00:00 My son and daughter were 24-week-old twins, and they were born at 24 weeks.
00:06 My son suffered a very severe brain bleed, and my daughter also had a brain bleed,
00:11 but it was significantly less severe.
00:15 We were told that my son may need a shunt or a reservoir placed
00:24 to stop the fluid from building up in his brain,
00:29 and that it would be kind of a slow burn, and that we would have time to figure things out
00:36 before that happened, because we would be able to see what was going on.
00:40 One morning, we went down there, and like I said, he was unresponsive.
00:46 Pupils fixed.
00:47 They didn't move to light. They didn't react to light.
00:51 His heart rate sat right at 156.
00:57 He wouldn't move to painful stimuli.
00:59 Literally, he was gone, and you could just tell his soul had left his body.
01:04 And so what had happened is he had his cerebral spinal fluid build up in his brain
01:13 because when his body went to clear out his bleed, it kind of clogged the plumbing of his brain,
01:19 and so the cerebral spinal fluid built up and caused hydrocephalus.
01:24 So when I walked down that morning, I discovered that he had only gotten a couple bumps of morphine overnight
01:30 instead of his normal 19 to 20, and no one had said anything.
01:35 I don't know if someone noticing overnight would have kept him here,
01:40 but I can't even let my mind go that direction
01:44 just because it would be way too painful for me to think about at this point in time,
01:49 but that's what happened.
01:53 His twin sister is home from the NICU now, but let me tell you a little bit about Teddy.
01:58 This is a stuffed animal that we got with his heartbeat from when he was in utero.
02:06 We have one for his sister, too, but he was literally the sweetest thing ever.
02:13 He looked so much like my dad. He looked so much like me, but he also looked so much like Vivi.
02:21 There's pictures where I couldn't even tell them apart.
02:24 I think he is the ultimate--well, I know he's the ultimate protector of his sister and me.
02:31 I mean, he literally gave his life for us.
02:35 Teddy was baby A, and he was head down.
02:38 He was a little bit shorter than Vivi, weighed a little bit more,
02:44 and he was absolutely perfect in every sense of the word.
02:50 [Music]
03:05 My daughter is perfect.
03:08 She is doing very well, despite everything that she went through.
03:13 She is very much like a normal baby.
03:16 She has no developmental delays and is on track for her adjusted age.
03:22 And despite being told that she may never breathe, eat, walk, or talk on her own,
03:27 she does all of those things.
03:29 My son is also perfect, although he is forever 21 days old.
03:34 We miss him every single day, and we want him back so, so badly.
03:40 As for me, I am doing well.
03:43 I am now a nurse where I delivered.
03:46 I passed nursing school despite everything we went through,
03:49 and we are currently working on expanding our family.
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