TUH buzzing at arrival of three little honeys

The Townsville University Hospital’s neonatal unit is positively buzzing with the arrival of gorgeous triplets Elijah, Jaxson and Jett Bee.

Snuggled in the triplet room – dubbed ‘the hive’ by nurses – the naturally conceived triplets were born on 5 May and have been making steady progress under the watchful eyes of neonatal nurses and doctors.

Mum Alicia Bee has also captured the hearts and imaginations of staff as a mother of now eight children including year-old twins.

“I had my twins, a boy and a girl, in March last year and when I found out at my scan that this time around I was having triplets I nearly fell off the bed,” she said.

“At first they said, ‘it looks twins’ and then it was ‘no, there’s three in there.”

Ms Bee, who lives in Normanton, has been in Townsville since April after foetal maternal specialist Dr David Watson became concerned the babies might come early.

The triplets were born at 29 weeks by caesarean section weighing 1260g (Elijah), 1440g (Jaxson) and Jett (1615g).

The Baby Bees join their siblings Frederick, seven, April, six, Jayden, two, Keith and Kirby, one, who are at home staying with their grandparents and are yet to meet their little brothers.

“No children are allowed to visit the unit at the moment, so we’ve been sharing lots of photos and videos,” Ms Bee said.

She said while the multiples were a shock, they fitted beautifully into her plan for a big family.

“I’d like two more children and two more girls would be lovely to balance out my six boys,” she said.

Dr Watson said the odds of naturally conceived non-identical triplets was around one in 6,000.

“However, the odds of spontaneous twins followed by spontaneous triplets is around one in half a million.”

Townsville University Hospital director of neonatology Professor Guan, also one of eight, said the babies would have a wonderful life with so many brothers and sisters.

“I call Alicia our ‘Queen Bee’ and the Baby Bees have brought so much joy to our unit,” he said.

“All our mothers are heroes; Alicia is a superhero.”