Triplets a challenge for couple

After struggle to conceive, they focus on making ends meet

RALEIGH -- For parents Leslie and Adam Perry, newly born triplets Aiden, Autumn and Austin have been a long time coming.

The couple had been trying to conceive since their 2006 marriage. They had met just a year before. Each was the other's first and only match on Match.com.

After costly fertility treatments nearly bankrupted the Perrys, they decided to risk all on one final attempt in December. Aiden, Autumn and Austin, delivered June 18 at WakeMed's Raleigh hospital, are the product of that last-ditch effort.

Both Aiden, who weighed 2 pounds, 11 ounces at birth, and Austin, who tipped the scales at 3 pounds, 8 ounces, were in intensive care but eating and breathing well.

Baby sister Autumn, who weighed just 2 pounds, 8 ounces at delivery, struggles a bit more with her feedings, meaning she will probably be the last to go home.

As with many infertile couples, the Perrys' ordeal is far from over.

"We've gone from two people working, no children, to one working with three children," said Leslie Perry, who taught fourth grade at Jeffreys Grove Elementary School until January. Her husband, Adam, is a second-generation Wake County firefighter.

The Perrys say they knew raising one child on a fire investigator's pay would be a stretch. Three babies leave them unsure of how they'll make ends meet, especially now that Leslie has quit her job as a teacher. The cost of day care for the three children is more than her annual salary, she said.

Add to that what the couple spent for Leslie Perry to get pregnant, and the Perrys are in a financial tailspin.

Their two-bedroom home on a small lot in North Raleigh will soon be too small.

Even with the babies still in the hospital, the living areas have been overtaken by the trappings of new parenthood.

In the garage, Leslie's two-door car has been replaced by a minivan, selected for its ability to accommodate three car seats ("You wouldn't believe how difficult that was, to find one that could fit the babies," Adam said).

Bassinets, high chairs and baby bounces line the living room. The spare bedroom will soon be occupied by Leslie's parents, who have agreed to move in and help care for their first grandchildren. Even Puggles, the couple's oft-spoiled pug, will soon see her standard of living reduced.

In their darker moments, the Perrys acknowledge that they sometimes feel cut off from co-workers and friends.

They haven't seen the levels of community support that the parents of quadruplets and quintuplets sometimes receive. And in addition to the financial challenges, the premature triplets are likely to experience developmental disabilities.

But despite all the hardship -- the months of bed rest, the miscarriages, an emergency C-section -- the Perrys say they are wholly focused on bringing their bundles of joy home by the babies' original due date, Aug. 30.

They say Autumn is already a bit of a diva -- hospital nurses call her "Miss Priss." Her parents know she will make a grand entrance when she goes home.

After all they've been through, the Perrys say, caring for three screaming newborns might turn out to be the easy part.

Or maybe not.