Tom and Allison Penn with their identical triplets - safe and sound.. GOD IS GOOD!
In their darkest hour, Tom and Allison Penn thought they would be lucky to have one baby, but Tuesday the Long Island couple proudly showed off three identical bundles of joy.
Defying odds of one in 200 million, Allison gave birth a week ago today to 4-pound, 12-ounce Logan, 4-pound Eli and 4-pound, 11-ounce Collin.
"They're miracle babies," Tom, 46, said as he and his wife introduced the triplets during a press conference at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.
Allison, 31, said she and her husband, who live in East Patchogue, have been trying to have a baby since they married four years ago.
Through in vitro fertilization, it finally happened.
"When it took ...so long to get pregnant, I just assumed we were going to have one and that would probably be it," the new mom said. "So I thought one would be good."
She was impregnated with a single egg, but what an egg it was. It split, and then one half split again - the rarest of rare occurrences, said Dr. Victor Klein, who delivered the boys.
"This is the first one we're aware of in the literature in the country in which they only put back one embryo" and a woman gave birth to triplets, said Klein.
"Most people put back two or three embryos, and you just never know."
Tom and Allison, who both work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said they were stunned when they learned they were going to be the parents of not one but three children.
"I looked over at Allison, and her mouth was wide open and her eyes were like saucers and she didn't say a word," Tom said.
"Anybody who says God doesn't have a sense of humor. ...."
Tom estimates the boys will go through about "10,000 diapers a year."
The parents were relieved to learn North Shore University Hospital had offered to provide free diaper service for the new Penn brood for the first two years.