WesternU faculty member and wife welcome triplets

College of Pharmacy Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Administration Micah Hata, PharmD ‘07, and his wife, Kristi, recently gave birth to triplets.

Trent, Cole and Mackenzie Hata were born on Monday, Feb. 10, 2014 at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. The two boys and one girl join the Hatas’ first child, 2-year-old sister Kierra.

The triplets were born by C-section at 33 weeks, about seven to eight weeks earlier than the typical end of a full-term pregnancy. All three spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and came home on dates, Dr. Hata said.

Trent, the biggest at 4 pounds, 5 ounces, came home first. Mackenzie, the smallest, at 3 pounds, 8 ounces, and Cole, at 3 pounds, 13 ounces, came home a few weeks later.

“They are healthy,” Hata said. “Even when they were born, they did not need assistance to breath. They just needed some tube feeding until they got used to drinking from the bottle, and that’s why we waited for them to come home.”

Hata says the days go by fast because the babies feed every three hours. He said he’s constantly changing diapers, washing bottles, and just trying to get some sleep.

“Triplets are unique,” Hata said. “When just one of them came home, it was a little adjustment and wasn’t too bad, but having all three home is a pretty big adjustment. The biggest thing we’ve learned from this is asking for help, and not being totally self-reliant.”

Kristi’s family lives near the Hatas’ Orange County neighborhood, and her mother and two younger sisters have been helping care for the babies.

To celebrate the happy occasion, WesternU Founding President Philip Pumerantz, PhD, and Mrs. Harriet Pumerantz donated a book, “Neonatal and Pediatric Pharmacology” by Sumner J. Yaffe, MD, to the Harriet K. and Philip Pumerantz Library and Learning Resources Center in honor of the triplets. The book, marking their birth, has a nameplate bearing their names and indicating it’s a donation.