London and Cadence: Our Giant Tiny Miracles

First and foremost, I have to acknowledge how blessed and cared for we have been by our tender Heavenly Father and loving Savior.  Our giant tiny miracle that occurred on Friday (the 13th of all days!) is a direct answer to fervent and dedicated prayer.  I wish I was eloquent enough to convey the thoughts and feelings I have about our experience and this amazing blessing, but I am admittedly not.  Regardless of what I am able and not able to say, my heart has been touched with a sense of gratitude that I have never before experienced.  We were blessed with two beautifully perfect girls to be born at the perfect time, in the perfect way and at the perfect place that we so desperately wanted:  in the comfort of our own dedicated home.

All of this happened in the face of some absolutely startling statistics.  London and Cadence are what is termed Monoamniotic-Monochorionic, or MoMo, twins.  Monoamniotic means one amniotic sac; Monochorionic means one placenta (but have separate umbilical cords) .  MoMo twins are ALWAYS identical.  Interpretation:  London and Cadence shared the same amniotic sac and the same placenta and are identical.  So they basically shared everything :)  Unless you know the details surrounding this type of twin pregnancy it doesn't sound all that crazy.  I am here to tell you that it is 'all that crazy' and more.

MoMo twins occur in less than 1% of all twin pregnancies.  Here is a basic (yet not-so-basic) illustration of the breakdown:

Monozygotic are identical.  Dizygotic are fraternal.  If confused just pay attention to the bottom row of %'s.

LESS THAN 1% of all TWIN pregnancies!!  Can you believe that?!  As far as the numbers I can find, they estimate that this type of pregnancy occurs between 1 in every 35,000 to 1 in every 60,000 pregnancies.  My gratitude to our Heavenly Father and my amazement does not stop there, however.  Far from it.

Information on this kind of pregnancy is relatively scarce (at least that is my take since I have been looking). When you look at the statistics and reports you will find that MoMo pregnancies are EXTREMELY high risk.  The survival rate of MoMo twins is approximately 50%.  The risks are so high, in fact, that the vast majority of women in this condition enter inpatient monitoring (you live in the hospital for 24/7 monitoring) as early as 26 weeks and deliver their babies by C-section (always) between 26 and 34 weeks.  The most comprehensive and straightforward information I could find on all this is found here.  Its a very quick read with many more details.  Please read it for a deeper appreciation of how blessed we are.  Some of the remarks to come are assuming you read it.

London and Cadence were just born at 38 weeks.  They were born vaginally.  They were born at home.  They were born with none of the serious complications that could have attended them.  Are you starting to understand how what we just experienced defies every statistic and scrap of information on MoMo twins?  We hope you are also feeling a deeper sense of what we are feeling and that you consider on this succinct doctrine: "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God" (Luke 18:27).


We fully admit that there will very likely be some people that will see or hear about this information and our experience and think that we, as parents, were irresponsible.  There were many times that we strongly suspected twins and didn't tell our midwives how strongly we thought it, nor did we get an ultrasound to confirm.  Some may think that we subjected ourselves, our miracle babies, and our family to extreme unnecessary risk, especially in the face of the miracle of modern-day medicine.  We can understand their potential opinions, thoughts and feelings.  Honestly, I very well may have felt the same way if I was told of another persons similar situation.  But we have something that the potential naysayers do not:  

An absolute knowledge of the divine grace that attended us throughout this process.

Tasha and I have prayed for years (since we were married) that we could have twins and a healthy twin pregnancy.  Tasha has been confident that at some point we would, but did not know when.  She has remarked a number of times since London and Cadence were born that the Lord knows her so much better than even she knows herself.  He knew that the best way for us, and particularly Tasha, to have twins was for it to be a surprise.  If we had known beforehand it would have made Tasha worry and stress about possibly having to go to the hospital, and it would have made me silently worry and plead with Heavenly Father for blessings while appearing confident and hopeful on the outside for Tasha's sake.

Looking back on all these details, it's as if I am seeing all the brush strokes of the Lord as he crafted this miraculous masterpiece of a blessing.  It's as if He is truly saying in as intimate and personal way as possible, "I love you and will always care for you".  I felt His love with McKay's birth; Genesis' birth; Avonlea's birth.  And now I feel that love perhaps more deeply now than I have ever felt it, and my prayers of gratitude have been in my heart since the moment our miracles were born.

Our tender and loving Heavenly Father heard our prayers for twins and answered it with emphasis.  And as if to add an exclamation point to the doctrine that "with God nothing shall be impossible", He sent us the most rare and dangerous twin pregnancy possible!  Because we trusted in Him and called on Him for these blessings we were blessed with everything being perfectly fine.  "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."

Well... lets get to the results of this wonderful blessing!  

It's really quite a simple birth story (with some drama thrown in at the end of course) that many have already heard.  Start to finish, labor lasted only about 6 hours.  We first called our midwives at about 7 pm to let them know, before it got too late in the evening, that labor MAY have started.  I fed McKay, Gensie, and Avonlea.  I got them ready for bed and had them in bed about 8:20 pm.  I started timing the contractions and did so for about an hour to make sure things were consistent.  About 9:30 pm I checked in with Angela (our lead midwife) to let her know it looked like things were progressing.  I got busy getting ready what I could while helping Tasha as much as possible.  She had pretty bad back labor and we were working to find positions that could help alleviate that.  The back labor worried Tasha a bit because it is a potential sign of a posterior baby, meaning they are trying to come face up instead of face down (it makes for a more difficult labor and birth).  I lost track of time and before I knew it Angela was calling at about 10:40 pm to ask if things had become more intense.  I answered that things were a little more intense but not dramatically so.  She immediately said that she and the team were going to come now.  It's a good thing they did!  They arrived here about 11:15 pm and had just enough time to organize and prepare everything for the birth, when at 11:57 pm and 11:58 pm our beautiful identical twin girls were born.  

Now for a few details of the added drama at the end :)

Our first miracle baby (the only one that we knew of at the time) was born perfectly; head first and face down.  It happened so quickly that Angela got caught in the middle of about 3 or 4 different sentences that were each begun before the previous one could finish.  It went something like this: "Ok, her water broke at ... there's the head!  Head born at ... there are the sho ... there's the baby!"  Time was 11:57 pm.  Angela immediately placed her on Tasha's belly (as they always do) and when Tasha responded with pain she said, "I think there is another baby in there"  and while running to get the doppler said, "I'm going to call 911."  Tasha immediately yelled, "NO!  Why?!"   Right at that moment Sarah (our other midwife) said, "I have two feet!"  Just before Sarah said that, I had seen the same thing. (It's so surreal reliving this!)  Angela came running back and at 11:58 pm we had another baby!  The first baby during all this time (a minute or less admittedly) had been right at Tasha's side, pressed up against her belly and my hand on her.  She had started crying quickly and pinked up easily while all the attention was on her sisters birth.  She was just letting her sister take her turn.  :)

The second baby was born as a double footling breach, meaning she was born with both her feet first, and face up.  This is actually a very dangerous way for babies to be born because the mother can't fully dilate for the hips, shoulders and head.  But since #1 came so perfectly and beautifully, she paved the way for her sister who was born safely.  The second baby did not start breathing well, however.  And when I saw her have a little bit of muscle tone and then go completely floppy a few times I was terrified.  But then I felt peaceful as I prayed desperately and remembered the prayers we had offered in the past about healthy babies and also remembered the blessings Tasha received in which she was told that we will look back on this day "with fondness" and that all things would "be well".  Tasha later remarked that she saw everything that was going on and that she was not panicked at all; that she was completely confident in our midwives and everything would be fine.  The midwives gave her some breaths, rubbed her back to stimulate her, and a bunch of other things I am sure.  Within maybe two minutes she was breathing well on her own and pinking up nicely.

When the placenta was born we weighed it for curiosity and it came in at 3 lbs 2 oz (average for singleton baby is 1-2 lbs).  Oh, and we weighed the babies too.  :)  6 lbs 10 oz and 18.5 inches to go along with 7 lbs 6 oz and 20.5 inches.  Good sized babies for twins!  (another great blessing).  So between the babies and the placenta alone Tasha was carrying 17 lbs, not even including the amniotic fluid.

Well that is our story, or maybe I should say that it is God's story.  Because everything that occurred was in His hands and by His blessing.  I feel that we could easily look back on this experience with fear and astonishment that something did not go wrong, but we do not.  We look back on it "with fondness"; with confidence in the answer to prayer we received.  Perhaps we could say that the Lord was our Doctor.  :)  He took the most rare and potentially complicated twin pregnancy and turned it into the most divine twin delivery we could have prayed for.

I guess, after all that has been said, we should conclude with this simple statement:

THANK YOU!

 Picture Time!!

Cadence on the left and London on the right.

The umbilical knot.  This is something that would have developed earlier in gestation when they had more room to move around and do a little dancing :)

Once again, Cadence on the left and London on the right

Tasha with 2 of our 3 person midwife team and the twins.  Angela (on the right holding Cadence) and Cassidy.  Sarah is the other midwife who is not pictured here.  We have loved them and feel so blessed to have had them to support us in our decisions.  They feel the same about being a part of all of this, though we did stress them out a little (or a lot) with having surprise twins :)

The kids were so tickled to have little twin sisters and had little grins on their faces the whole time.

McKay couldn't leave to the Wood's house (friends who took them for the next day and half) until he got to hold his sisters.

Gensie was the same way as McKay.  Just HAD to hold them.

We used to think Lele was our little one.  Well she isn't anymore!