Michelle and Drew Starnes are welcoming a set of remarkably healthy triplets in Gainesville.
The family doubled in size overnight as the parents welcomed Harper Rose, Tate Paul and Tucker Edwin shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, May 23, at Northeast Georgia Medical Center Gainesville. Their older sister, Hunter Grace, who will be turning three in June, will be helpful as the family adjusts to life with four children, Michelle Starnes said.
“I don’t know that anybody’s ever ready for three infants at once, but you accept that that’s the blessing that you’ve been given, and I’m just going with the flow,” she said. “I’m just going to make my mistakes and correct them as I go.”
She is expecting to be at the hospital until Sunday, but the triplets are doing well.
“These babies are such little sweethearts. They really are,” Starnes said over the phone. “I have one in my arms now and he’s just as content as can be.”
The triplets were born at 36 weeks and three days, past what is considered full-term for triplets, Starnes said.
They were also born above average birth weight for triplets, with Harper and Tate born at about 4 pounds and Tucker being about 5 pounds. The average birth weight of a triplet is about 3.7 pounds, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Starnes, a hairstylist at Clay and Co. in Gainesville, said the family stayed busy before the birth preparing the nursery and getting ready to bring the babies home — which is expected to go well if not exactly as planned.
“We’ve got the nursery together,” she said. “I expect it to be organized chaos.”

