One-In-A-Million: Long Island Mother Gives Birth To Rare Identical Triplets

MINEOLA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- It's a one-in-a-million occurrence.

Kelli Fenley, 33, of Brightwaters, gave birth to identical triplets at Winthrop University Hospital on July 1.

"It's a miracle," Fenley said. "We always ask, 'Why us? Wow. Why us?' And for some reason or other, it happened, and it's an absolute miracle and it's a blessing to have."

Owen Michael, Noah Charles and Miles John each weighed a little over 2 pounds when they were born. Doctors said they are very healthy.

Fenley and her husband, Jason, are now adjusting to their fuller house.

"They eat every three hours, so it's a matter of just feeding, burping, changing, letting them nap, and then we start all over again," Kelli said.

The couple is painting the boys' toenails different colors in order to tell them apart.

"We are color coding them," Kelli said. "Each baby has a different color. One's blue, one's gray, one's green ... one of their toenails is painted that particular color and we like to keep them in the same color when we dress them for the day."

Although they look alike, Jason said the boys already have different personalities.

"Noah is the most fussy, without a doubt. Miles is, I like to call it, aloof, but Kelli says laid back. And then Owen, he's kind of more outgoing already," the proud father said.

As CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff explained, the couple learned about the exceptional conception in an early sonogram, three babies, all womb mates.

"The tech was very quiet and serious and said, 'um, I've never seen this before, I think it's triplets, and I'm pretty sure they're identical,'" Jason said.

Doctors at Winthrop University Hospital said identical triplets, especially without fertility drugs, are a medical marvel.

"They fertilized one egg, that egg split once, and one of the other eggs split again. So genetically speaking they are identical," Dr. Martin Chavez, Fetal Medicine, said, "Anywhere from 1 in 70,000 to 1 in 50-million, but a conservative approach is one in a million."

To the Fenleys the babies are triple the blessing.

"I always say instead of hitting the money lottery we hit the genetic lottery which is just as good," Jason said.

Kelli, a school assistant principal, and Jason, an attorney, said their blessing comes with a challenge to make each of their sons feel unique.

"Owen is more outgoing already," Kelli said.

Now, comes three of everything and in time three college tuitions. By then the Fenley's hope to ditch the color coding, as their true colors come through.

The couple also has a 2-year-old named Aidan.

They're getting help from Kelli's sister and Jason's mom.