A Colorado mother of twin boys was told by Doctors to try her luck at the lottery after they revealed that she was pregnant with another set of rare identical twin girls – which is against 10-million-to-one odds.
Casey Saunders, 27, thought that the doctor was pulling her leg when she said the Mom of twin boys was expecting yet another duo, the odds of which are one in 70,000!
On top of the already impossible-seeming odds, the babies developed inside the same placenta, a condition that only occurs with about one percent of twin pregnancies and can cause fatal complications in the womb.
After spending the final two months of her pregnancy in the hospital while doctors monitored the twins, Casey and her partner Eugene Goree welcomed baby girls Maya and Laia on December 1.
4 months later, Casey shared her unlikely story with Daily Mail Online.
Casey, who’s an optometric technician, had her boys Hayden and Cameron when she was 17 years old, and 9 years later she learned she and her partner Eugene were pregnant again.
When she went in for her first ultrasound she had the excited boys in tow.
‘On the way to the ultrasound they were arguing over who was going to get to hold “the baby” first,’ she said.
‘I thought the sonographer was trying to tease me when she said there were two heartbeats because she knew I had my twin boys with me.’
The technician saw the monitor and told Casey: ‘You should go buy a Powerball ticket when you’re done here.’
She was pregnant with twins – again.
‘I was shocked. I called Eugene and said: “You’re not going to believe this,”‘ she said.
‘He was surprised but really excited from the beginning.’
Casey told the Daily Mail that she’s never tried to calculate the odds of a pregnancy like this one because they’re too complicated – but it’s clear that her girls are extraordinarily unlikely.
The odds of having identical twins are about one in 250, which is considered to be a relatively small number statistically speaking.
The likelihood of having two sets of identical twins is one in 70,000, meaning that Casey had about a .0014 percent chance of having twins again.
On top of the already miniscule odds, the twins were revealed to be monoamniotic monochorionic, which occurs in less than one percent of twin pregnancies.
Casey’s chances of being pregnant with MoMo twins were less than one in 10 million!
But the MoMo diagnosis cast a shadow over the twin news.
MoMo twins develop a shared placenta and amniotic sac, putting them at risk of the umbilical cords tangling or being compressed, which blocks the flow of nutrients to the fetus.
‘We went from “Oh my God we’re having twins” to “Oh my God, we’re having a really high-risk pregnancy,”‘ Casey said.
After 24 weeks, the survival rate of MoMo twins is about 75 to 80 percent.
As her pregnancy was a high risk one, Casey was hospitalized during the last two months of her pregnancy so doctors could monitor the babies for any potential complications.
‘It was nerve-wracking at each ultrasound not knowing if we had lost them to cord entanglement. But each week they were still there growing,’ she said.
While she was in hospital, she spent her time knitting and writing in a journal intended for her baby girls.
She spoke with her sons via FaceTime because they were only able to visit on the weekends.
‘It’s hard being in the hospital when you’re completely healthy and away from your family, but what kept me going is knowing that each day, every week we’re in here, we get to bring home healthy, happy baby girls and the boys can’t wait for the opportunity to have sisters,’ Casey said.
On December 1, 2017, the family welcomed baby girls Maya and Laia.
They were born 8 weeks premature the babies were kept in the hospital for 4 weeks before they could go home, but Casey said they didn’t have any complications after birth.
The now-four-month-olds have settled into their home with the help of their older brothers.
‘They are doing excellent. Exceeding all expectations,‘ Casey said. ‘And the boys absolutely adore them.
‘They still won’t change diapers but they love to hold them and feed them. It’s heartwarming to see.’
Although raising two babies at once is a challenge, it’s nothing new for Casey!
She said: ‘You fall into a routine after a while and it comes back to you after you’ve done it once.’