After being told by doctors that she would not survive the womb, a twin who was born almost three times smaller than her sister has overcome the odds.
Reagan, who is now six months old, was born 11 weeks early and weighed only 1 lb, dwarfed by Mila, who weighed 2 lb 13 oz.
Audrieanna Lambert, Reagan’s mother, says it’s a miracle Reagan is still alive after doctors told her she wouldn’t make it through the pregnancy.
At 20 weeks, the doctors at West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh, US, were concerned when they noticed that Reagan’s growth had halted.
In December 2021, both twins were delivered via C-section and transported right away to the neonatal intensive care unit.
Before Mila was capable of returning home, she had to stay there for 45 days.
Reagan, on the other hand, was not so lucky. She battled sepsis and was separated from her sister and family in Washington, Pennsylvania, for 118 days.
Thankfully, the twins are both doing well now, though Mila weighs 12 pounds and Reagan 7 pounds, 5 ounces.
‘When I met them for the first time Reagan was so much smaller than I thought,’ said Audrieanna, a claims specialist.
“The gap between them was insane.” Mila was nearly three times bigger. They are so dissimilar in size that they don’t even resemble twins.
I expected Reagan to be small, but she was really tiny. However, they both performed miracles and survived. They’re amazing right now.
After years of infertility issues, Audrieanna and her union laborer husband Chase, 29, were overjoyed to learn that she was expecting in June 2021 following their initial IVF cycle.
The couple learned they were carrying twins at six weeks, but because Reagan, also known as “Baby B,” was measuring small, it was likely they may lose her early in the pregnancy.
Audrieanna says, “We were told the gestational sac was measuring little and it was likely she would pass.”
However, they gave us comfort by telling us that Reagan had caught up at 15 weeks.
The news was excellent.
We were overjoyed to receive two young daughters and everything looked to be fine with both of them.
Reagan, however, was 180% smaller than her sibling at 20 weeks.
Audrieanna recalls that the doctors weren’t sure if she would survive at that time.
But they continued to observe us. I merely prayed that we wouldn’t lose her.
At 24 weeks, the couple received the heartbreaking news that Reagan had shrunk by 50% and had problems with her cord flow. This is necessary for the nutrition to be transferred from the mother’s blood to the fetus through the umbilical cord and across the placenta.
They informed us that she would have departed by the time I returned for my scan in two weeks, Audrieanna acknowledges.
Given everything they knew about medicine, they were certain she wouldn’t survive.
“I was crushed.”
Amazingly, physicians discovered Reagan’s heart was still beating at the 26-week scan.
According to Audrieanna, “They were extremely amazed that she was still clinging on.”
I was adamant that I would do everything in my power to help her succeed.
Audrieanna was brought into West Penn Hospital at 27 weeks for observation.
Mila weighed 2 pounds, 13 ounces when she was born on December 10, 2021, while Reagan arrived at 16.33 o’clock that same day, weighing exactly 1 pound.
Their mother remembers: “All I could hear from Reagan was a whimper, but I heard Mila’s wonderful little cry and they held her up for me so I knew she was ok.
“It was like hearing a cat whimper.”
“I was in a panic because I couldn’t hear her and I didn’t get to see her before they took her away,” the speaker said.
The twins’ family learned that Reagan had sepsis at two weeks old and was being sent to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
She was so grey, Audrieanna says, that she appeared to be dead.
“It was terrible that twins had been split up,”
Mila transferred to the same hospital after four days, and the two were able to fight their way back to health together.
After 45 days in the hospital, Mila made a full recovery and was ready to return home in January 2022.
In order to assist her twin sister grow, she had to stay in the hospital for an additional three months. In April 2022, she was finally allowed to return home.
Audrieanna enthuses, “It was fantastic to have them both home.”
It has been a long road. They still differ greatly in size from one another.
I notice how much lighter Reagan still feels when I move between holding Mila and her. They have been thriving and achieving all of their milestones for the past six months.
They have overcome the odds.
