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As you know Melissa is just over 20 weeks pregnant with identical twins. At our ultrasound yesterday, we were excited to learn that they are girls. Unfortunately, we also learned that our girls have a rare and serious disorder called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS).

With TTTS, some blood vessels in the placenta go haywire and send more nutrients and oxygen to one baby than the other. Most identical twins have some level of TTTS, but in the most severe cases (like ours) the syndrome can be fatal to both twins. One twin dies of starvation while the other dies of overload.

Luckily, a surgery was developed in recent years to help combat TTTS, but only seven specialists in the country perform it. As a result, we will be flying to either Tampa, Seattle, or Cincinnati this week for tests and, if appropriate, the surgery. With the surgery there is an 80% chance one of our twins will survive and a 60% chance they will both make it. With a successful surgery, Melissa will be on bedrest for the rest of her pregnancy (hopefully 2-3 months) and the twins will most likely still be born very early and spend 1-2 months in the hospital -- but we'll take it!

Just in case, we have named both girls in advance:

- Elizabeth Hope (Elsa)
"Elizabeth" after Melissa's mom, "Hope" because we need lots of it. :)

- Beatrice Anita (Bea)
"Beatrice" means voyager and "Anita" after Matt's grandma who fought all types of adversity and usually won!