Starting prep is a special milestone in all families, but in the Patel household the excitement is times three.
Triplets Mizaan, Matilda and Miraya Patel have been counting down the sleeps to their first day at Pallara State School and are looking forward to using laptops, learning to read and making new friends.
They are among an estimated 12,000 Mater babies who are expected to start school in Queensland on Tuesday.
The trio were born prematurely at Mater Mothers' Hospital in South Brisbane on 27 September 2019 and spent one month receiving around-the-clock care by a multidisciplinary team in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
The odds of having triplets naturally, as parents Priyanka and Vrujal Patel did, is around one in 10,000.
Two of the triplets, Matilda and Miraya, are monochorionic diamniotic twins, which means they are identical and shared a placenta, but had separate amniotic sacs.
Almost one in 20,000 triplet pregnancies include monochorionic twins.
The siblings were born at 34 weeks and three days' gestation and arrived within three minutes of each other.
Mizaan was born first at 11.54am, weighing 1.8kg, followed two minutes later by Matilda, who weighed 1.7kg. Miraya arrived at 11.57am and tipped the scales at 2.1kg.
Doctors made a decision to deliver the triplets early after scans revealed that Matilda was smaller and had only gained 10g in the last two weeks of the pregnancy.
Priyanka and Vrujal Patel, from Heathwood in Brisbane's southwest, have mixed emotions about their children heading to school, but are happy to know they will be in the same class.
"We have gone from having a full house to a much quieter one," Mrs Patel said.
"School will be great for the kids; I know the girls will keep an eye out for their brother at school as they all have such a strong bond.
"They get along so well in swimming and gymnastics classes, so they will be fine."
Mrs Patel said Mizaan, Matilda and Miraya had different personalities which would make each day in the classroom interesting for their teacher.
"Mizaan loves to go outside, is very social, and visits restaurants," she said.
"He is more responsible than his sisters in terms of looking after things."
Matilda is a bit more energetic than the others but a very kind and soft-hearted girl, Mrs Patel said.
"Matilda is the first one to feel her siblings' pain and cry for them. She is daddy's girl and loves colouring, painting, watching TV and playing with friends."
She said Miraya was a "very naughty and mischievous child" compared to her siblings.
"Being a younger child at home she knows how to get things done from Mizaan and Matilda," Mrs Patel smiled.
