A mum has given birth to her third consecutive set of twins, meaning she has had six babies in five years.
Jolene Mckee, 32, and her husband, Andrew, 33, from Brooklyn, New York, are a family of eight after recently welcoming their third set of twins, Aiden and Jaiden, who are now three months old.
The mum says it has been a blessing to get six children from three pregnancies, and since twins are all that the couple know, they have felt more like pros each time.
Jolene and Andrew now have Peyton and Paige, five, Abigail and Andrew, three, as well as their newest additions, Aiden and Jaiden.
Jolene said: ‘I never envisioned myself with a big family. I thought I’d only have maybe one or two kids. But it is such a blessing that I have had six babies from just three pregnancies.
‘When I discovered I was pregnant with twins for the third time, I just fully accepted that this must be what I was appointed to do.’
She also says that ‘it worked out perfectly’ that she had girl twins, boy twins, and boy-girl twins, giving them ‘all three combinations’.
It wasn’t an easy journey for Jolene and Andrew to grow their family, with Jolene suffering a miscarriage before discovering she was pregnant with Peyton and Paige.
‘I was so scared to go to the doctors for the scan after going through the pain of miscarrying,’ said Jolene.
‘I was panicking the whole time because they were taking so long and they called someone else in the room.
‘And then they told me I was expecting twins. I couldn’t believe it. It was beautiful.’
Two years later Jolene fell pregnant again, and once again discovered she was expecting twins.
She recalls having an inkling that she was carrying another set of two, but says she was still shocked when the news was confirmed – as was her husband.
‘After falling pregnant for the third time I was 100% sure it couldn’t be another set of twins,’ she said. ‘I thought it would definitely be just one baby.’
‘So when we found out it was twins for the third time we were in shock and the doctor was just as shocked as us. He said that in 25 years he had never seen a woman have three sets of twins.’
And despite the challenge of raising multiple sets of twins (even while pregnant) she says it’s gotten easier each time.
Jolene added: ‘All of my pregnancies went really smoothly, but it was very different the second and third time around being pregnant while also being an active mum. But I just had to push through.
‘After giving birth to Abigail and Andrew, it was challenging having two sets of twins but twins was all that we knew so it kind of felt like it got easier with each set. We knew how to handle it.’
