Paris and Marissa’s Story

Last year I had the privilege to be a guest blogger on my daughter Paris’ blog leftyslens.com, so I thought I would re-post……hope you enjoy hearing about Paris and Marissa’s story.

Hi everyone……I am Paris’ Momma and I am taking over her blog today! I am super excited to be a guest blogger, Paris makes me so proud with all the hard work she puts into this blog and really everything she does, she always gives 110%.
So I thought about what I could write about and I always get a lot of questions about the twins, because they are so unique and different……people are very curious and interested about their story and since we are approaching their birthdays I thought what a great time to tell their story. So I will start back when I was pregnant and so excited to become a Mom, little did I know then that I would be blessed with two amazing and talented girls.

I went through a lot and it wasn’t easy for me to get pregnant so when I finally did it was such an exciting time. The first 3 months hit me hard, I was working full time and sick every day, I would get sick before work most days, sometimes at work, one day I almost passed out during a business meeting….so embarrassing!! Other than the morning sickness nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, I was not very big and the doctor did not have any concerns. Two days before Christmas at 5 months pregnant I went in to have my first ultra sound, I was so excited to finally find out the sex of the baby….little did I know I was in for a big surprise. The ultrasound technician said “there is one head, oh and there is the other one”…..SAY WHAT?? At first I don’t think the technician knew that we weren’t aware we were having more than one baby. We were in shock, COMPLETE SHOCK!

The girls Dad and I sat in the waiting room waiting to see the doctor and we sat in silence, we both were in shock and I don’t think we knew what to say. A million thoughts and feelings were running through our heads. We never did find out what we were having that day, we just knew we were having two! 🙂 Our families were very excited and supportive and my Mom felt the need to rush out and purchase another set of everything she had bought the baby for Christmas. LOL!
The next few months were crazy, I was now considered a high risk pregnancy so I had to be very careful. At 30 weeks pregnant to my surprise I was put on bedrest, I was not prepared at all for that because I was feeling pretty good, I was told to lay on the couch all day every day, only get up to go to the bathroom and take a shower. My Mom had to stop by several times a day to bring me meals, I had family members come over and clean my house & do my laundry. It was driving me crazy to lay there, I am not the kind of person who sits still for long and I defiantly don’t ask for help much. After one week of that my body was continuing to go into labor so I was told I needed to check into the hospital, this was very scary for me. I was hooked up to all kinds of monitors and IV’s and we waited, trying to hold off labor for as long as possible. I was given shots to try and help develop the girls lungs, medicine that after a few days made me extremely sick. So the doctor had no choice at 32 weeks, I had to have an emergency C-section (both girls were breach). We met the doctor in the operating room at 11:00 pm and he began surgery. If any of you know Paris well you know she is constantly moving and so it was no surprise that she had somehow lodged herself between my bones so she was difficult to get out. That made everything take longer than anticipated but when they eventually got her out she was beautiful, I got to see her briefly and they said she was doing really well (3 lbs. 14 oz.). By the time they got Marissa out (because of the delay) the clock went from 11:59 to Midnight so the doctor told me they had two different birthday’s, at first I thought that was really weird but then after a while I began to think how unique and cool it was, God had a plan for them from the very beginning and they were special from the start. Marissa was 4 lbs. and she was not breathing, she was having a lot of lung issues so I was not able to even see her, they whisked her away and started working on her immediately. This scared me so much, the only thing I was able to see was pictures on the screen of our digital camera, you will see in the picture below she is hooked up to a ventilator.

The whole experience was the single most traumatic thing I have ever experienced. To see your two babies so tiny and being born before they were ready and struggling was so hard. They had to go straight to the NICU and that became their home for the next few weeks. I was released from the hospital a couple days after they were born and I struggled with that, I remember standing in the hospital bathroom balling my eyes out because I had to leave my babies at the hospital. I never imagined when I checked into the hospital that I would be checking out without them. I had a really hard time, I couldn’t sleep at night, not only was I recovering from major surgery but my heart was left behind at the hospital. After two weeks Marissa was released and we brought her home, it was really hard to have one home and one still at the hospital especially since I was not released to drive yet, but I guess it eased me into motherhood and was a little bit easier to manage. I have very supportive friends and family who drove me back and forth each day. Paris was stubborn, she was healthy but she just wouldn’t eat, she didn’t want to suck and she was perfectly fine with getting her food through a feeding tube, that is the only reason she had to stay an extra week in the NICU. I was so thankful the day they both were home for good. As hard as some people think it is to have twins, I never looked at it that way, it is such a blessing. Don’t get me wrong there were plenty of hard times but to me having two was normal because I didn’t know any different, to me it was amazing that they always had a playmate, they always have each other. The fact that they were born on two different days, one has dark hair and brown eyes and one has blonde hair and blue eyes and they are completely different and unique in their own ways makes me very happy. Their differences keep life interesting and fun!

The beginning was rough in so many ways but it was life changing for me. My two girls mean the world to me and we have a bond like no other.

I know sometimes people might think I go over the top on their Birthday’s or Christmas or we do so many things together but I celebrate every milestone and them being healthy each day and I thank God for the gift he has given me. There are so many parents that aren’t so fortunate, who’s premature children have a lifetime of health issues or who don’t make it at all.
I was blessed to work at the Ronald McDonald House for nearly 7 years, I started when the girls were just 2 years old and it was an important outlet for me to give back and help families who had children in the hospital, I met so many wonderful people and was able to connect with so many of them who were going through some very rough situations, it put a lot of things into perspective for me.

The girl’s birth and my experience at Ronald McDonald House made me cherish my time with my girls so much more, Jason and I choose to create many life experience that the girls will carry with them forever and we do not take one day for granted that we get to spend with them. They have turned into such amazing people that we are so proud of, and we encourage them every day to dream big, go after their dreams, to live original and to be thankful for what God has given them. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our talented twins and their birth story over the last few weeks, we are pretty proud and we can’t wait to see where life takes them next! Happy 14th Birthday girls, we love you!