Monday, March 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
WHEN the doctor said she was having triplets, expectant mom Kathy Arehart said she was relieved.
This was the fourth pregnancy for the in-home day-care provider, and she couldn't understand why she was sleeping so much.
"I said thank God there's a reason for this," she said. "The first month and a half I just slept."
Arehart and family were one of more than half a dozen families with "higher multiples" who met at a Las Vegas park Sunday.
The families try to get together once a month to share the triplet experience and stay sane.
Sharing the triplet experience "is the strongest bond you'll ever have," said Ruth Lindahl, mother of 2-year-old triplet boys.
The group, an offshoot of Las Vegas Mothers of Twins, heard about each other informally because many went to the same fertility specialists. And most of the children are under age 3.
For many, it has been their primary social outlet. All the mothers present Sunday were homemakers.
"I didn't have a baby sitter when my kids were little," group organizer Donna Young said. "It wasn't because I was afraid of what the sitter would do, I was afraid for them. I would never take all three to someone (at once) -- triplet guilt."
Now, when the mothers get together, they often leave the kids at home or on the playground with their dads. They're used to it, the moms said.
"When we found out we were having triplets, he was going to have to help," Theresa Anderson said of her husband, Greg. "When you have triplets, you need the help."
Greg was a natural. Every night he bathes their daughters, Gabriela, Brittany and Stephanie, and reads bedtime stories on the floor.
"It's pretty amazing. We had trouble (conceiving) for so long, we were beginning to think we weren't even going to have kids," he said. "It's changed our lives so much."
One common misconception is that parents with multiples have problems helping their kids develop individual personalities, but that wasn't true for these parents.
Their children have similar interests, but their personalities are so distinct that parents understood them in the womb, mothers said. Young said her daughter, the oldest, would kick her sons.
Having triplets has also meant faster learning through modeling and built-in playmates.
"They've always been together, and it's OK to be the three of them all the time," Allison Wokciechowski said of her 8-year-old fraternal triplets Austin, Brandon and Caylan.
"It's fun, because I have people to play with," Caylan echoed. "My best friends are with me."
Tighter budgeting, better organization and a lack of sleep were a few of the common adjustments among the families. Arehart plans to use a diaper service and hits a lot of garage sales. Young made her own baby food. Several mothers used diaper services.
Wokciechowski stays on budget by getting nothing but jeans, T-shirts, tennis shoes and sandals for her youngsters.
"You get what you need and nothing extra," she said.
Experts estimate triplets occur in one of 7,000 births. Spontaneous triplets, or those born without fertility drugs and/or in vitro fertilization, are rare, according to the parents.
For more information, call the Las Vegas Mothers of Twins Club and Triplets Too! at 223-0266.
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