As a guidance counselor, Katie Licht helps plan the future for some 400 high school students at Davenport North.
Although summer break on the horizon, Katie isn't planning any vacations. She has three babies on the way, expecting triplets.
Three babies; two boys and a girl. They are technically due in August, but because the pregnancy is high-risk, her doctors want her to deliver by 36 weeks. That means the babies could arrive anytime from early-June to mid-July.
It was a big surprise for Katie and her husband Joey. They've been trying to start a family for seven years. It's been one disappointment after another, until finally she got a positive pregnancy test. It wasn't until a few weeks later that an ultrasound revealed there are three babies on the way.
Katie has polycystic ovary syndrome, which means she needs help to ovulate. Finally a medication that stimulates ovulation worked for her. Doctors warned there was a very small risk of a twin pregnancy, but no one ever mentioned the idea of triplets. It really sunk in the day they went shopping for a minivan.
"I had an emotional moment," Katie said. "I looked in the backseat, and I could picture three little car seats back there. We swore we would never, ever, ever be 'van people'. But it just makes sense."
In a matter of weeks, that van will bring their babies home. The nursery is set up with three cribs, a name hanging over each one. There are two changing tables, with drawers stocked full of freshly washed and folded clothes. There's another room where they're storing diapers stacked up to the ceiling.
"I went through and added it all up and multiplied it by three, and we are going to use 13,000 diapers," she estimated.