Micro Preemie Twins Gabriel and Victor

December 7th

It is a special Micro Preemie Monday today! We are meeting Micro Preemie Twins today. Thank you for joining us!

Today, December 7th, is World TTTS Awareness Day. In honor of that, and to bring more awareness, we will be meeting Micro Preemie Twins Gabriel and Victor, who are TTTS Survivors. Thank you so much to their Mom, Van, for sharing their story, as well as all the beautiful pictures.

Now, let’s meet the boys.

Micro Preemie Twins

1. Please tell us about your babies.

My Micro preemie twin boys were born at 27 weeks and 1 day. Baby A is Gabriel Khai, weighing 2 lbs, 1 oz and Baby B is Victor Anthony weighing 2 lbs even. I had a few episodes of post-chorionic bleeding which were miscarriage scares!

Then I was diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (essentially one baby was getting too much blood flow and the other baby was not getting enough, which is dangerous to both babies) at 16 weeks, had laser surgery to the placenta at 18 weeks. Dr Ruben Quintero of Jackson memorial hospital in Miami performed the surgery. He is amazing! They have an awesome program where they provide financial assistance if needed and they have a wonderful staff!! The actual procedure itself was preformed in the operating room where he gave me local anesthesia and allowed me to be awake. Although the circumstances of the situation was stressful, I got to see my babies live through the endoscopic camera that the doctor used! It was very cool!!

I was on bed rest, and then went into preterm labor at 27 weeks. I delivered the next day.

2. How long were you in the NICU? What was the hardest part?

87 days in NICU. The hardest part is probably the fact that my husband and I are both in the medical field, so the knowledge of what was happening and what could potentially go wrong made it difficult.

3. Do you know what caused your premature birth?

I don’t really know what caused the babies to be born premature but I’m guessing the TTTS and having had surgery to the placenta during pregnancy made me very high risk.

4. How are you and the babies doing now?

Our family and babies are doing wonderful!! Besides being on the smaller side regarding height and weight, they are perfect developmentally. 18 months old, they are running and climbing all over!! I can barely keep up! They are identical yet so different. They are so strong-willed and independent! I guess that’s why they survived 87 days in the NICU without a hitch!

5. What advice would you give to new preemie parents?

Advice to new parents: HANG IN THERE!!! It is a rough, tough and long road but patience and prayer will get you through! Stay positive. Spend as much time as you can with the babies and do as much hands-on as you are able to! This will help with bonding and makes going home without them a little easier.

Thank you so much, Van, for sharing your adorable micro preemie twins with us. I’m so happy that they are TTTS survivors, and that they fought through the NICU, as well.

If you, or anyone you know, is pregnant with multiples, please get early and frequent ultrasound monitoring. Not everyone’s outcome with TTTS is as happy as Van’s and mine. It is a very scary and deadly syndrome.

You also need to make sure that you are seeing a high risk or MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) doctor. There is a list of questions that you can print out and take with you on the Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome Foundations’s website. Please visit the TTTS Foundation’s Website for more information.

We will be wearing light blue for World TTTS Awareness Day, and also lighting candles tonight at 5:10 pm and 5:15 pm for all the donor and recipient babies, survivors and angels. Please join me, and feel free to post your pictures on my Facebook Page.

Thank you to everyone for their support. #FightTTTS