Amazing Twins Will Likely Be Born Four Months Apart
In most cases, twins are born within minutes of each other. But if all goes well, two miracle babies in Washington State will be celebrating their birthdays a whopping four months apart.
The unusual story began late last month, when the boys' mom, Holli Gorveatt, went into labor unexpectedly at 23 weeks.Because of complications, she had to deliver one of the babies, Link, who was a tiny 1 pound, 2 ounces at birth. (Her wedding ring fit easily around his limbs.)
Options were more limited for the second baby, Logan. He was much smaller than his brother, due to a potentially fatal, rare condition called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, where blood passes unequally between twins who share a placenta. Because of that, Gorveatt's doctors decided to try a rare, risky procedure called Delayed Interval Delivery (DID), leaving Logan in utero until closer to his original January due date.
The twins' estimated four-month gap between births is one of the longest intervals on record, according to Dr. Martin Walker, who oversaw the DID.
Miraculously, despite all the setbacks, the boys are hanging in there. Though the odds were stacked against Link—only some 10 percent of preemies survive the procedure—he's putting on some weight in the NICU and showing promising signs of lung development, his parents wrote on their GoFundMe page. Logan also seems to be doing well inside his mama. He's "passing his non stress tests," they wrote. "He still likes to move around and be active during these times. We find his heartbeat and he moves away."
Dr. Walker told the New York Daily News that Link won't progress as well as his in-utero brother, but any developmental differences will even out by the time the boys are in preschool. "I think by the time they're young men, they'll be identical twins the way everyone else sees twins," he added.
But it sounds like right now, the cautiously hopeful parents are more focused on helping their babies get through the next few months. Dad Nick Gorveatt wrote that Link is "fighting for his life, waiting for the day he gets to meet his brother on the outside."
We're keeping the family—especially those remarkable twins—in our thoughts and hoping for the happy outcome they deserve.
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Bonnie Gibbs Vengrow is a New York City-based writer and editor who traded in her Blackberry and Metro card for playdates and PB&J sandwiches—and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to watch her feisty, funny son grow up.
Credit: Baby teeth chart
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