TTTS or why my boys are miracles, Part one

The twins were monochorionic diamniotic twins, that means they are identical twins that shared a placenta but had a membrane separating them putting them in their own sacks. Monochorionic twins can have some specific complications that fraternal twins don't have. Twin to twin transfusion syndrome or ttts is one of those possible complications. When diagnosed between 12 and 26 weeks, without interventions there is a zero percent chance of survival. I was diagnosed at 19 1/2 weeks. We knew we were having twins fairly early on. My cycles have always been screwy and I've needed an ultrasound to date every one of my pregnancies. So at eight weeks, we knew it was twins. Oddly my husband knew they were twins and he suspected they were boys. His intuition was spot on. As impressive as that might be, it's not nearly as impressive as my second daughter, then five. Kate announced a week and a half before I confirmed my pregnancy that I was pregnant. She also announced weeks before that first ultrasound, that it was two boys. Silly me, I thought she meant Ean and the baby, Ean was only a year when I got pregnant. Uh, no, her intuition was also spot on. Pretty impressive for a five year old, and the only person in the dark was me lol. So at eight weeks we knew it was twins. I had several previous miscarriages and wanted to keep quiet about this pregnancy until we knew for sure that the pregnancy would stick. That wasn't possible, I started throwing up immediately. That summer was horrible (found out I was pregnant in June). When I opened the door and the summer heat hit me, I threw up. I'd had morning sickness before but nothing like this. Needless to say, I lost weight and gained tummy that summer. I was able to have Kate and Ean delivered by our family doctor. A wonderful spiritual man that believes a woman's body is capable of birth without intervention. A rare find in the medical community. Needless to say, I was sad when I had to go doctor searching, family doctors don't handle high risk and twins bump you into high risk. There were two choices in town, one a doctor notorious for overbooking, vacationing and not delivering his own patients. Almost impossible to get into. Then another doctor that I wasn't to impressed with, after hearing some of his policies when he delivered my cousin. I went with the second doctor and boy did it turn out to be the right decision, we knew that right when my pregnancy started to go south. It's important to note that during my first ultrasound, there was a definite membrane between the boys. When we went in for the 20 week ultrasound (three days shy of 20 weeks) there wasn't a membrane to be seen. One boy was swimming, literally swimming in utero. He was pretty easy to spot as a boy. The other boy, well we couldn't identify his sex, He was laying against the uterin wall and only his hands moved, just a little bit. No leg movement, very little body movement. Don't ask me why but it didn't even occur to me to be worried at that point. I don't even remember how long the ultrasound took. We were just happy that the babies looked ok. We went to eat at Red Lobster to celebrate. My husbands cell phone rang several times but my husband didn't recognize the number so he turned the ringer off and we leisurely enjoyed our late lunch. Our three children were at my inlaws, so no worries, no hurry. Finally when we were done, we started the 15 minute drive across town and up the canyon to pick up the kids. Five minutes before reaching their house, we got another phone call from the same number, it was a receptionist wanting us to call the OB on call at the hospital. I can't describe the sinking in my stomach. To know that something was obviously wrong. A random OB that just happened to be at the hospital wouldn't call unless something was really wrong. I finally got through a few minutes before picking up the kids and learned that our plans for our babies, our hopes and our dreams were completely out of our control. Suddenly we didn't know what the size of our family would actually be. Our boys lives were in danger and the survival statistics sucked.