KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Like most friendships, this one began on common ground.
“I’m a master firefighter,” said Erica Frazier.
“I’m a patrol cop,” Rachel Britt added.
Both first responders, Rachel Britt, and Erica Frazier were strangers until another similarity brought them together, make that three similarities.
“I would say, anyone who’s been trying for a while who finds out they’re having three kind of hits the jackpot,” a pregnant Frazier said. She’s due in June. “We’re in the homestretch.”
Britt gave birth to triplets on Feb. 1 after in-vitro fertilization.
“We’d experienced loss earlier in the year, so we talked our doctor into transferring two. We thought we were going to have two little babies, so, we had an ultrasound and were shocked to see there was a third baby in there. It was one of those laugh or cry moments. I, thankfully, started laughing hysterically. He did not. He sat right down in the middle of the floor,” Britt said motioning to her husband Keith, sitting next to her amidst three matching cribs at their home in Knoxville."
“Triplets just feels normal to us because we’ve never had children before,” Keith said.
Rachel and Erica met through a Facebook group for women expecting multiple babies; a place where they could exchange tips and ask for advice.
Their similar careers took that relationship to a new level.
“It’s very comforting to have another woman in the same field of work. We understand and can speak the same emergency language, and it’s good for our spouses too,” Frazier said.
Her husband, David, is a firefighter alongside her at the downtown Knoxville station, but they work opposite shifts.
“We see each other in passing a lot. Shift Change!” David and Erica laugh.
David found out he was going to be a father as he was climbing on the firetruck to answer a call. Erica walked out holding the pregnancy stick.
“This man can talk to anyone about anything and he had no words,” Erica said. “He was totally speechless.”
David jokes that when he found out they were not only expecting three babies but three girls, he heard the song ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it,’ playing in his head.
Rachel’s husband, Keith, studied quantum computing and works remotely, so he can stay home with the babies while she’s out on patrol.
“$1.5 million. That’s roughly what it will cost over the next 18 years to raise three children and send them to college,” Keith said. “Triplets just seems normal for us because we’ve never had children before.”
Both families are excited to embark on the crazy adventure of parenting three newborns. Rachel said she can already see the bond her babies are forming with each other and hopes that they’ll form a friendship with Erica’s daughters too.
“She’s only a few months behind me, so our kids will get to grow up together. We really relate to each other in a way most people probably wouldn’t. So, I think it’s a unique bond that she and I can have and our kids can have too,” Rachel said.
