The sonogram began, and Silver Creek’s Fred and Monique Sartinstared at the monitor, waiting for the first digital signs of theirnew baby still growing in the womb.

But they didn’t see a baby. They saw babies.

Brookhaven OBGYN’s Dr. Leigh Cher Gray worked the ultrasoundequipment and zeroed in on the heartbeats, calling out “Baby No.1,” “Baby No. 2” and “Baby No. 3.”

“That’s when I said, ‘Wait, wait, wait,'” recalled Fred, 30, alumberyard worker. “She paused for a minute, and I thought she wasgoing to say Baby No. 4.”

There would be no Baby No. 4, but there were definitely three,and last Wednesday they became the first set of triplets ever bornat King’s Daughters Medical Center. Monique’s cesarean sectionyielded Rashad, a 4.8-pound boy at 7:45 a.m.; Rashawn, a 3.4-poundboy at 7:47 a.m.; and Rhianna, a 4.9-pound girl at 7:48 a.m.

“We were shocked. I’m still shocked,” said Monique, 29, a nurseat Haven Hall. “The main thing everyone kept asking was, ‘Are youon fertility drugs?’ No. They’re a blessing.”

The Sartins might be shocked, but they most definitely had itcoming. There are two sets of twins on both sides of the family,and Monique had early, prophetic warnings delivered to her by heroldest son, 8-year-old Randolph Jefferson.

“He’d come up to me and rub my stomach and say, ‘Momma, you’regoing to have babies.’ Not baby, but babies. I said, ‘Boy, get awayfrom me,'” Monique recounted.

The Sartin triplets are fraternal triplets, not identicaltriplets, and each has a different blood type. Their birth happenedwithout complication, and Rashawn is slowly being weaned offsupplemental oxygen.

Even though everything went so smoothly – from the time Grayfirst began seeing the Sartins when Monique was seven weeks along -the birth of triplets would not have been attempted at KDMC a yearago.

“Our renovations and state-of-the-art equipment is what allowedus to do deliver these babies,” said Angie Williams, manager of thehospital’s labor and delivery department and nursery. “And my staff- I had a doctor for each baby. In the old LDRP (Labor, Delivery,Recovery and Postpartum), I would have had to shop the mother toJackson.”

KDMC unveiled the renovated LDRP to the public last month,showing off the $2 million department hospital officials say rivalsany other delivery department in the state. The new department isbigger, more advanced and customized to provide full comfort forexpectant mothers and their families.

Before the renovations, KDMC averaged a delivery rate of about700 babies per year, but still lacked the ability to take onpotentially complicated births.

“This was a big risk,” Gray said. “There’s always a lot of riskfor triplets. Among the staff, we had 153 years of doctoringexperience and no triplets. But it was exciting to be a part ofhistory and to touch these people’s lives.”