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VIDEO: Rhodesia triplets celebrate first birthday
SHARON Birch runs the busiest house in Worksop. The 38-year-old is mother to six children, and three of them turned just one this week.
Lily May, Jack William and Olivia Grace were born between 4.15am and 4.18am on 22nd October last year, and their arrival turned the lives of parents Sharon and Charlie upside down.
Speaking to the Guardian ahead of the triplets' birthday, she said: "It's like running a bed and breakfast and a creche all at once."
The Birch household on Royds Crescent, Rhodesia, is completed by Sharon's sons from a previous relationship, Shane, 11, Adam, 16, and Ryan, 18, and two dogs, Elvis and Lucy.
One year after the triplets were born by caesarian at Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital, Sharon said that being organised was the only way she coped with the hectic schedule."You have to do the same things day in and day out and be really routined," she said.
"We get up at 6.30am and have breakfast, then we leave at 8am to take Adam to work and Shane to school."
"The triplets have a bottle about 10.30am, lunch and pudding at 12noon, another bottle about 2.30pm, dinner and pudding at 4pm for tea, a bath about 5pm, drinks at 6pm and then bed at 6.30pm."
Mercifully, the babies now sleep through the night, but for nearly half a year, Sharon's life was a constant battle to keep them fed and watered.
She said: "I think the hardest part was the first five months, because we had to feed them every four hours, day and night."
But she wouldn't swap her situation for the world.
"When I look back, I can't believe it's been a year. They're so beautiful and so good. We've been so lucky."
Lily, Jack and Olivia have taken on celebrity status in Worksop, after becoming the town's first triplets for 18 years.
Sharon said: "Whenever I'm out with all three of them, people are still stopping me to talk about them."
"But when two are with my mum or with friends, and I just have one of them with me, no one notices!"
Although Sharon is able to take the tiny trio to a playgroup at Rhodesia Sure Start Centre once a week, it is the help she gets from friends and family that makes life that little bit easier.
"If it wasn't for my mum Val, and my friends Joanne and Maggie, I don't know how I'd get everything done. They've all been brilliant, " she said.
The Birch household was expecting an invasion of family members this week to celebrate the triplets' birthday, and with Halloween approaching, Sharon is planning more festivities.
"We're not really having a party, but there will be that many people coming throughout the day, so we'll have some cake and balloons."
"I've also got them three little outfits for a Halloween party," she added.
"Olivia will be going as a pumpkin, Lily will be a witch and Jack has a bat outfit."
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Weather for Worksop
Monday 28 May 2012
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Temperature: 12 C to 26 C
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