Three Bundles of Joy Greet Happy Couple

Giving birth to triplets was a fabulous experience. But finally being able to hold one of her children, after bring separated from him for an entire day, left Pamela Mason speechless.

The 38-year-old paralegal from Ventura gave birth to one girl and two boys Thursday at Community Memorial Hospital. Samantha Jean arrived at 1:54 p.m., her brother John Jeffrey three minutes later, and about a minute later William Stephen came into the world.

But it wasn’t until 6:30 p.m. Friday that Mason was able to hold William, the smallest of the premature babies, who was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit upon his birth.

When a nurse unexpectedly came in to Mason’s room Friday evening and placed William in her arms, Mason began to cry.

“I love you. Welcome to our family,” she said to her son, her voice trembling.

“He looks so beautiful.”

Mason became pregnant through in vitro fertilization last June. According to Mason’s husband, Jeff, her Fallopian tubes would not allow eggs to pass into her uterus. The couple saw a doctor at the Tarzana Regional Medical Center who prescribed the fertility drug Pergonal.

On June 2, doctors removed 22 eggs from Mason’s ovaries, and they were immediately fertilized. Three days later, doctors discovered that 10 eggs survived, and they were implanted into Mason’s uterus.

Nearly eight months later, three babies were born.

“It was a great experience. It was a fabulous experience, actually,” said Mason from her hospital bed.

“At eight weeks, we thought it was just going to be one baby. We went to the doctor and he said, ‘Oh, there’s another one, and there’s another one,’ ” said Mason.

To say triplets mean major changes for a couple living in a two-bedroom condominium at the beach in an understatement.

“We have to think about finances, space, health issues, whether we have enough support to get through this. Where in the world do you find a triplet stroller?” said Mason, who has been married for 11 years.

“You think about education, you read the information about the schools. You think about where they’re going to go to school, society’s influences. They’re all concerns,” said Jeff Mason, 35, who owns a private-investigation business and teaches entrepreneurship at Pepperdine University in Malibu.

“I’ve had to become much more patient and much more giving of time. I live in a very fast-paced environment, and I have really had to back off,” he said.