METAIRIE, La. — They weighed as much as a baseball when they were born, just more than a single pound each just over four years ago. Now a Metairie family has a hopeful story for couples who have preemies fighting for their lives.
Infertility, miscarriage, or not knowing if you'll ever get to take a baby home from the NICU, can each be difficult for any family.
There is a local couple who have experienced all three, multiple times and they want to share their message of hope for other couples facing any of these problems.
"I didn't hold them for the first two weeks. I held Addison two weeks after giving birth, and John was five weeks," said their mother Rachel Tabony.
As fraternal twins John and Addison sang 'Jingle Bells,' parents John and Rachel Tabony never thought this kind of Christmas was possible, a life filled with four and a half year old twins and their little three-year-old brother Parker.
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"It's very painful. When you're going through it, it's not something you just look past easily, especially on your first try," Rachel and her husband John said speaking together about all the health problems they had to endure.
Four times they had the joy of finding out they were expecting. But four times there was the painful silence of no heartbeat nine weeks later. A genetic test showed Rachel has only a 10 percent chance of having a genetically normal egg, so through invitro fertilization, Addison and John Junior were on their way. Then at only 22 weeks, after her water broke, Rachel was in labor.
"I thought everything was going to end that day. We rushed to the hospital and they controlled it for 10 days," she remembers.
John blocked Addison in the womb and it bought crucial developmental time. But at 23 and a half weeks, the twins arrived. They were so small they were able to fit in your palm.
Each twin weighed just more than a single pound.
Mom and Dad practically lived at the Ochsner-Baptist NICU for five months, using the cameras donated by Saints Quarterback Drew Brees for peace of mind when they had to leave.
"He is amazing and we thank him so much. You're going to make me cry. When we weren't there, we still could see them. Just log on your phone," Rachel said.
"You've got two children, both born, as we would say, at the cusp of viability. You're not really looking at a very optimistic outcome," explained Ochsner Section Head of Neonatology, Dr. Harley Ginsberg.