My Little Miracles

PART ONE

















In early 2001 we were thrilled to find out we were expecting again. Tyrel was almost 4 and Trevor was almost 2 and we figured we could have one more baby and we wanted them 2 years apart. At my 12 week checkup the doctor couldn't find the babies heartbeat, he assured me everything was probably fine but since we had the technology we would do an ultrasound and make sure all was ok. My sister Jennifer took me to the ultrasound because I was totally scared that I had miscarried and would be too upset to get home. As the technician was looking around I noticed that the picture of the baby wasn't moving from one angle to another, just staying the same. Then at one point I could clearly see the baby but I also saw some sort of lump in the corner. I said "What is that!" because I knew either I had a tumor or there was more than one baby in there. She said "Hold on one second" then a minute later said something I will never forget "There are two babies in there." Jen and I immediatly started screaming and crying. About 5 minutes later the lady said "Um are you guys happy or sad?" It was soo funny. We assured her we were thrilled. After a very long ultraound we started spreading the word. Everyone was asking me what my husband was going to say and I said "He's gonna swear". Sure enough when I tracked Jakob down and showed him the picture labeled "the babies" he did say "Oh shoot" (but not shoot). We were so excited and surprised and started to prepare for our double blessing. At my next ultrasound we were told that Baby A (Bryce) was a boy but they couldn't see Baby B. At 21 weeks things took a dramatic turn. The ultrasound showed that Baby A was bigger than Baby B and had more fluid around him. They confirmed Baby B was a boy and they were identical because they shared a placenta. I was pretty confused when they sent me back to the doctor. Once there he put his arm around me and said "I'm so sorry. Sometimes these things just happen. Your babies have a rare condition for which there is no cure. You are going to lose both of them." He then told me that he wanted to send me to a specialist in Salt Lake just in case there was something they could do. Jakob and I talked alot on the way there about the fact that maybe we were only supposed to give these boys bodies and not make them live this difficult life. In Salt Lake the doctor explained that the babies had Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. This affects very few twins and only identical ones. When the egg splits after a few days instead of the first couple, the babies end up sharing a placenta. This isn't always a problem but in our case it was. Brenon (Baby B) had veins that went from his umbilical cord to the placenta and then over to Bryce. Because of this Bryce was getting twice as much blood and fluid and Brenon didn't have enough since very little came back to him. The risk with these babies is that the twin with too much has a heart attack and the twin with too little suffocates. We were at risk of losing at least one, if not both, of the babies. There was very little they could do but they hoped since I was already half way there I would make it.
STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!