Triplets Niah, Aaliyah and Emma-Lee Charles are now one-year-old. The adorable infants were born on Carnival Tuesday, 2016, two months prematurely.
Yesterday, as the girls crawled, gurgled and played with balloons, their parents, Jason and Shinette Charles, tried to explain how life with triplets had changed them.
The two had been married for ten years when Shinette became pregnant and they were both first time parents.
Shinette said her days are now overflowing with activities for the girls, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I am always busy. It’s a very difficult job but it is totally worth it,” she said.
She said the girls usually wake up before dawn and she dresses them for daycare, where they stay from 8 am to 4 pm.
“I started bringing them when they were eight months old, before that we got support from both of our mothers,” she said.
And while Jason jokingly admitted that sometimes they can’t tell the girls apart, Shinette said each girl has her own unique characteristics.
“Aaliyah will show more warmth to strangers, Niah and Emma hold back. Aaliyah will also smile first and reach out to someone. Niah is the analytical one - she will always find a way to figure things out. Emma is the link between them both. She is the one who will leave whatever she is doing to find her sisters if one of them is crying. She brings them together.”
Aaliyah was operated on when she was just eight days old after doctors discovered an infection in her intestines, but Shinette said none of the girls have any health issues presently.
“Although Aaliyah is more warm she is also the more cautious baby. She doesn’t take the risks her sisters take, you can see her taking her time to turn or crawl. She also has not started walking yet. I think it’s just a fear of taking the first step, but she does stand on her own,” she said.
