About a month ago, I posted a story about my former clients Kate and Paul.  Like a lot of my former clients, they've become my friends...something that I consider one of the incredible side benefits to being a wedding photographer.  I get to meet and befriend some really cool people.  Anyways, I'd just had a conversation with Kate not too long before where she'd told me they were pregnant and surprisingly expecting twins.  Girls.  They'd had good luck and gotten pregnant quickly.  They also defied odds and conceived identical twin girls. 

Unfortunately, they also continued to achieve statistical deviations in that they experienced the relatively rare twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.  What does that mean?  Well, in my simple explanation...they shared a placenta, but had two amniotic sacs.  Because they shared a placenta, they also shared a blood supply and depending on how things develop, one baby can end up getting too much blood supply and the other not enough.  Little Sadie had not enough blood as it turns out and little Isabella had too much.  In what can only be described as a miracle and great science put together, Kate and Paul had an ultrasound at a critical time in the twins gestation.  The doctors saw some developmental differences between them and delivered the girls early at just shy of 28 weeks gestation.  For the uninformed...a typical gestation is considered full term at 40 weeks.  So, we're talking about babies born months early!  In fact, they were born on April 14 and their due date is still over a month away on July 9th. 

Sadie was 1lb 9 oz and Isabella was 2 lbs 3 oz.  So what is that?  Something like 5 sticks of butter?  TINY.

I was overjoyed this weekend to pay them all a visit.  They are just over 7 weeks old now, and growing well.  Sadie is up to 3 lbs 11 oz and Isabella is up to 4 lbs 9 oz.  Tremendous strides have been made in their breathing, eating, and body temperature regulation...all important milestones for preemies.  Not to mention, their personality developments have also progressed!  They are definitely two different little girls...sassy and spunky.

Kate and Paul are handling all these huge life changes with an unbelievable positivity.  I'm amazed by their newly found NICU lingo and skills.  Kate sounds like a NICU nurse and as the photo proves below...Paul is trying to actually accomplish what women everywhere have been asking for...male lactation.