Husband Thinks Wife Is Having Baby, Faints When Doctors Tell Him What It Is

By 2017, Nia and Robert Tolbert were already the proud parents of three sons and content with their life as a family of five. So when the couple discovered they were expecting once more, it came as quite a surprise. Then, when Robert saw his wife’s ultrasound, he fainted in shock.

The Tolberts live in Waldorf, Maryland. The couple first met in 2007 through mutual friends, and for them it was pretty much love at first sight. They started dating, and around 2011, the Tolberts welcomed their first child, a boy named Shai.

However, the couple didn’t stop their family there. By the time they married in 2014, Nia was already pregnant once more, and this time she was expecting twins. The Tolberts welcomed their new additions in 2015, adding two more little boys, Alexander and Riley, to their brood.

With three children to their name, Nia and Robert decided that they had completed their family.

“We didn’t plan to have any more pregnancies after the twins,”

Nia told People in November 2017.

However, it seemed the fates had other ideas. Nia discovered she was pregnant for the third time in August 2017, and straight away the expectant mom realized there was something different about this experience in particular. Her morning sickness was far more extreme this time around. As a result, Nia wondered if she had a girl on the way, or perhaps even more twins.

It wouldn’t be long before Nia got to the bottom of her mysterious symptoms. At her first sonogram, the technician asked her:

“Do multiples run in your family?”

This question made the mom feel certain she was expecting twins again. Then the technician confirmed she could indeed see two babies.

Unsurprisingly, Nia was startled to be carrying twins once more, but having been through it before, she knew she could handle it. However, it turned out her sonographer wasn’t done dishing out surprises. Just as Nia was coming around to the idea of expanding her family by two, the technician asked to conduct another scan. It was then that she delivered some truly staggering news: Nia wasn’t carrying two babies, she was carrying three.

The fact that Nia had fallen pregnant with a single child, then twins, and then triplets defied all odds. According to OB-GYN Dr. Rami Tabbarah from Inova Women’s Hospital, Nia’s situation was extraordinarily rare.

“We’re talking less than one in a thousand births,”

Dr. Tabbarah told WUSA9.

“That’s a very low chance for it happening to anyone in general. It’s very rare to have twins then triplets naturally in the same lifetime.”

Dr. Tabbarah explained there were multiple factors that could increase a person’s chances of conceiving multiples, including a woman’s age, height, ethnicity, and genetics. For Nia, the fact that both she and Robert had multiples in their family trees had bolstered her odds. Furthermore, she was a hyper-ovulator, meaning she naturally released more than one egg during a cycle.

After the scan, the technician handed Nia a printout of her sonogram, with babies A, B, and C all clearly labeled. Now that she could see her triplets right in front of her, Nia wondered how on earth she would break the news to her husband.

A few days after the scan, Nia was set to leave Maryland for a weekend trip to Tampa, Florida, so she decided to leave Robert a gift before heading out. The present consisted of three baby onesies alongside the sonogram image.

When Robert first spotted the gift bag, he had high hopes that it was a Fitbit. But when he opened it, he got the shock of his life. Upon discovering his wife was pregnant with triplets, he passed out cold.

“I hit the bed,”

he told WUSA in November 2017.

“I blinked twice. When I woke up, I saw that some time had elapsed on the clock.”

It was a few hours later when Nia finally heard from Robert while down in Tampa, and she was relieved to discover he was fully on board.

“I was finally able to get in touch with him, and he shared that he was happy, but he’d fainted,”

Nia shared with People.

In the months that followed, the Tolberts adjusted to the reality of doubling their family size overnight.

“We’re a really good team,”

Nia told Today in November 2017.

“We’re able to tag-team to get things done. This is why we’re not that apprehensive.”

Now that they felt confident about welcoming three more little ones, the couple were free to enjoy the milestone moments of the pregnancy, including finding out the genders of the babies. With a household already bursting with boys, they were eager to see if any daughters might even out the balance.

At their gender reveal party, the Tolberts discovered they would be welcoming three baby girls into their home. While mom and dad were thrilled, older brother Shai was slightly miffed.

“He was disappointed because he wants our house to be full of superheroes and Ninja Turtles,”

his dad explained.

Nia and Robert welcomed their three daughters—Zuri, Mackenzie, and Bailey—in January 2018. While the family are completely over the moon with their new bundles of joy, they made one thing clear to WUSA9:

“This shop is closed,”

when it comes to having any more little ones down the line.

Now, the proud parents are embracing whatever the future holds for their bustling crew of six children.

“I’m excited about more little people that I can love and can love me back,”

Nia gushed.

“And then one day, when we’re old and gray, they’ll take care of us.”