Double blessings: Red Deer couple welcome third set of fraternal twins

Pam and Taylor Armstrong are seeing double for a third time. The Red Deer couple just had their third set of fraternal twins.

Maverick and Blakely were born on April 20 at the Red Deer Regional Hospital, wailing and healthy, only a smidgen early at 37 weeks.

The swaddled babes are the latest edition to the prolific Armstrong brood.

Twin sisters Brynlee and Adileigh are five years old. Parker and Emery, twin brother and sister, are nine.

"It was very much a surprise all three times," Pam Armstrong said in an interview Friday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.

"It had never really crossed my mind that I would have twins until I did and it's something that has been a huge blessing to us." 

'Our minds were a bit blown' 

When the ultrasound, eight weeks into Armstrong's pregnancy, showed the clear outline of two babies, the couple keeled over laughing.

"Truthfully, we were a little bit worried that it could be more than twins," Armstrong said. "Lots of people were bugging us about that.

"It's one of those things where you know it could happen but you don't think it will happen."

Armstrong had warned the ultrasound technician about their history with multiples. Her husband, a junior high school teacher, had been joking for months about how nice it would be to have another set.

"It was pretty clear as soon as she put the ultrasound on my tummy that there were two babies in there in again," Armstrong said. "It was a sight we had definitely we had seen before.

"Our minds were a little bit blown because that just doesn't happen."

People's facial expressions were more than priceless. I was wiping the drool up off the floor.- Pam Armstrong

Doctors told them the odds of having three sets of non-identical twins, all conceived naturally without the aid of fertility treatments, was 500,000 to one.

Armstrong's grandmother was the only known relative on her side to have a previous set of fraternal twins.

Her friends and family were dumbstruck by the news of the soon-to-arrive blessings.  

"I wish I could have walked around with a video camera. People's facial expressions were more than priceless. I was wiping the drool up off the floor."

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The couple moved out of their tiny townhouse to a five-bedroom home to accommodate the growing family, but overall, it's old hat for the veteran parents.

"It might be a little bit crazy when my husband goes back to work but the older kids are all at a really good age where they're pretty independent, and they're super thrilled to have more babies in the house."  

Even so, the parents don't plan on arranging any more meetings with an ultrasound technician. 

"We're taking it all in and we're happy to call it quits," Armstrong said.  

"I think this is our grand finale."