When the Birkeland triplets are hungry, everyone mobilizes.

Mom Kristi Ferguson preps bottles. Aunt Karen Pitharoulis takes one baby, Kristi another and Dad Jace Birkeland a third.

Big sister Sidni monitors the situation, wandering between babies, patting heads and planting gentle kisses. And the room grows silent as Tee, Cruz and Fletcher enjoy a late-afternoon snack.

Now 14 weeks old, the identical triplets are long past their stay in Rapid City Regional Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. All three boys are home with Mom and Dad, enjoying a bit of celebrity and growing healthy heads of red hair.

Fletcher, Cruz and Tee Birkeland were born June 27 at 33 weeks. Fletcher and Tee weighed 3 pounds, 12 ounces each and Cruz weighed 3 pounds, 9 ounces. Today the boys weigh between 11 and 12 pounds each.

While identical twins occur in one out of every 285 births, identical triplets are much rarer. Estimates are that they happen only once in every 200 million births.

Identical triplets occur when a fertilized egg splits into three, creating three separate embryos with identical genetic makeup.

Identical births don't run in families like fraternal multiples do. The phenomenon of identical births is seen as a fluke, and fertility treatments do not affect identical births.

Kristi and Jace, who will marry this summer, first learned they had triplets on the way when she was 18 weeks pregnant. Kristi's physician had warned her at the 16-week checkup that she may be carrying twins.

"He heard two heartbeats, but I guess I didn't believe him," she said. She didn't even tell Jace about the prediction.

During the ultrasound check at 18 weeks, the technician grew quiet as she began counting babies. "She would say, 'There's Baby A: heads, arms, legs. There's Baby B: heads, arms, legs. Then she would start over again,' " Kristi remembered. "Then she said, I think there are three."

Only after the head of the radiology department repeated the ultrasound was the news confirmed.

"It didn't hit me until afterwards," Kristi said. Jace was another story. "All Jace could say is, 'Are they boys?' "

When little sister Sidni learned the news, she bounced off the walls with excitement, Kristi said. Then the news sunk in for her. "She got really quiet and said, 'In a couple of years, they're going to be pretty annoying.'"

Aside from headaches, Kristi, 38, describes the pregnancy that followed as fairly normal. Specialists in Sioux Falls monitored the pregnancy closely since multiple births often come with complications.

At 30 weeks, Kristi went into labor and was rushed to Rapid City Regional Hospital with contractions two minutes apart. Doctors administered drugs to stop the contractions, as well as steroid shots for the babies' lungs. The intervention held them off three more weeks. "I was happy to get to 33 weeks," Kristi said.

After a month in the hospital for Fletcher and Cruz and five weeks for Tee, the babies came home. Because Sidni attends school in Meadow, Kristi, the babies and Sidni stay there throughout the week. Friday through Sunday, they move to Jace's home near Dupree, where they will live permanently after their marriage.

When Kristi, Sidni and the triplets are in Meadow, Kristi's mom, Rhonda Lensegrav, lives with them to help out. Kristi's grandmother, Edna Lensegrav, spends time helping out as well. Kristi and Jace say the list of people who have pitched in continues to grow. Without the help, the couple can't imagine how they would manage.

"We couldn't do it without Rhonda," Jace said. "We've had a lot of help."

That includes little Sidni. "Sidni's been a big help. We couldn't do it without her, either," Jace said.

The only complaint Sidni has about her little brothers is their interference on her dining-out habits. It just doesn't happen as often as it once did. "You go do anything, it's like moving day," Jace said.

The boys get up twice a night for a bottle and are just starting to eat cereal. Jace admits he's pretty tired since his babies came home from the hospital. "It makes calving look easy," he said with a laugh. But he couldn't be happier.

Jace looks forward to the day he and his three sons can wrestle and the day when the boys and Sidni can all ride horses together. Looking at his boys lying on the bed, he smiled at the thought.

"I can't wait," he said.

Contact Lynn Taylor Rick a 394-8414 lynn.taylorrick@rapidcityjournal.com.