A Taylo'2 Babies - Micro-Preemie Wonder Twins

I started surfing TheNestBaby.com when I found out we were pregnant and quickly jumped into this online community family of Moms of Multiples and Parents of Preemies and Special Needs children. My online Nestie name is LSTaylor73 but I also go by Taylo2Babies on other sites and through my own personal blog.

I have to tell everyone that I find so much support and an enormous wealth of information 24 hours a day 7 days a week from this site. I get touching and valuable support from people I've never met but who know me better than my own family in many ways because of our shared bond. Because of TheNestBaby.com I have learned about the different things parents deal with, generous support from other parents, how to find special discounts on things from formula and the best must have baby gear (often times 2!!) to discounts on prescription medications for my preemies. We share our experiences, our fears, we vent, we make each other laugh, we go out of our way to think about people and do things for those whom we've never met because we can either sympathize or empathize with what they are going through. Even my Dear Husband (DH) has marveled at the usefulness and support that we've received from this communication tool. I've also learned how to be a good support person to my online friends and only wish that we could all meet in person one day.

In particular the Multiples board for Mothers of Multiples (twins, triplets, and higher order multiple births) and the Preemies board and the Special Needs board are so important to me because where can you go to ask questions like, "How do you get your multiples in and out of the car safely?", or "What kind of reflux meds are your preemies on, what do you like about it and why?", or "What early signs did you notice in your Autistic child and how was it officially diagnosed?" and then get real time answers from people who have been through what you are going through. And what's also nice is that it's okay to be a lurker on the board, to just read the posts to know what's going on in the lives of others. By no means is this to say that the other boards on the site are not as important and useful, but personally these three boards are very near and dear to my heart. Blogs and message forums have become some of the biggest social information sources for the 21st century.

As for this blog "Didn't you know? Twins are IN!" I look forward to contributing info about my favorite things, useful tools and links for all things baby, multiples, and preemies. Who else knows the value of picking the right useful items because we Moms of Multiples usually have to buy more than one? I know my perspective on a $400 crib for one baby suddenly changed when I found out i needed to buy two cribs. Special thanks goes to MWilson44 from TheNestBaby.com/Multiples board for taking the initiative to put this blog together.

About Us: In 2007 my husband and I foolishly thought we were ready for a baby. We thought getting pregnant would take some time because I was getting closer to the magical age of 35 when all your statistics are thrown up in the air. Here are the shortened details of our babies lives.

1. Are they your first? Do twins run in your families?
Yes, our first and second. No twins on either side. But for the record, instances of multiples typically genetically follow the maternal line, though identical twins can happen spontaneously.

2. Are they identical?
We don't know yet, but our guess is they are probably fraternal though there are indications that they may be identical. They do share the same blood type. They may be dichorionic diamniotic (di/di) twins, which occurs 20–30% of the time. The only way to know for sure is to have a DNA test done on both boys which is about $175. I don't think it really matters to us either way, though it would be neat to find out.

3. How did you find out you were having twins?
At our very first prenatal OB doctor's appointment at exactly 8 weeks gestation we had no idea. All that weekend and right up to that appointment I was having some bleeding complications. My OB doctor was concerned that I would miscarry and used an in-office older model ultrasound to look for a heart beat. The heart beat was there, but because I was considered high risk due to my age (almost 35 at the time) he referred us to a peri-neonatologist maternal fetal medicine specialist (Peri-MFM) for a week later for a viability ultrasound exactly 9 weeks gestation.

We went to the Peri-MFM specialist's ultrasound and it was really neat experiencing a high quality detailed ultrasound, even though it was really just a bunch of wavy lines and blobs on the monitor. Andrew, my darling smart ass husband, was joking round with the technician and said, "Well check to see if there are nine babies in there. I want my own TLC show where they can pay for everything, like Jon & Kate Plus 8. Otherwise there should be only one in there 'cause twins don't run in the family." And the technician's response was "That's so funny you joke about that, because here's the other one!"

Dead silence. There would be no more joking that day. I asked her to double check and she showed us another amniotic sac with a fetus with a beating heart that was about half the size right above the first baby. It was the most shocking, happy, terrifying day of our lives.

And that's where the really long story begins.

4. Why is one baby so much smaller than the other?
The doctors knew Evan's (Baby B's) small size was due to Inter-Uterine Growth Restriction/Retardation (IUGR), which is where there is something limiting or preventing the flow of blood through the placenta into the umbilical cord and into the baby. Often this goes hand in hand with Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, where one baby is basically stealing all the nutrients from it's sibling. This wasn't exactly the case for us. There was no stealing of food, just that there was a blood clot formed early in the development of one of the main arteries in Evan's (Baby B's) placenta where it meets the umbilical, thus preventing him from getting the same nutrient flow as his brother. Basically he was eating and breathing through a straw.

There is serious risk with IUGR conditions and they monitor closely for several things. They start getting really worried when there is about a 15 to 20% size discordance between the two babies. Also, our Peri-MFM specialist has seen other cases where very suddenly the IUGR baby will develop reverse end-diastolic blood flow. This means that the mother's heart is so strong that more blood will be pumped out of the baby's heart causing the baby to go into distress. Within a matter of hours the baby would die and sadly there is nothing that the mother would feel to know that this has happened.

It gets even scarier. All this time Cameron (Baby A) was not effected by any of his brother's complications and was happily enjoying his time baking in mommy's belly. By taking dramatic steps to save Evan's (Baby B's) life we were dooming Cameron (Baby A) to all the many terrible complications of being born prematurely.

I was living on three day increments. To check the blood flow with a doplar ultrasound. Each time they would be amazed at how well Evan (Baby B) was doing considering his limited resources. But the doctor knew there would come a time when we had to take drastic steps.

At 24 weeks a fetus is considered viable, meaning they have a 50/50 chance of surviving outside the womb. I was given my first round of Betamethesone which is a two shot steroid to help develop a baby's lungs more quickly in utero. Then I was allowed to go on moderate bed rest so that any calories I consumed would go to growing the babies faster.

At 26 weeks the doctor saw signs that Evan (Baby B) was dropping in heart rate and then coming back up. He said now was the time for 24 hour monitoring in the hospital. Because two weeks had passed and birth seemed eminent I received yet another round of the steroid shots for the babies lung development. I was there for 8 days on moderate bed rest for monitoring of Evan (Baby B). Each day we wondered would today be the day that we could save Evan? Would today be the day that Cameron would suffer great trauma from early birth?

On Sunday March 30, 2008, 12:30pm at 28 weeks and 6 days gestation the doctor finally saw Evan's (Baby B's) heart go into full reverse end-diastolic flow and distress (where the blood was flowing out of the baby back into the umbilical cord). O holy crap was I terrified!!! I was shaking so hard I couldn't stand on my own, I couldn't even hold a pen.

By 2:30pm I was in surgery with an epidural (which by the way did not hurt at all, I didn't even feel it!!) . Cameron Andrew Mettee (Baby A) was born at 2:59pm and let out a huge howl, weighing in at 2lbs 15oz. Evan Alexander Mettee (Baby B) was born at 3:04pm, weighing in at 1lb 7oz, was more difficult to reach as he was wedged under my left ribs. The doctor had to do an inverted T incision to the uterus wall in order to reach his hand and pull him out. Evan did not cry because he was not breathing at first. Both babies had to be intubated for breathing assistance. The boys are considered micro-preemies because of their very low birth weight. Cameron was 6lbs 2oz, smaller than most healthy newborns. Evan was 3lbs 8oz, the smallest preemie clothes shrunk in the dryer still don't even fit him.


5. How early were they born? Exactly how old are they?
The boys were born 11 weeks prematurely at 28 weeks 6days. Normal full term gestational growth for a single baby is 40 weeks. Cameron spent 67 days in the NICU. Evan spent 68 days in the NICU. My boys were born on March 30th, 2008 which means today 8/22/08 they are 4months 3weeks and 2days old actual age. But their estimated due date was June 16th, which means they are 2months and 6days old adjusted age.

6. Side effects to early delivery for Cameron?
Because Cameron was surprised by the necessary early eviction from my belly he was not ready for all the things he needed to do upon arrival in the outside world, primarily breathing. With preemies it is a Catch 22; you have to provide breathing assistance to keep them alive, but by doing so you are damaging the tissues in the lungs. This can, and has for Cameron, cause Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Chronic Lung Disease. Cameron also needs to be on a bradycardia (aka. bradys) and apnea monitor. Bradys are when their heart rate drops below a certain point, and apneas are when their breathing slows below a certain rate.

The boys are doing very well, and we want to thank everyone for all their love and support. We hope to introduce the boys to everyone one day soon, but for the time being it will have to be through the internet for most people.

You can follow the boys progress, weaning Cameron off of oxygen assistance, baby weight gain, and our adventures in taking tiny preemies out in the world by visiting our family blog http://taylo2babies.blogspot.com/.

Hugs to all my Nestie sisters out there!

What is better than one baby?????TWO!!!

I always knew I wanted to be a mom. No matter what you do in life, nothing can be more fulfilling than that. I met my husband in September of 2002 and we told each other that we didn't want a serious relationship. Well you can see where that got us. We were married on February 3, 2006. I can distinctly remember while we were dating my husband telling me that he never wanted kids until he met me. That was one of the sweetest things he has ever said to me. The next words out of his mouth were that we were going to have twins. I told him he was crazy and that if for some reason it ever did happen, he had to promise me a tummy tuck to get rid of the "twin skin" afterward. We started trying right after we got married and after encountering some difficulty we conceived our twins via IVF on May 18th, 2007.

I had a great pregnancy, no morning sickness, just some dizziness, usually in the morning. My husband and I couldn't have been happier. The doctors were all happy with how everything was going and how I was growing. We had decided not to find out the sexes of the babies so we could have the "surprise" at the delivery.

Everything started to go down hill on September 29th. We had a party at our house and that morning I was having some cramping. I called the doctors and they said to just take it easy and don't do a lot. Well that was kind of nice because it got me out of a lot of work for the party. We had a nice time and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The next morning I woke up and was having cramping again. I called the doctor again and apparently told her that "I was having pressure on my cervix" (I found this out later when she told me that is what concerned her since not many women say those exact words) I was just under 22 weeks pregnant and we headed to L&D. I was contracting every 20 minutes and they weren't very strong so I went home. That night I was still cramping. I went to the bathroom and had some bloody discharge. It wasn't much, but I figured I should let the doctors know about it. They said I could go back in, but since I was fine earlier and I wasn't contracting any more frequently, and since it was only a tiny bit of blood, I didn't have to. We decided not to go, and went to bed. I woke up around 2am to go to the bathroom and remember my husband waking up to ask me what was wrong. I said "nothing I just have to pee". I woke back up around 4am and felt like I was bleeding so I got up to go to the bathroom again. I took one step into the bathroom and had a huge gush of fluid. I scream for my husband to get up that my water had broken. We put a call out to the doctor, but also got into the car to go to the hospital. I was so scared because I was only 22 weeks exactly. Way too early for the babies to be born and survive. When I got to the hospital I was found to be in active labor and 2-3cm dilated. The sac for baby "a" had ruptured, and we were told that they both had heart beats, but if they were born that early they would never survive. I can remember my heart on the monitor beating 160 beats/min because I was so scared. I have never been so terrified in my life. I was laying on my head so there would be no pressure on my cervix, but eventually I was contracting so much that the doctors sat me up because they were so sure I was going to deliver. An ultrasound was done to check the positions of the babies and we decided that we needed to know what we were having so we could name them. We found out baby "b" was a sweet baby boy, but were unable to find out what "a" was due to the lack of fluid. I was in active labor all day, and then around 2am, somehow stopped contracting. No one knows how or why, but we were all happy.

We talked to the neonatology team and the perinatologist , and knew that the likely hood of having two healthy babies was extremely unlikely. My husband and I were even told at one point "you will never get both, you'll be lucky to get one and you need to write baby "a" off". I promptly kicked that doctor (a perinatologist) out of my room. I was told I would remain on bed rest until I delivered. Every possible scenario was played out. What we were told the doctors would try to do was deliver "a" since the sac was ruptured, and try to stop labor and keep baby "b" in until he was viable. I also faced the problem that I needed to be transferred to another hospital because the on I was at couldn't take babies as premature as mine might be. After a week of being on strict bed rest, not getting up or even sitting up at all I was transferred via ambulance to a hospital an hour from our home. I remained on strict bed rest and felt like a ticking time bomb. I had weekly ultrasounds, and was monitored three times a day. Both babies remained looking well although baby "a" never regained any fluid. There was constantly fluid being produce because I was leaking it, but the rupture was too big and never repaired itself. I was told that if they made it baby"a" would probably be severely deformed from having no fluid, and the lungs would also be very bad from the lack of fluid.

I remained on strict bed rest and counted the days. My short term goal was 26 weeks, then 28, then 32. If I would make it that far everyone would be happy. I have the best husband who was there every day and stayed over night with me for the first two weeks. The night of October 1st he left kind of early because he was working over night at his part time job. His plan was to go home in the morning and sleep a little before coming to the hospital. I woke up at 6:30 having a lot of pelvic pressure. I hit the call bell and asked the nurse to come in. She poked her head in and had a scared look. She said that the way I asked her to come in she thought she was going to find a baby on the bed. She obviously didn't, but I did tell her I was having a lot of cramping. I was put on the monitor to watch the babies and contractions. I was contracting a lot. I was so frightened because I was only 25weeks and 5 days pregnant. The babies were considered viable, but would be micro preemies if born now, with only a little chance of survival. We decided I needed to call my husband who had just gotten off of work. He had just laid down. I told him what was going on, and he asked if he should come up. I said I would call back if they didn't go away, because I wanted him to be able to sleep. I called back 5 minutes later and told him he needed to get there. After a lot of convincing by the doctors I was checked to see how dilated I was. I had been told not to let anyone check me because I was so open to infection, but it was necessary since I was contracting so much. I was given IV fluid and told by the OB resident on that day that it was "too nice for a c-section". We knew I was going to be sectioned since the babies had turned to breech and transverse. I was wheeled over to a labor room to be monitored more closely. At this point my husband got to the hospital and I was in a lot of pain. I was checked again and was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced. There was no turning back now. That was the last time I was checked, but I will almost guarantee that I went fully dilated because as they were wheeling me into the OR I told them they better hurry because I felt like I had to poop. I was always told that is how it feels when you have to push. I received a spinal and the section began. The first baby was born at 9:59 am on October 28, 2007 and came out with a little cry. I ask what it was since we never were able to find out, and no one knew. After a few second we found out we had a daughter. At 10:01 am our son was born and crying also. They were quickly whisked off to the NICU. Both babies ended up on ventilators. Our daughter was 1 lb 13.7 oz and our son was 1 lb 13.2oz. We were told that they were doing ok but the next few days were crucial. That night I was woken up because my daughters right lung collapsed and they had to put a chest tube in her and were placing her on a special vent, but that she was ok. I went up and saw her and she looked pretty comfortable, but was hooked up to so much stuff.

After 2 long weeks I was able to hold my sweet daughter for the first time, and a few days after that my sweet baby boy. It killed my that I wasn't able to hold them until then. I felt helpless. We had a long road in the NICU, 96 days to be exact, but on February 1, 2008, 4 days before my due date we brought both babies home. It has been a whirl wind adventure, but I wouldn't change it for the world. We have been blessed with TWO healthy miracle babies!

Then:

Now: