Rare identical triplets born in Oregon
The trio of newborn girls is so tiny each can fit in their father's hand.
The identical triplets -- Raelyn, Avery and Elaina -- were born in Providence, Oregon, on Monday. Their parents, Amber Hills and Logan Brown-Fletcher, are 19-year-old high school sweethearts and first-time parents from Newberg, Oregon.
The pregnancy wasn't without complications. Hills was diagnosed with a basketball-size ovarian cyst that had to be removed during her pregnancy.
The infants were delivered by Cesarean section 33 weeks into the pregnancy (the average pregnancy with one fetus lasts about 39 to 40 weeks). The babies are currently being cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. They could head home next month.
The new mom said the moment she saw the newborn baby girls for the first time was unforgettable, calling them "the loves of my life."
"I was so happy, my heart was full and I was totally in love," she said.
The babies already have painted toenails -- it's the only way their parents can tell them apart, The Oregonian reported Thursday.
The triplets' neonatologist, Dr. Craig Novack, said the odds of such a birth are one in a million.
But while they're extremely rare, there have been at least two other cases in the U.S. in the past year. A family in Houston welcomed identical triplet girls in January, and identical triplet boys were born to a couple in Baltimore last October.