My daughter Berkley Lauren Harmon was born without her left hand on November 7, 2005. She was also part of a twin that passed when I was almost 3 months pregnant.
My initial reaction was extreme shock, hurt, pain, and denial. I was a complete mess. I cried for almost 4 months. I didn’t understand what happened. I never used drugs, smoked or anything. Why Me? I asked. I realized that there is no answer.
Now, 14 months later,
My youngest son Conner was a twin and I had many complications during my pregnancy. At 15 wks. gestation I found out that one of my babies had passed on due to a rare syndrome found in 1:35,000 twin pregnancies;it is called TRAP syndrome. It is classified as twin to twin transfusion. Conner was the pump twin pumping all of the blood for both himself and his twin.
As time went on I began to have access fluid inside the placenta which was a sign of Conner becoming very stressed at around 21 wks.
Michael Daniel, was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS) affecting his right hand and his left foot. While we would have never wished for Michael to be born with differences, we wouldn’t trade him for anything. Michael is one special child we love him so much.
When we decided to start our family we had difficulty conceiving. After a year Wendy had invetro-fertilization. With much praying from our friends and family, to our amazement Wendy became pregnant. We were going to have a baby!
Thomas was born at 32 1/2 weeks on October 19, 2002 (Due 12-09-02) 3 lbs 15 1/2 oz ; 16 1/2 inches long. Thomas is a healthy boy today because of modern medicine. If he was conceived only a few years ago he would not have survived.
He was an identical triplet, but his brothers were conjoined twins. The twins had no chance of survival, but were threatening the third baby’s life. As a result we made the tough decision to have surgery in San Fransisco that would stop the sharing of blood through Twin Twin Transfusion and save Thomas.
