotte is the spunky one, Cora is more laid-back, while Emma is very resilient,” said Andrew, who has three kids — including twins — from a previous relationship.
To tell the look-alikes apart, each one has a different color of child-safe nail polish on her toes.
“Cora is peach, Charlotte is green and Emma is purple,” explained Lauren.
The couple has been struggling to keep up with the steep costs of caring for three newborns — including special formula for premature-birth infants and all that baby equipment. For example, they will need an estimated 10,000 diapers in one year.