A father has woken to his three children’s screams after their mother allegedly attacked the trio as they slept, stabbing them multiple times in the family home.

The 47-year-old woman is under police guard in hospital on suspicion she was trying to kill the children – aged 10, 13 and 16 – on Monday.

The children were expected to survive their injuries but “time will tell” how the psychological scars heal, police said.

Their mother allegedly turned the knife on herself following the early morning stabbing.

“Until we have an opportunity to speak to her, we won’t know what her intent was,” Detective Superintendent Naomi Moore said.

“But we’re certainly taking it as a potential attempted murder.”

The father and the children – one of whom has paraplegia – were all in their bedrooms of the family home at Baulkham Hills during the attack, police said.

Forensic officers were on the scene following the attack in Sydney’s north-west, where a children’s basketball hoop sat in the yard behind police tape.

One investigator was seen dusting the front door security screen for fingerprints, underneath a CCTV camera aimed at the doorstep.

Police said a “household” knife had been seized inside the home.

The incident, which woke the father, was “completely unexpected”.

“Upon waking up to what I would believe to be a number of screams or yells, he has … secured the weapon and he’s contacted police,” Moore said.

“There’s certainly no domestic violence history reported to police … there’s no AVOs (restraining orders).

“This is the first time police have responded to the house for any type of domestic situation.”

The woman’s behaviour had been described as “a little bit erratic” in the days before the stabbings, Moore said.

The 10-year-old boy was stabbed twice, the 13-year-old girl three times, and their older sister, 16, had one stab wound and several lacerations, police said.

Their mother had three stabs wounds to her abdomen, believed to be self-inflicted.

Paramedics treated all four before taking them to hospital.

“They should make a full physical recovery. In terms of a psychological recovery, I guess time will tell what that means for them,” Moore said.

Footage of the scene showed one of the children being stretchered away with a pink teddy on their lap.

Moore said it was a tragic incident.

“As sad as it is, we haven’t dealt with this family before, and I only wish that maybe we had’ve, maybe we could have reached out and helped this family sooner,” she said.

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-AAP