Community supports parents of triplets
Her "normal" is different to yours. "Not better. Not worse. Just different."
The community has been delivering an abundance of compassion to a local mother, who has been feeling the strain since the birth of her triplets earlier this year.
Her “normal” is different to yours. “Not better. Not worse. Just different,” says Bianca de Lange. Now aged four months, Janico, Binica and Janica have been a bundle of joy, “but raising them is definitely no easy task,” she said.
“I never imagined for a second the reality of actually having to raise three babies simultaneously,” she said. De Lange told White River Post that she initially wanted a boy, followed by a girl two years later. “Nothing can prepare you for this. I can’t remember when last I had more than three hours of sleep. I can’t even remember when last I had time to go to the shop. But you learn to deal with it,” she laughed.
In the beginning everyone found her situation fascinating, except for her. “Having a family that differs from the norm invites a lot of curiosity and probes lines of questioning,” she said.
“It takes you a while to realise that happiness comes in threes. I’m three times as blessed.”
Due to the fact that raising three babies puts immense financial strain on her, the community, in particular members of the St George’s Anglican Church, will assist by providing her with nappies, wet wipes and infant formula up until the infants are six months old.
“It not only puts immense financial strain on you, if you think that one child is hard work, imagine three. Just as you put one to sleep, another starts crying because he or she wants to eat and wakes up the others. So it can be chaotic sometimes,” she said.
A tea was recently held at St George’s to take some of the pressure off De Lange. Two moms from White River who attended the event, Petro van Rooyen and Cally Athanasopoulos, bounced ideas and shared stories. “Receiving help from the community is an absolute blessing,” De Lange said, and added that she could not have done this without the father of her children, Jan de Lange, who has been immensely supportive.
