Woman Goes To Hospital Thinking She Has Kidney Stones. She Leaves With Triplets.

On August 10, Dannette Glitz of Sturgis, South Dakota had her husband drive her to urgent care for what she believed were kidney stones. 

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t kidney stones. 

Thinking that she would have to have surgery to have the stones removed, it was no surprise to her when doctors informed her they would need to operate. What was a surprise? Instead of removing stones, they would be removing babies. Three of them. Surprise!

It turns out, Dannette was pregnant with triplets. AND she had no idea.

TRIP-LETS. According to the CDC, there is a 0.1% chance of having triplets, or 101.6 per 100,000 live births. The odds of not knowing you are pregnant with said triplets? 1 in a gazillion. I made that up. I actually have no idea.

What I do know? When I was pregnant with twins, there was ZERO doubt. By 34 weeks I looked like I was ready to birth an elephant. 

After a urine sample test and a corresponding ultrasound at urgent care, Dannette and her husband, Austin, were informed by the doctor that they were about to become parents for the third (and fourth) time. The parents of two (a 10-year-old boy and his younger sister) were expecting twins. But the story doesn’t end there.

Dannette shares her story on a Facebook Fundraiser page, Baby Glitz, created by her friend, Isabella Moelter:

“I started getting pains in my back and in my side felt like kidney stones cuz ive had them once before …so i just keept pushing on tell saturday i was in so much pain all i could do was lay in bed and cry it hurt to move and even breath….so went to urgent care thinking im going to have to have surgery to break the stones up… well dr comes back in after doing a urine sample and said ur pregnant….so they got the portable heart moniter they use and did a ultrasound and said theres possible twins”

Dannette was sent to a hospital in Spearfish where the twin pregnancy was confirmed and the cause of her intense pain was finally diagnosed.

She was in labor and 4 cm dilated. She was then transported via ambulance to a hospital in Rapid City where she was told she would need a C-Section.

“i had to be rushed by ambulance to rapid city hospital….get there and they did ultrasound and seen one baby feet first so i would need a c.section …. dr came in checked me i was 6cm dialated so they moved veary quickly got me into surgery”

At this point, I wonder, what was this poor couple thinking? In a matter of hours they went from being a family of 4 to potentially a family of 6. Oh hey honey, I know what we should do today. Let’s have a baby! Why not make it two? Seriously, what.is.happening?!

Just in case finding out you’re pregnant, going into labor, hearing TWO heartbeats and seeing TWO babies on the ultrasound monitor, AND having a C-Section isn’t enough for one day, there was one more pint-sized surprise in store. 

“well dr goes baby a is a boy …baby b is a girl so it was quite …then dr yells i need another blanket theres a third ….i ended up having triplets 1 boy 2 girls ….”

I bet it was “quite…” 

Dannette told ABC affiliate KOTA-TV of her husband’s response to the delivering doctor’s news of a THIRD baby:

“It was quiet, we thought they were done. He’s over there, kind of like rocking like, thinking of the names and then she’s like well we need another blanket and his reaction is like excuse me, put it back, no, I was told I have twins, I’m not doing triplets. She’s like no, there’s three babies in here, there’s triplets,”

Can you blame him? I would be rocking too.

They say that one of life’s greatest surprises is waiting until your baby is born to find out whether or not it’s a boy or a girl.

This trumps that surprise by about a billion.

The three babies were each 4 lbs at birth. Their names are Nikki Marie, Blaze Jackson, and Gypsy Zada. They are healthy and doing well and are expected to go home within the next couple of days.

Dannette claims that she never experienced morning sickness or felt any movements. She is not the only person to deny knowing she was pregnant. TLC launched a program called “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant,” in 2009. It aired for 5 seasons with 61 episodes.

How do the Glitz’s older children feel about the new additions to the family? 10-year-old son, Ronnie, is thrilled. He says: 

“One time I seen a shooting star and I wished for a baby brother, and I wished for like two sisters for my little sister because she always wanted a little sister, I knew this day was always going to come,” 

I wonder if he warned his parents. Also, beware of those shooting stars.

In all seriousness, congratulations to the family. We wish you the very best.