MONROE, La. (KNOE) - Meet Harvey, Gordon, and Ezra Wilder! These fun-loving, adventurous six-year-olds are healthy and hitting milestones at the top of their age group.

It’s a stark contrast to when they came into this world at 27 weeks and six days.

Katie Wilder says she was doing well throughout her pregnancy. After a visit with friends, Katie and Brandon Wilder knew something had changed.

“We came home and we got ready to get into bed and I was bleeding and so we called and they were like it’s probably nothing but go ahead and go to the hospital and get checked out. And so we went and that was about midnight,” explains Katie.

She says the care she got at the hospital was amazing throughout the entire experience.

“Dr. Klug was on call [on that day] and she was great, she was fabulous and I told her I said look Dr. Shemwell’s going to want to know, I said she doesn’t have to come, I’m fine, I’m good but she’s going to want to know,” says Katie. “And we later found out she was hosting a family reunion at her home, she didn’t even tell anyone bye she just walked out straight to the hospital.”

On May 6th, 2018, their triplets came into the world.

“I tell people it was like a sporting event, there were so many people in that room,” says Katie.

“I tell people there were no less than 30 people in the delivery room, for each baby they had a respiratory therapist three NICU nurses I think, doctors and I don’t even know what else,” says Brandon.

That was just the beginning of their months-long stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. Francis Medical Center.

“The NICU was so reassuring the whole time, they were very informative and they put us at ease a lot,” says Katie. “All of the nurses were just fabulous but Ainsley Manning was our main nurse and she could tell I wanted to know what to do, what to expect, and so she was very forthcoming with information even the scary stuff.”

Ezra also developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).

“The way they explained it to us was if food is not moving through the intestines, it sits in one spot and can cause an infection in that one spot and if they don’t catch it, it can cause a hole in the intestine,” explains Brandon.

“And cause the intestine to die,” adds Katie.

“Normally it can include surgery and moving them to Shreveport and all kinds of stuff but they caught it soon enough where they were able to stop feeding him, get it cleaned out and no surgery or anything needed,” says Brandon.

Thankfully, they were able to keep their boys together, getting the best care possible.

One memory that will always stick with Katie is the way Dr. Marc DeSoler interacted with them.

“Apparently he’s very emotional and will get very attached so he will call them mom, dad, and baby and so he learned our boys’ names which just made us feel super special, and he learned our names.”

She says Dr. Carmen Payne was wonderful, too, and they couldn’t imagine having their kids anywhere else.

“When they were born, none of them ever got put on a ventilator, which they said was amazing being that early and three of them,” says Brandon. “Gordon spent a little time on the CPAP but not long maybe a week at most, but other than that the one week on a CPAP and Ezra’s little setback with the NEC they were perfectly fine.”

By age four, they say all three were cleared from their specialists and are as healthy as can be.

They credit the NICU staff for that outcome.

“It’s been really fun to stay connected with the nurses we still invite them to the boy’s birthday party every year and a few usually come and it’s a family we’ll have forever because they took such good care of our boys,” says Katie. “They’re not just caring about the babies they’re caring about us as a whole you know as a whole family the moms and dads are as much patients as the babies are.”

Ticket proceeds from the Two Cars Two Winners Raffle go straight toward improving Women’s, Children’s, and Critical Care Services at the hospital - services the Wilder Family had to rely on.

Over the eight years of the raffle, money has been used to build a new helipad, renovate the pediatric intensive care unit, add 10 intensive care unit beds, hire more specialists, and buy countless pieces of technology.

When you buy a $50 raffle ticket, you are entered for the chance to win a brand new 2024 Nissan Frontier SL Crew Cab 4WD or a Toyota Highlander XLE! Tickets are on sale now through September 13 at midnight.

If you buy a ticket between September 9th and 13th at noon, you’ll be entered into the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Cash Blast for the chance to win an extra $2,500 cash. The foundation will draw the winner at 5 p.m.

Buy your tickets online or at the St. Francis Medical Center Gift Shop or the St. Francis Community Health Center at 2600 Tower Drive in Monroe.

We’ll draw the 2 Cars 2 Winners raffle winners on September 19 at 6 p.m. live on KNOE.

We have some other memories from the Wilder Family’s time in the NICU below.