Our Story

At 18 weeks, we found out that our twin girls are Monoamniotic. This means that they share one sac, same amniotic fluid, same placenta, etc. This is a very rare twin pregnancy as it is only found in about 1 to 60,0000 pregnancies. The fear is that since the twins have absolutely nothing separating them, that their cords will knot up and compress and cut off nutrition and circulation to the other baby. Because of this, they will be monitoring the babies more often, and will not let them get bigger than 34 weeks.
In this situation, these kinds of twins are normally taken by c-section at 28-32 weeks. At 23 weeks, we found out that baby A has more problems. She developed her stomach and liver on the wrong side of her body. As we all have our stomachs on our left side, along with other bowels, she has it on her right. Baby A's hear t is also defected. She has been diagnosed with what's called Double Outlet Right Ventricle with Malposed Great Vessels. These defects will require surgery to repair. If these are the only 2 problems with the heart, then surgery may not be required right after birth. It may be possible to wait for surgery for several weeks or months for the baby to grow and get stronger.
She also has a defect called Heterotaxy. This means that her stomach and liver are on the wrong side of the body. The heart is on the correct side of the body but that is actually not a good thing. In this situation it is better if all organs including the heart are on the wrong side. The main concern here is the connection of the lower organs with the heart and the possibility of veins being incorrectly connected. This is also something that we will have to wait until birth to determine if there will be any major issues.The doctor was worried that because these defects are present, there also may be a defect with the pulmonary veins that come into the heart from the lungs. If there is a defect with these veins or they are attached incorrectly, the situation becomes much more grave and would require surgery immediately after birth. That type of surgery is much more complicated and has a much higher risk. The worst part is that these veins don’t have blood in them right now, so we have to wait until after birth to determine if this will be a problem or not.Another major concern is that the risk of any type of heart surgery is greatly increased if performed before 32 weeks. Because these twins are mono/mono, they may have to be born prior to that if the entangled cords start to cut off nourishment. So it is a catch 22, it will be better to wait until at least 32 weeks and hopefully 35 weeks to birth the babies so that Baby A has a greater chance of successful heart surgery, but in waiting that long the risk increases for both babies. The bottom line is that from this point forward, if there is a problem with the cords, the babies will be birthed. And if that is before 32 weeks, the doctor did not think Baby A would have a good chance of surviving.
Please keep our family in your prayers and thank you so much for all of your concern and prayers. God is in control here, and we know that. It's just placing our trust in Him that is becoming more and more of a battle. We are praying for peace and for us to be able to pull together as a family in this time.