PROUD new parents Tim and Rebecca Frogley have their hands full but plenty to celebrate following the birth of triplets.

Tim and Rebecca’s daughters Jessica, Katie and Bella became the fifth set of triplets to be born at Basingstoke hospital in the last 10 years when they arrived in the world on the morning of November 6.

Jessica, who weighed in at 4lb 7oz, was the first born, and was followed by Katie at 4lb 12oz, and finally Bella at 4lb.

The couple, from Odiham, decided to start a family a year after they married in February 2012. Tim has been a logistical officer at RAF Odiham for 13 years and Rebecca is currently on maternity leave from her job as a helicopter crewman instructor at the base.

The couple, both 34, were surprised when they were told they were having triplets after conceiving naturally.

Rebecca told The Gazette: “At the scan, we could see that instead of one baby, it looked like things were moving. I started to cry and I remember saying: ‘I think I can see three’.”

The triplets were born five days short of the 34-week mark targeted by consultants for mothers with triplets to give birth, after Rebecca was admitted to hospital with high-blood pressure.

Tim said: “We didn’t know it was going to be three girls so it was a total surprise because we were expecting two of one sex and one of another.

“It was emotional but also a relief that everything went well.

“They were in intensive care for two weeks to help with the feeding because they were so small, but they were as good as they could be.”

Life really is a military operation for the couple now as they work their way through 15 to 20 nappies and 15 bottles of milk a day. The three babies are fed and changed every four hours and are bathed twice a week.

The couple have had a lot of support from relatives and friends. Rebecca said: “My mum and dad come down from Milton Keynes every other week, and I have got a lot of friends for an emergency call list.”

The triplets have attracted a lot of attention, with Tim adding: “We take them for walks in the buggies – we have a have a double and a single which creates a lot of attention.

“We got stopped by Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee in a service station in Oxford who stopped to say hello and looked at the girls.

“It is normally people chasing celebrities, not the other way round.”