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By Daniella Gray
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After an anxious pregnancy, an Australian mom thought the hardest part of having twins was behind her when she finally welcomed her babies. Everything seemed perfect. Until it wasn't.
Everything was perfect. Until it wasn't.
Kiarah Blaby, 22, and her husband, Jai, 23, were excited to discover they were expecting boy-girl twins who would join their 1-year-old sister, Harper.
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"We did our own little private gender reveal, and it was so beautiful and intimate," Kiarah told Newsweek. "We were really happy that we got one of each."
Sadly, the pregnancy bliss soon wore off for Kiarah. Classed as a high-risk pregnancy, she needed to be monitored carefully with monthly scans and appointments.
Then, at Kiarah's 20-week scan, the couple were informed their girl twin, Tilly, had lost more than half her body weight in two weeks.
Her baby boy, Coen, also had a heart defect.
The scans increased to weekly, and the goal was to get to 30 weeks.
"I was doing so many kick countings and making sure that movements were fine, holding my breath for every appointment, making sure that there was growth," Kiarah said. "It was really, really stressful."
Kiarah made it to 35 weeks' pregnant, a milestone she never thought she would reach.
She was admitted to hospital with preterm labor symptoms but was discharged because doctors were confident that her body was just getting ready for childbirth.
Five days later, her water broke and Kiarah delivered her twins via C-section.
After a few blissful moments, chaos ensued.
During her c-section, Kiarah's doctors had accidentally cut into her right ovary, causing a hemorrhage.
Tilly was also rushed to a special-care nursery because she wasn't feeding or maintaining a stable body temperature.
Doctors ran tests and found there had been a maternal-fetal blood transfer, meaning some of Kiarah's blood had crossed into her baby’s circulation.
The parents were told they did not know exactly how it had happened, but that the complication could have serious consequences, including bleeding in the brain.
"We were rushed off to get ultrasounds on her head and we were really lucky that we actually share the same blood type," Kiarah said. "If not, it could have been a lot more catastrophic."
Meanwhile, after spending more than eight months together in the womb, the twins were separated.
It was heartbreaking for Kiarah.
"I was only spending maybe an hour with her per day, then having to leave her to be upstairs with her twin brother," she said. "It was a really heavy-hearted and guilty feeling as a mom. We expected to have both the twins with us after they were born."
After five days in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the twins were reunited and the family was discharged.
Now, at seven months old, the twins are thriving and hitting all of their developmental milestones.
"We're all doing amazing and we're finally being able to enjoy being the twin parents and enjoying having them and not worrying about all of the what ifs," Kiarah said.
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