Photo Courtesy Sandy Lauber
Loren and Sandy Lauber were already the busy Northern Virginia parents of two — Daniel, 7, and Katelyn, 3 — when they discovered they were pregnant with twins. But after a second doctor's visit, the Laubers learned they would be having not two but three babies. "It was definitely a surprise," Sandy says. "I was shocked."
The Lauber triplets are among the extremely rare monozygotic triplets, meaning they are identical and spontaneous (no assistance in reproduction), a rarity that some medical professionals say only happens every 1 in 8,000 to 10,000 triplet pregnancies. Monozygotic triplets have the same blood type and gender because they all shared the same placenta during pregnancy.
Sandy, an emergency-room technician at Prince William Hospital, searched for the right hospital where the triplets could be born. She interviewed at various hospitals and ultimately selected Richmond's Henrico Doctors' Hospital, where she was the most comfortable and impressed by OB-GYN Dr. Boyd Clary and the staff in the neonatal intensive care unit. "We have one of the premiere NICUs in the region, in the state," says Dr. Clary, "[because we're] the only NICU with 24-hour in-house neonatal doctors. We actually have NICU-trained physicians and nurse practitioners here 24/7."
On Oct. 22, after several weeks of hospitalized bed rest and preeclampsia, Sandy welcomed Brianna Nichole, Alexis Christina and Sarah Elizabeth into the world by Caesarean section; all three girls were healthy. "I was just blessed that I had three beautiful girls in my arms," Sandy says, adding, "Dr. Clary was fabulous encouragement. ... Everything was smooth and went great."
