2^nd Pregnancy

Our first child, Veronica, was born in 2006 in Charlotte, NC.  We loved being a family, and a year later decided we wanted another child.  After a couple months of trying to conceive our second child, we were excited to receive a positive pregnancy result on our home pregnancy test.  A couple of days later we went into our OBGYN and they confirmed the pregnancy.  We fully expected this pregnancy to be as straight forward as our first.  Boy, were we wrong!  At our 8 week check-up, our OBGYN nurse was able to hear a heartbeat!  She told us about a new NT (nuchal translucency) test that required us to see a perinatologist with high definition ultrasound equipment.

Twins!

Upon arriving at the perinatologist for the NT test at our 11 week mark, we were nervous.  Katherine had a feeling that this pregnancy was different than her first, and that something may be wrong with our baby.  The ultrasound technician brought us into the room and asked us her standard questions.  Number of pregnancies?  Any miscarriages?  Any health issues?  Number of fetuses?  That question caught us off-guard.  What do you mean, how many fetuses, of course our answer was “Only 1”.  She then started the ultrasound, and as soon as she put the wand on Katherine’s belly, her face went white!  There they were, clear as day on the screen, two little heads side by side!  We sat there numb as the technician labeled our babies, Baby A and Baby B.

Meeting the Specialists

After a few minutes to gather our emotions over the shock of being pregnant with twins, Dr. Shaver, of Presbyterian Maternal Fetal Medicine, entered the room.  He congratulated us on our exciting news, but felt it was his obligation to warn us of the possible complications that can come with a pregnancy of identical twins.  They knew we had identical twins because there was one placenta and two amniotic sacs.  As best as he could, without causing too much panic in us, Dr Shaver outlined what potentially could happen during this pregnancy.  One of the things he mentioned was a diseased called Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome.  He said that it only occurs in about 15% of identical twins, but that he would watch our pregnancy closely to make sure our babies were OK.

On top of being told we were expecting twins, Dr Shaver informed us the NT test results weren’t where they should be and we had a 1 in 200 chance of having Down’s Syndrome. Yearning to know more information, we agreed to have a CVS (chorionic villus sampling) test performed.  This test would tell us for certain the genetic makeup of our children, including the sex of the twins.  Dr Shaver would perform the CVS procedure at our 12 week mark.  The next 48 hours were agonizing as we awaited the test results.

Good News

Phil had to leave the country on business which made the wait even more difficult.  Katherine finally received the call with the news we had been hoping for.  Our GIRLS were genetically normal!  Dr Shaver asked to see us back in his office at our 15^th week mark.

TTTS Diagnosis

It wasn’t long into our 15^th week ultrasound that we knew something was wrong.  This time, one of Dr Shaver’s partners was the doctor on duty.  The ultrasound tech asked Dr Imseis to come in to verify what she was seeing.  Baby A was surrounded by a large amount of fluid, and Baby B hardly had any.  Baby A was also showing signs of fluid build-up around her heart and Baby B was showing signs of renal failure.  Dr Imseis immediately suspected we had TTTS.  He left the room to make some phone calls and returned with Dr Shaver to inform us of our choices of treatment.  Due to the severity of the situation, both doctors thought we should visit Dr Quintero at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  We were told that Dr Quintero was the world renowned surgeon who had pioneered the surgical treatment of TTTS.  We immediately booked flights to get us to Tampa within a day.

Dr Quintero

We first met Dr Quintero and his team first thing on a Monday morning.  We were terrified, but they could not have been any nicer to us.  He and his staff were very warm and comforting.  Dr Quintero took one look at our girls on ultrasound and confirmed that we indeed had TTTS.  During the ultrasound, he noticed Baby A was starting to go into heart failure, so he made us an appointment in Clearwater to see a pediatric cardiologist later that afternoon.  The cardiologist confirmed the severity of Baby A’s condition and with that news, Dr Quintero bumped us up to be his first surgery Tuesday morning.  Bright and early on Tuesday we were at the hospital and Katherine was taken into surgery.  Dr Quintero was happy with the procedure, but warned us he wouldn’t know the real outcome until his ultrasound the next day.

After a grueling day Tuesday and a sleepless night, we met Dr Quintero Wednesday morning for our follow-up ultrasound.  Finally, some good news!  After what had been a world wind week, we broke down in tears when Dr Quintero told us that both babies had survived the surgery and were already showing signs of improvement.

Life After Surgery

We returned home to Charlotte after a few days of rest in Tampa knowing that Dr Quintero had told us it would be at least another five weeks before we truly knew if the surgery had been a complete success or not.  Dr Shaver and his team continued to monitor us weekly via ultrasound.  We also were referred to a pediatric cardiologist, Dr Craig Greene, who would routinely evaluate Baby A’s heart condition.  Although the weekly visits to the doctors were draining it was encouraging to see the progress our girls were making and watching them grow and get healthy made it all worthwhile.

28 Weeks

Katherine started to have contractions and went into preterm labor.  She was admitted to the hospital and the doctors were able to prevent delivery thought a cocktail of drugs including Magnesium.  She was sent home a week later on strict bed-rest with at-home monitoring and would continue medications to keep our precious girls inside until 34 weeks.

Caroline and Aubrey

We welcomed Caroline (Baby A) and Aubrey (Baby B) into the world on April 7, 2008.  The delivery team was prepared for potential emergency heart surgery on Caroline, but we were blessed to find out that she was doing much better than expected.  The girls spent a little over 3 weeks in the NICU, and even though they suffered a few minor setbacks, they continued to grow and get healthy.  Three and a half weeks after their birth, we finally had our family of five at home, together under one roof!

With love and compassion, and dedicated occupational and physical therapists, our little miracles have grown into rambunctious toddlers who continue to amaze us every single day.  They have received a clean bill of health from their doctors, and if we didn’t tell you, you would never know the fight they have fought to be here today!

We love you girls – Mommy and Daddy (Katherine and Phil)