2 sets of triplets born in Lansing in same week
Hospital’s team effort handles what are usually rarer births
LANSING – The chance of having triplets is one in 10,000 births. But having two sets of triplets born at E.W. Sparrow Hospital within a span of six days?
It’s something the Lansing hospital’s Director of Women’s Services Tonyie Andrews-Johnson hasn’t seen in her 20 years in the industry.
“It’s definitely rare,” she said.
Sparrow spokesperson Corey Alexander said the hospital typically only delivers a set of triplets every two to three years. Two sets in less than a week is “amazing.”
He said the first set of triplets was born Sept. 8. Six days later, Alice Grau, who is married to Jonathan Glenn, gave birth to Hazel Jane Glenn, Thaddeus Warren Glenn, and Viola Rose Glenn on Sept. 14.
The parents of the first set of triplets declined to talk to a reporter, but Grau and Glenn opened their Alma home in midNovember after getting settled in with their little ones.
Both spoke about the pregnancy, their family’s changing dynamics, and how grateful they are for the family’s health and their supportive community.
“You don’t know how your love can expand the way it does until it has to,” Glenn said.
The two were not expecting to be parents again nine years after the birth of their youngest when Grau went to get an ultrasound for health concerns earlier this year.
“I’m almost 40, like my body’s done, right?” she said. “Like that’s where I was at in my brain. No, definitely not thinking pregnancy and certainly not triplets.”
Family of four almost doubles
Grau, 39, is originally from Kalamazoo, Glenn, 42, is originally from Saginaw, and the couple met at Central Michigan University in 2003. They dated for seven years, sometimes maintaining a long-distance romance from different cities, states and even countries. They celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary Oct. 16.
Glenn is Alma College’s diversity and inclusion director and working on his doctorate. Grau is on maternity leave until January and works for Global Mamas, an organization whose mission is creating prosperity for African women and their families.
And they come from big families with more than their fair share of twins and triplets. Grau’s mother had a set of twins, Grau’s grandmother had three sets of twins, and Glenn’s grandmother is a triplet.
The couple’s other children are Nathanael, 11, and Zaida, 9. And both have big personalities, so if the triplets are anything like them the couple will have their hands full, Grau said.
The triplets already have their own personalities.
First born Hazel is the calmest in general and a “daddy’s girl” already, Glenn said.
Thaddeus, the middle triplet and only boy, could be a “chill dude,” Glenn said, and Grau said he’s observant and the strongest, already rolling over from his tummy to his back.
And then there’s the youngest, Viola. She’s the most expressive and already a diva, Glenn said. He added she likes to be held during and after feedings and in the middle of the night “and her little voice is probably the loudest out of the three of them.”
Grau said the biggest surprise for her was Nathanael’s and Zaida’s reactions to the new family members. She didn’t know how they’d react, worried they’d rebel at such a big change in their lives, and she expected there to be a lot more emotional turmoil.
“But they’re handling it with so much grace and I’m really impressed by that,” she said.
Health concerns turned into shock
Grau was having an irregular menstrual cycle and health care professionals did an ultrasound to check for endometriosis near the beginning of this year.
They didn’t find endometriosis, but rather three tiny heartbeats.
“I was in complete shock. Complete shock,” Grau said. Glenn said he felt God playing jokes with them.
“My stomach started hurting instantly,” he said. “I was like, this is not even funny.”
Grau said she got bigger much faster than with her other children, with painful belly stretching, and in the early parts of the pregnancy it was the1most exhausted she’s ever felt. She delivered the babies at 35 weeks, which is pretty good for triplets, she said.
Andrews-Johnson said triplets are a high-risk pregnancy. The births are done by cesarean section and delivery is typically weeks earlier than a typical pregnancy.
She said it was a collaborative approach to prepare for the births of the two sets of triplets, with pediatric, anesthesia, women’s services and respiratory therapy colleagues as well as a nurse for each baby at the births.
However, because the births are usually early, they can’t plan for everything and must have staff on call to come in at any time of day or night.
“It’s exciting to be a part of that anticipation,” she said. “I think we, in labor delivery anyway, are a little bit of adrenaline junkies so when we hear something that unusual happening, we become high alert and just get ready because we know anything can happen.”
She said triplets can come as early as 23, 24 weeks, but both of the September triplet pregnancies went 35 to 36 weeks, “which was amazing.”
A different experience for the family
There were 104,149 live births in Michigan in 2020. Just 36 of those, or .03%, were triplets, according to Michigan Department of Health and Human Services data. In 2019 there were 107,917 live births and only 33 were triplets, also .03%.
Grau said when she found out another mother was expecting triplets at the same time as her, she thought it was “pretty cool.” Having triplets can feel a little isolating, as it’s not something most people have experienced, she said.
Two of the babies did have to go to the neonatal intensive care unit, Thaddeus for about two or three days for breathing problems and Viola for 18 days because she was just 3 pounds at birth.
Grau said the babies are all healthy now, and she’s so grateful they’re healthy. She’s considered a geriatric pregnancy with her advanced maternal age so there were risks of high blood pressure and gestational diabetes.
She said in the beginning it was all kind of a blur of sleeplessness and crying and adjusting for the whole family.
“My ongoing joke is that I feel like I’m living in a three-hour ‘Groundhog Day,’ ” she said. “Like feed all the babies, burp all the babies, change all the babies, put all the babies down for a nap, pump milk, do it again.”
For her, adjusting to her first child was a challenge and the addition of the second was a different kind of challenge, she said. She imagined that having the triplets would be “harder” than either of those − as if there were some kind of “spectrum of parenting challenges.”
“But, it wasn’t harder - just a new kind of hard, and a new kind of beautiful,” she said.