Wren's Nest

This is the letter we sent to some of our friends and family when we found out our news.

Hello all,

   The Bender clan thought we were only adding 1 new addition when we found out we were pregnant, but when we went in for our 8 week ultra sound the tech said, "Heart beat looks good..... and so does the other one...." 

  Luke said all I kept saying was, "seriously?" "Seriously!?!". We have no history of twins on either side of the family, and are not undergoing any type of fertility treatment, so we are just some of those rare people blessed with spontaneously occurring identical twins.

Our original appointment with our midwife for a typical second birth changed to consulting with a Dr. because we are now bumped up to a high risk pregnancy. We are also going to be consulting with a special high risk Dr. because, as of right now the kiddos have been diagnosed as mono-mono twins, which means they share the same sac and the same placenta. This is very rare (1 in 50,000) and very dangerous because not only will they have the potential common twin problem of Twin to Twin transfusion, the fact that they are in the same sac means they are also in danger of getting tangled in each others chords. Mono-Mono twins only have a 50 to 60 % survival rate.

The good news is that many people diagnosed with this find out later that the babies are actually separated by a membrane, but it was not readily apparent on early ultrasounds. This is our prayer.

What this means for us : If they are mono-mono I may be put under full time observation (hospital bed rest) as early as 24 weeks so they can intervene at the first sign of trouble. Even if they are not, the Dr.'s will be monitoring twin to twin transfusion very closely throughout the pregnancy and our little ones may potentially come early and have some stay in the NICU.

Right now our littles look GREAT. They have made it through a trip to Vegas, a church wide garage sale, and Momma's 2 ear infections and subsequent illness, so they are already some tough cookies!

I am still learning a lot, and won't know much more until 12 weeks when we have our next appointment and referral to the specialist. We wanted to let you all know now so you can be in prayer. Everything may turn out just fine, but we will still need prayer for adjusting to life as the parents of not only a 2 year old, but twins on top of that!

I will keep you all updated, probably through facebook or a blog as things progress. 

We want to Thank you all for being our friends, and the wonderful support we have received from you in the past and ask you for your prayers in the future. We know that God is Big and He can do amazing things. We also know that God is good no matter what the outcome of this is. We are very grateful that we know we are not in this alone. 

Luke, Erin, and big brother Isaac.