Mum who battled infertility for a decade has triplets born five years apart
A mum of triplets born five years apart who thought she would never have kids has urged others facing fertility struggles not to abandon hope.
Colleen Hapney and her husband Pete had been trying for 10 years to get pregnant before they finally had a daughter, Phoebe-Grace, in 2018 before their twin boys followed last year. The couple were close to giving up on their dream of children amidst their struggles, trying eight rounds of IVF and, tragically, two miscarriages.
The 30-year-old has now bravely spoken out about her struggles in a bid to provide hope to others trying for a baby. The pair, from Plymouth, first discovered they had fertility issues after two years of trying before Colleen was then diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
It soon became apparent they needed help to have a baby, but they couldn't get it from the NHS. Colleen said: "I was told I was unable to get IVF on the NHS as even though we both met all the criteria set, I could never get down to a BMI that they required. I was heartbroken, I knew IVF was expensive but it was our only way."
Colleen and Pete's twin boys are actually triplets (No credit)After years of trying to start a family, Colleen and Pete decided to fly to Cyprus for private IVF treatment. But sadly, the expensive treatment didn't work out. They didn't give up and went on to try IVF in Wales in 2016 but Colleen fell very sick.
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Colleen said: "We had IVF, but I was very unfortunate and developed severe OHSS which almost killed me which meant I couldn't have an embryo transfer and we had to freeze all of our embryos on November 22, 2016. It took months to recover and we had our first embryo transfer in March 2017 which was a failed cycle, the embryo didn't implant and it was another heartbreak after years of knockbacks."
In a lucky turn of events, in August 2017 they tried one more time and got the news they'd been waiting for. Phoebe-Grace was born in April 2018. Although their journey had been tough, Colleen and Pete still wanted to give Phoebe-Grace a brother or sister, with four remaining embryos they could use.
Twin boys, Perseus and Elijah are actually triplets with older sister, Phoebe-Grace (No credit)They tried again and again but suffered two miscarriages and no successful pregnancies. With only two embryos left, it seemed they might not get another chance to expand their family.
Colleen said: "We felt broken, we were so blessed with our daughter but after so many fail and miscarriages we didn't know what to do and we tried everything - every medicine, supplement and alternative therapy, but no luck."
After trying really hard to have a baby, Colleen finally got good news when she found out she was pregnant. She was very nervous for the first check-up but learned that both of her babies were growing.
Colleen told Plymouth Live: "It was a terrifying pregnancy, I wouldn't let myself get excited, I expected the worst the whole time and kept trying to stop myself from getting happy because I couldn't handle anymore heartache." But everything turned out okay, and in April 2023, she had twin boys named Perseus and Elijah.
Then the doctors gave her a big surprise. They said that the twins and their sister Phoebe-Grace, who was born in 2018, are actually triplets. This confused Colleen, but then the doctors told her that all three kids started as embryos on the same day in November 2016.
This means they are triplets even though they were born more than five years apart. Colleen hopes her special story will give other people hope if they are having trouble having babies.
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