Hi, my name is Marcia Mangold. I come from a family of three brothers and two sisters (Michael, Matthew and I are the set of triplets). My mother conceived us naturally (without drugs). Multiple births run on my mother side and skip every other generation. My parents planned on only having four children but were very surprised when we came into the world. My mother was told that she was carrying twins all through her pregnancy because the doctor only heard two heartbeats. It wasn't until after I was born (the second of three) that my brother was born. We were born three minutes apart. My two brothers shared a placenta while I had one of my own. What a shock it was for her and my dad, as they were prepared for only two babies. On the same day at the same hospital a set of twins arrived. We even made the local paper the Cincinnati Enquirer with pictures of my parents and me in the incubator. My brothers weighed 6 lbs 3 oz.; 7 lbs 5oz. and I weighed 4 lbs. 4 oz.

She placed a pink ribbon on my ankle and a blue one on one of my brothers to tell us apart. She also kept records of our feeding time, sleeping time and changing of diapers. She received support from a local church organization and my father helped out a lot (in 1968 that wasn't heard of). At one time my mother had four kids in diapers.

Growing up we had a lot of people staring at us because in Cincinnati it wasn't heard of triplets being born. There wasn't anything for people who had twins (toys, clothing, strollers, etc.) let alone triplets. I remember looking at the cards sent to congratulate my parents on our arrival and they scratched out twins and wrote triplets in its place.

My mother starting dressing us alike in same colors or me in the same color dress and the boys in overalls early in our lives. Around the age of ten or eleven she gradually stopped dressing us alike because we complained so much.

We attended a Catholic grade school and my mother insisted that we be in different classes so we could develop independently of each other. The problem was that there were only two classes in each grade so two of us would always be in the same class. I remember getting teased a lot from all the single birth kids because they didn't understand us. The teasing didn't affect us too much because we were very close growing up. I used to get asked some pretty stupid questions/comments. Some even asked if we all have a third of a brain, or if your brother is 14 how old are you. The most often asked question I got was if one triplet was in paid does the others feel it? Yes there have been numerous times when one of us was in pain and the others felt the same pain.

I remember having a lot of birthday parties and getting only one gift to play with amongst the three of us, almost every year. Boy did we feel ripped off. Since my mother had three older children she was somewhat prepared for teenagers but not three the same age. Having to deal with dating, driving, and going to college etc. was a challenge for them. But overall it was a great experience growing up a triplet. I can truly say that I don't know of any one else that has experienced this.

If you are an adult triplet or would like to talk to me about being one, please write to me

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