Multiple blessings
For some women, Mother's Day is twice (or thrice) as nice
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

The Morris triplets From left, Port Aransas triplets Elliott, Ty and Jason Morris pose with their mother, Marci Morris.

Some Port Aransas women can expect double and triple-doses of love this Mother's Day.

The experience of motherhood is very different for women who have twins and triplets.

"There's more trouble," said Marci Morris, a Port Aransas woman who has 11-year-old triplet boys, Elliott, Jason and Ty. "There's more neediness from the kids. But there's also more love, more hugs, more joy, because there's more of them."

Other moms around town can attest to that. Like Eli Valdivia, mother of twins Susanna and Victor Valdivia, 12; Erin Marcantel, mother of twins Corban and Coltan Marcantel, 14; Cammie Hyatt, mother of twins Connor and Seth Hyatt, 12; Sandra Kuykendall, mother of twins Erika and Elisa Witten, 15; Laurie Strain, mother of twins Maggie and Katie, 10; Brandy Pugh, mother of Kylie and Kayla Pugh, 8; Jennifer Bender, mother of twins Joshua and Jacob Bender, 5; Lisa Shelton, mother of twins Phoebe and Chase Shelton, 6; Jennifer Shannon, mother of twins Liam and Caitlin Shannon, 5; and Renee Gamel, mother of triplets Eric, Amanda and Ashley Hawes, 18.

The Shannon twins Jennifer Shannon relaxes on a couch at home with 5-year-old twins Caitlin and Liam.

Getting the news from the doctor that twins or triplets are on the way can be a shock. Valdivia said she was getting a sonogram when her doctor told her. She snapped up to a sitting position.

"I said, 'What?!' I was trying to see the sonogram," Valdivia recalled, laughing. "How could this happen?!"

All of the extra mom work starts as soon as the twins are born. Shannon said Liam and Caitlin had her running back and forth between them.

"It's like they're tag-teaming you," Shannon said. "I swear, one would wake up, then the other would wake up. One would cry, and then the other would cry."

Two babies also meant a bigger bill from the hospital when they were born.

"You don't get two births for the price of one," Shannon said. "They charge you by the baby."

With triplets, you can't wait until the weekend to do laundry, Morris said.

The Hawes triplets Clockwise from right, 18-year-old Port Aransas triplets Amanda, Eric and Ashley Hawes pose for a photo with their mother, Renee Gamel. STAFF PHOTOS BY DAN PARKER

"You do it every day," she said.

Caring for infant triplets is exhausting.

"Every morning, I made 21 bottles," Gamel said. "They each were color coded, yellow pink and blue, because they were on different formulas. I changed approximately 30 to 40 diapers a day."

Gamel home-schooled her children until they reached seventh grade, when they started attending Brundrett Middle School. Gamel converted her dining room into a classroom.

"We had a chalkboard, and I wrote my own curriculum," she said, adding that she also was involved with a home schooling co-op.

Eric, Amanda and Ashley "had their own desks that they painted their own color," Gamel said. "And we went on field trips together."

While having twins and triplets means more work, they also mean two and three times more joy, mothers say.

The Valdivia twins Twins Susana and Victor Valdivia, 12, hang out with their mother, Eli Valdivia, poolside.

Said Valdivia: "I think God blessed me with a double blessing."

Shannon said she's reminded of that every day.

"Two kids run up to you and hug you every day at school," she said. "It's sweet."

Triplets are three times the work, but the rewards of motherhood also are three-fold.

"It can be a hard thing," Gamel said. "But, to see them all in a little baby pool together! It's so worth everything. It's such a special thing to see each one growing."

For Morris, emotional highs and lows can be exaggerated, times three. Like when her triplets went through confirmation ceremonies at Trinity-by-the- Sea Episcopal Church earlier this year.

"That was something that was important to me but something they chose to do, too," Morris said. "They stood up there, all three together, through the confirmation process. It was a very moving ceremony.

"It's hard for me to talk about it, but there are things you want your kids to accomplish, that are rewarding," Morris said. "And when you have three doing it at the very same time, that makes you feel like you really did something right."