Triplets extend family to seven kids under 7
Esme Moala insists she’s ‘‘not too worried’’ about what lies ahead when she gets her triplets home.
‘‘I am excited. We are just cruising, we are pretty chilled out,’’ she says from her hospital bed. On April 3, she had Israel, Emmanuel and Eliana.
Waiting for the foursome to get home are dad Sam, Christian, 6, twin girls Eden and Isla, 4, and Zion, 2. That’s right, the Moalas will have seven children under 7 years - all in their three-bedroom house.
The triplets arrived via a booked in C-section at MIddlemore Hospital at 34 weeks. They weighed 2.6kg, 2.9kg and little Eliana was 1.9kg.
‘‘They said they are not going to kick us out until Eliana’s ready to come home. So hubby’s at home with the four kids and I’m here with them,’’ Esme, 27, says.
She’s not so worried about looking after so many little kids, ‘‘it’s more the logistics’’. They can stay in their Tuakau home because her brother-in-law made two sets of bunk beds.
The plan is the four older children will go in the master bedroom, she and Sam will be in the small room, and the triplets will get their own room.
‘‘We have a big living area and a big outside area so we didn’t want to move house. It’s nice we didn’t have to move away.’’
Sam is going to stay at home for a year and help her run things by using the WINZ grant for 1560 hours home help for families with triplets. As for transport, Esme’s mum Jeanette Ter Veen has launched a Givealittle fundraising page to help the family buy a 10-seater van.
‘‘Thanks to help from their amazing community, they have everything they need for the babies, but they are still needing to buy a van that can fit all their children in,’’ Ter Veen wrote.
Esme says they will bottle-feed the triplets, taking up the offer of a company that gives free formula to triplets. It was a surreal moment when she discovered triplets were coming on top of twins and singles. So many friends had joked that’s what it would be, she was half expecting it.
‘‘I actually picked up my friend who was coming with me to the scan and she said, ‘C’mon, we are going to see your triplets’ and I went ‘no way’.’’
‘‘Then when the lady put the scan thing on and I looked up I saw three sacs and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, you are going to do this’.’’
Esme says her and Sam laughed about it for awhile, ‘‘kind of halfway in denial’’. But when the family is all together at home, it will all become very real.