BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Joe and Amy Hill of Bay Minette were excited about the ultrasound Amy was to have last June. They had been trying to conceive for a while, and at last they were going to get a glimpse of their new son or daughter.

“The tech (the ultrasound technologist) was absolutely silent while she looked,” recalled Amy. “Then she said, ‘I see three.’”

“I was just shocked,” Joe added.

“Our doctor thought maybe two, but … three,”said Amy. “My mom (who was also there) was crying.”

Sure enough, the couple who had started mild fertility treatments were going to have triplets. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 5,877 sets of triplets born in 2008.

Morgan, Maddie, and Myles were born Dec. 25 last year at 33 weeks of gestation. Normal gestation is 37 to 42 weeks.

The babies were each more than three pounds at birth, and topped six or seven pounds after their first month at home. All three children spent the first month in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University of South Alabama Children’s & Women’s Hospital.

The experience was a difficult one for both Hills, especially Amy.

“I want to thank my obstetrician, Dr. Stephen Varner,” she said “He was with me every single day.” She added she still communicates with her labor and delivery nurses.

“Maddie needed assistance breathing,” said Amy. All three infants are on apnea monitors, but otherwise are doing just fine.

Amy was hospitalized early in her pregnancy, and still complains that she wants to get rid of some of the swelling.

Taking care of three babies at once is demanding. One may want feeding while another needs changing and the other wants to be held. And all three have different personalities.

“My biggest challenge is getting on schedule and being sleep-deprived,” laughed Amy. “But really, I think we’ve gotten into the groove. Everybody was sick with colds, flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) but everything is getting back to normal.”

Amy, a kindergarten teacher at Perdido Elementary School, is firm that her children will be on a schedule so she can have someone come in and enable her to resume her teaching duties next year.

And Joe is looking forward to when the children grow a little more. He plans to take all of them hunting and fishing.

There’s just one problem. While all three car seats fit in Joe’s truck, Amy is going to need a new vehicle.

“We measured the base of the car seats and then the back seat of my car,” she said. “We forgot that the seats are wider than the base.”