TRIPLETS mum Lorraine Gordon is back home with her two sons and new daughter - and still on cloud nine.

And she says she cannot believe she ever worried about how she would manage.

Just days after leaving the Royal Bolton Hospital with the triplets, she said: "I am doing fine and can't believe I ever had doubts about how I would cope. Mind you, I might feel different when Ian goes back to work."

Husband Ian has taken time off from his job as a telecommunications engineer, but will shortly be returning to work.

The couple, who already have a daughter, four-year-old Megan, were initially shocked to discover they were to become parents to naturally-conceived triplets

Months into the pregnancy, the couple had come to terms with the news, but nothing could prepare them for the arrival of Adam, Callum and Emily.

Now they are all at home together in Moorside Avenue, Bolton, and Lorraine and Ian are adjusting their lives to fit in with the three new arrivals.

Lorraine, aged 29, is delighted to be able to breastfeed the babies.

"I breastfed Megan and I hoped I would be able to do the same for the triplets," she said.

"I believe that breast-feeding gives babies the best possible start in life."

She also said she believed breast-feeding would save her around 30 hours a week.

"Apparently if you bottle feed your baby you spend around 10 hours a week preparing bottles."

The couple split jobs like nappy changing, bathing - in a washing up bowl because the babies are so tiny - and meal preparation.

With the help of friends and family, including kind-hearted neighbours, they are coping well with the huge change in their lives.

Lorraine and Ian are very grateful for the time offered by a volunteer from the charitable organisation Home-Start and are positively relishing the challenge of caring for the triplets, whom, they say, sleep well, cry very little and seem happy and contented.

Lorraine, who looks smashing - she is two stone lighter than before she became pregnant - said a recent trip to the supermarket was "great fun". She said: "People kept stopping us to have a look at the babies."

The babies enjoy sharing a cot and seem to be happiest when side-by-side.

"Perhaps it's because they have been together for almost nine months," said Ian, aged 34.

They have identical bouncing chairs in the living room - although Callum is still a little too small for his chair - and car seats, side-by-side, in the family's new six-seater vehicle.

All three babies are putting on weight. At birth Adam weighed 5lb 5oz, Callum was just 4lb 1oz and Emily weighed 4lb 8oz.

Plans are being made for the babies' futures.

The most immediate plans include the combined Christening service, which will be on September 4 at St Thomas of Canterbury RC Church and more distant plans include where they will go to school.

"I want the triplets to go to Megan's school, St Thomas of Canterbury, but that won't be until 2009," said Lorraine.

Megan is thrilled with the arrival of her brothers and sister. "She has calmed down a bit now she was over-excited at first," said Ian.

They took the triplets into school and Megan enjoyed showing them off to her pals.

Although Lorraine and Ian are enjoying the arrival of their three healthy babies it is safe to say that with 24 nappies a day to change and four hourly feeds, life is never going to be the same again for the Gordons.

"But we wouldn't want it any other way. We couldn't imagine life without the triplets," said a smiling Lorraine.