June 2, 2019 I received a positive pregnancy test. Elated we had successfully conceived our third child naturally. After five years of infertility and fertility treatments needed to conceived our fraternal twins, Maggie and Blair, this seemed too good to be true.

All looked good at the first ultrasound at 6 weeks but the babies heart rate was a little low and with our history of infertility, my OB wanted me to come back for another ultrasound in two weeks.

Two weeks passed and I was lying down looking at the screen. Jokingly I said, “still just one baby, right?!” with a laugh leaving my voice. I saw his entire face shift while he stared at the screen and replied, “Well……actually…..theres’s two.” In that moment Ilife changed as we knew it. Two sets of twins less than two years apart. The look of concern didn’t leave his face much when he went on to explain the membrane dividing them was very thin and they appeared to be identical twins (mono/di) which comes with a whole plethora of possibilities of complications and difficulties which we would later find out for ourselves. He then referred me to an MFM; the thought of even needing an MFM terrified me.

At that first MFM appointment soon after, we met Dr. Deschamps who explained the details of what having mono/di twins meant and all the things he would be looking out for. His first concern was going to be to monitor for something called twin to twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) among a handful of other things. He mentioned 16 weeks is usually when that can be detected so we scheduled the next appointment with him right at that time frame.

Here we are at 16 weeks and Dr. Deschamps walked in and said “remember when I told you we would be monitoring for TTTS? Well, we’re there". I don’t think I heard anything else he said. 36 hours later we were in Kansas City getting ready for Dr. Vlastos to perform a life saving surgery.

Unfortunately, the surgery unintentionally caused the rupture of the membrane dividing them causing them to share the same space in one amniotic sack with the constant risk of cord entanglement. It also resulted in PPROM (premature rupture of membrane/ my water breaking) at only 20 weeks.

Since we were still two weeks before viability, they sent me home to prepare for the worst. However, the worst never happened. I carried them another 12 weeks until I delivered at 32+2 because of placental abruption.

No cries at delivery and the room quiet is one of the scariest things. Waylon was born with severe pulmonary hypertension. I’ll never forget the face of the doctor when I was wheeled into their room when the doctor was bagging him and she couldn’t answer me when I asked if he was okay. He had to be taken to Willow Creek where he was put on paralytics, a jet ventilator and nitric oxide. Thankfully 2 years later they’re both okay. They are even better than okay. They are happy, thriving, and most importantly they are healthy .

Earlier this year (2022) I had a goal to start a nonprofit in their honor to support other the needs of the local NICU’s and NICU families. I have lots of long term goals I hope to work toward with this project. We’ve already had so many people so eager to help us and I’m so excited for the future of this organization.