Hello! I am Melissa and also another member of the Teamie Preemie group raising money for the Children's Hospital NICU programs.
I became a preemie mama October 8, 2015 when I had my twin girls, Harper and Hailey, via emergency c-section at just 24 weeks weighing each just over a pound.
I'll try and make this as short as possible...
We found out we were pregnant with twins at 16 weeks but it wasn't until our first ultrasound at 20 weeks that our world would be completely turned upside down. There, we learned our girls were identical and were suffering from Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, an unequal blood flow between two babies sharing a placenta. There is no 'cure' for TTTS but our best chance at both of our girls surviving was to do laser ablation and hopefully cut the vessels causing the unequal flow. Unfortunately, the procedure was not successful and resulted in the girls developing another form of TTTS, this time is was TAPS, Twin Anemia Polycythemia Sequence, an imbalance in red blood cells and hemoglobin. Our next chance of survival was to give blood to our donor, Harper, who was extremely anemic. Because of the girls sharing a placenta they chose not to do the transfusion into her umbilical cord like they usually would instead they did it into her belly hoping she would keep it for longer. The first transfusion was successful however we needed to do another one shortly after. The days in between ultrasounds were some of the longest days of my life. We never knew what we were going to find at the next one. I received steroid shots in between to help with lung development. During the second transfusion after they had started giving Harper the blood her heart rate began to drop extremely low. The next thing I knew we were delivering.
Harper Lynn was born weighing 1# 1oz and Hailey Marie 1# 10oz. My babies were so tiny and so sick.
That night after the doctors and nurses tried to resuscitate Hailey two different times, we had to make the choice that night no parent should ever have to make. We didn't want to give up on her but she was just not strong enough to survive. Hailey passed away in our arms. How could what was suppose to be the best day of your life also be the worst?
Harper continued to put up a fight and prove everyone who crossed her path that had no hope for wrong. At 19 days old she became septic from what we later learned was an infection from her intestines dying in her body that we later came to the conclusion was from an injury from the blood transfusion in utero. They performed emergency surgery where they removed 2/3 of her small intestine causing her to be left with only 24cm and short bowel syndrome. Doctors thought if were we were to ever make it home she would be coming home dependent on IV nutrition and looking at an intestinal transplant if she ever wanted to live a 'normal' life. She remained intubated for almost two months, fought off multiple infections, had multiple blood transfusions, had ROP (which thankfully corrected on its own), many skin issues from how delicate her skin was, she aspirated, suffered from blood clots from her central line, was so dark from her bilirubin levels that she looked like she was from a different ethnic background and thats just to name a few but she fought and after 189 days we took her home! She did come home without a central line but was continuously fed through her g-tube and on oxygen so it was extremely scary.
Today she is almost 19 months old (15 corrected) and is doing amazing. We still have many struggles that we are working on but each day she gets a little bit stronger. We have countless appointments with many specialists and do both physical and occupational therapy 3 days a week to work on the things that come natural to most kids, like eating, sitting, or even reaching. She just got a wheelchair because we're not sure when she will be strong enough to walk but with all that she has proven we believe she will one day get there.
Thank you for reading my story and helping us to raise money for a place that we all hold very near to our hearts!