A couple who underwent IVF after years of failing to conceive now have their hands full — after having TWO sets of triplets. Courtney Garrett, 38, and her husband Philip, 42, now have six little ones after years of fertility struggles that left them worried they might never have children at all.
They welcomed their first trio in September 2009 after Courtney had two embryos implanted, one of which split. They decided to have another round of IVF in the hope of giving triplets Jack, Oliver and Ellie a younger sibling. Courtney had a single embryo implanted and was stunned when an ultrasound revealed she was expecting triplets again.
About one in 9,000 pregnancies results in triplets, but the risk of an embryo splitting and resulting in a multiple birth increases with fertility treatment. When this happens, the siblings are identical because they are all hatched from the same egg. But remarkably, in Courtney’s case, that’s not the case — meaning she must have gotten pregnant naturally around the same time as IVF conception. According to the couple’s fertility doctor, Sissy Sartor, the risk of this happening combined with the birth of two sets of triplets is “extremely rare”.
Courtney, a delighted mum of six, from New Orleans, Louisiana, said: “It just makes my heart swell to see all these beautiful babies and think they are mine. “There are a few people in the world with two sets of triplets, but definitely not the ones that happened in those kinds of circumstances. “I never thought we would be in this situation.
“Going through IVF was very emotionally draining and we started to wonder, ‘Is this going to work? Will we ever have the chance to be parents? “When we found out we had the first set, we were thrilled. We wondered, “How did this happen?” “The ultrasound came and we could see there were two circles, so I was like, ‘Wait a minute.
“As I accepted this, my husband kept saying, ‘Look at one of them breaking up. “We were truly shocked and in disbelief, but any anxiety was overshadowed by pure excitement. “Doctors had never seen anything like this before and when I told my family and friends they were like, ‘No way.’” Funny footage shows the couple breaking the news to their three eldest children , who were initially disappointed that they would be welcoming three babies rather than a puppy. But since the girls – Vivienne and Wells and their fraternal sister Georgie – were born in February 2017, Courtney says their older siblings have “fallen in love”.
“It was really cool to see how wonderfully the older triplets have adjusted to having their three new sisters,” added Courtney, Chief Financial Officer. “We assigned each older brother a younger brother based on birth order, which helped them bond and they fell in love with them.” Courtney and Philip decided to try in vitro fertilization — IVF — after polycystic ovary syndrome prevented Courtney from ovulating regularly and left her unable to conceive. The procedure sees the woman’s egg fertilized outside the body and re-implanted into the uterus. The couple’s fertility doctor, Sissy Sartor, of The Fertility Institute, said she had never seen a case quite like Garrett’s. She said: “Two sets of triplets make Courtney a special case. “The second set of triplets occurred with a 2016 transfer of a single embryo. It turns out that she conceived not only with the transferred embryo but also from an ovulated egg.
“It was really cool to see how wonderfully the older triplets have adjusted to having their three new sisters,” added Courtney, Chief Financial Officer. “We assigned each older brother a younger brother based on birth order, which helped them bond and they fell in love with them.” Courtney and Philip decided to try in vitro fertilization — IVF — after polycystic ovary syndrome prevented Courtney from ovulating regularly and left her unable to conceive. The procedure sees the woman’s egg fertilized outside the body and re-implanted into the uterus. The couple’s fertility doctor, Sissy Sartor, of The Fertility Institute, said she had never seen a case quite like Garrett’s. She said: “Two sets of triplets make Courtney a special case. “The second set of triplets occurred with a 2016 transfer of a single embryo. It turns out that she conceived not only with the transferred embryo but also from an ovulated egg.
“It was a pleasure to take care of the Garretts and I understand that they handle their entire bounty beautifully.” Philip, who is a partner in a wealth advisory firm, said he was ‘ecstatic’ and added: ‘It’s amazing to have a house full of life.
