Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome

I was at the park today with my girls and our fabulous new friends talking about children, birth stories, the whole shebang. Sharing my birth story is long and complicated but so miraculous at the same time.

My eldest daughter was brought into this world through my wonderful midwife in a beautiful, quiet, clean hospital. No major issues during or after delivery. We call her our 'easy child', very laid back, quiet and soft.

My twins were brought into this world through a totally different circumstance. At 12 weeks I was asked "do twins run in your family?" by my US Technician - "yes, why!" was my answer - and long in behold the shocking news TWINS?!

My midwife appointment quickly turned into doctor appointments, diminishing my hopes for a home birth. I was soon referred to an out of town doctor for testing. Not knowing what to expect my husband and I were sat down in the doctors office learning that our twins had Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. We were given so many options, but with a 90% mortality rate we were to upset to make a final decision.

Were we to end one life to save another (not at all!), do we pray and leave it up to God or should we choose laser surgery to possible save the lives of our unborn children. After 100's of appointments, ultrasounds every week and trips to Kingston and Toronto (the only hospital in Canada to specialize in TTTS) my pregnancy made it past the 27 week goal! At 34 1/2 week after a trip out to Kingston I was called at 5pm to pack my bags and head back up to the hospital to prep for a c-section. Our little 'donor' Kailey had stopped growing and intervention was to be taken.

Scared, excited and alone I waited 3 days till my surgery. Knowing we had nothing ready for our new bundles of joy to come into this world and being cautioned to prepare for the worst I laid there in my hospital bed. On Friday October 17th at 11:17am Kailey Grace 3lbs 4oz and Madisyn Faith 4lbs 11oz were born, frail and silent.

This photo was taken a week after they were born,

they were finally able to share a crib and wear clothes!

I cannot for the life of me remember what happened the rest of that day or week. With complications from the c-sections I stayed in the hospital for an extra week and a half until I recovered and could find a home away from home to live in. I remember being so sad and alone, missing my Kiersten and husband at home and yearning to be with my newborn babies.

After 4 weeks in the NICU we were able to finally come home with our new little babies. And things have only been getting better!!

You would never know now that my two rambunctious girls were born into this world fighting the odds.

For more information on TTTS visit: http://www.tttsfoundation.org/ or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002562/