Twin to Twin: From High-Risk Pregnancy to Happy Family (Childbirth Preparation, Pregnancy for Twins)

by Crystal Duffy, Dr. Kenneth Moise (Foreword by)

Overview

The High-Risk Guide to Twin Pregnancy

"An intimate account, told with flagging and unflagging optimism, Duffy’s story ensures that others need not ride alone through this rollercoaster experience.” —Suzy Becker, Author of One Good Egg

#1 New Release in Pediatric Emergencies

This is a twenty-nine-year-old mother’s harrowing and inspiring adventure through a high-risk twin pregnancy. But this isn’t only a book about pregnancy for twins. It’s also an inspirational story to which all women can relate, especially when confronting any type of adversity.

A crisis when expecting. One minute Crystal was sitting at a candlelight dinner in Paris with her husband. The next she was back home in Houston, sitting in her Ob-Gyn’s office concerned that she was having a second miscarriage. Instead, she found out she was pregnant with twins! Since Crystal and her husband already had a two-year-old daughter, she couldn’t imagine why mothering twins would be all that different. But, after a family vacation at the beach, she finds out that her twins have a life-threatening condition called Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, which meant that one is transfusing blood (disproportionately) to the other.

A riveting true story. Forced to stay in the hospital to be under direct care, Crystal wondered how she would pass time the next few weeks, away from her husband and daughter. She soon found out as she embarks on an emotional rollercoaster. Twin to Twin is a raw and inspirational story filled with tenderness, vulnerability and humor. It chronicles the wildest, most terrifying and challenging year of Crystal’s life, which is also the most beautiful and eye-opening.

While reading Twin to Twin:

• Share the experience of a high-risk twin pregnancy
• Gain valuable insights
• Be inspired

If you found solace and inspiration in What to Do When You’re Having Two; You Can Two! or When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets or Quads; then you’ll love Twin to Twin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633538337
Publisher:	Mango Media
Publication date:	12/15/2018
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Crystal Duffy is an American writer with two degrees from Georgetown University. She began her career as an educational consultant and then worked as a public high school teacher. She is the author of her memoir, Twin to Twin, detailing her high-risk twin pregnancy. Her essays on family life and parenting have appeared in Woman’s World, You&Me Medical Magazine, Scary Mommy, BluntMoms, Mamapedia, Twiniversity and Twins Magazine.



She serves as co-chair for the Parent Advisory Board of the NICU for Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in the medical center. She has appeared and been a guest on different podcasts including, Lose the Cape, NICU NOW, and Never Ever Give Up Hope. She lives in Houston with her husband, three little girls and a yappy little yorkie.

Dr. Moise is a Professor at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. He is board certified in general Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He has a special interest in the prenatal diagnosis and minimally invasive surgical treatment of fetal disorders including twin to twin transfusion, and spina bifida. Dr. Moise completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt Universityfollowed by a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He was instrumental in the formation of both the Center for Maternal and Infant Health at the University of North Carolina and the Texas Children's Fetal Center prior to his arrival to join the Universityand the The Fetal Center on September 14, 2011.

Table of Contents

Praise for Twin to Twin 4

Author's Note 17

Foreword 18

Part 1 The Beginning 21

Chapter 1 The Ultrasound 23

Chapter 2 The Wait 33

Chapter 3 The Longest Day 43

Chapter 4 Laser Ablation 57

Chapter 5 What Do We Do Now? 65

Chapter 6 The List 71

Chapter 7 Leaving One Child to Save Others 77

Part 2 The Hospital 83

Chapter 8 Move-In Day 85

Chapter 9 The Dorm Room 91

Chapter 10 My Antepartum Family 99

Chapter 11 Keeping the Faith 109

Chapter 12 Routine Job 119

Chapter 13 We're All in This Together 131

Chapter 14 Together Again 143

Chapter 15 Everyday Heroes 157

Chapter 16 Deepening Tensions 167

Chapter 17 For Better or Worse 175

Chapter 18 Blessingway 187

Chapter 19 I'm Never Going Back 193

Part 3 The Delivery 207

Chapter 20 A Mothers Intuition 209

Chapter 21 The Prep 225

Chapter 22 The Birth 233

Chapter 23 Placental Abruption 243

Part 4 The NICU 251

Chapter 24 The Updates 253

Chapter 25 Waiting 265

Chapter 26 The NICU 269

Chapter 27 The Long Goodbye 275

Chapter 28 Home Bittersweet Home 287

Chapter 29 In My Arms 291

Chapter 30 Five Weeks 297

Chapter 31 Their Arrival 303

Epilogue 2016 313

Acknowledgements 321

High Risk Pregnancy and Twins/Multiples Resources 323

About the Author 333

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“An inspirational and heart-wrenching book.”
- Cea Sunrise Person, Author of North of Normal

“An “orphan” disease, expectant mothers with Twin to Twin (and their support systems) should adopt Crystal Duffy’s new memoir TWIN TO TWIN. An intimate account, told with flagging and unflagging optimism, Duffy’s story ensures that others need not ride alone through this rollercoaster experience.”
- Suzy Becker, Author of One Good Egg

“Crystal Duffy’s wit and self-deprecating humor helped her survive the realities and (sometimes devastating) physical and emotional truths of her high-stakes twin pregnancy. Twin to Twin is engaging, compelling, and yes, entertaining read.”
- Susan Krawitz, Author of Viva Rose
“Your story is so moving and dramatic — the things that you and Ed and Abby and your twins went through! You make it all come alive, with emotion and humor and honesty and pain, and I felt like I was right there with you.” - Jane Roper, Author of Double Time
“Imagine the worst day of your life so far, then multiply that by infinity. We imagine that is how Crystal Duffy must have felt the day she's told her twin pregnancy is threatened by Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS). A potentially fatal disease that can take away one or both babies, TTTS is one of the least discussed issues in books about multiples - because it IS scary. Duffy dives bravely into her new frightening reality and emerges on the other side with a message of hope and optimism. Her must-read story is one of courage, honesty, family, and above all else, love.”
- Megan Woolsey and Alison Lee, Editors of Multiples Illuminated: A Collection of Stories and Advice from Parents of Twins, Triplets and More and Multiples Illuminated: Life with Twins and Triplets, the Toddler to Tween Years

“An exciting ride through a delightful and surprising diagnosis that quickly turned terrifying. You’ll empathize with Crystal, cheer for her, and draw strength for your own struggles.”
- Margaret Welwood, Author, Mother of Twins

Twin to Twin is Crystal Duffy’s journey through her high-risk, high-stakes twin pregnancy. Both beautiful and painful, the book, with glorious details and pacing, shows the power of one mother’s love and resilience against all odds.
- Marcelle Soviero, Editor-in-Chief Brain Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers

"Crystal did great after such a complicated pregnancy. Twin to Twin is both an exciting and dramatic read that brings to life the fears and challenges of a high-risk pregnancy. This memoir is a fabulous resource for parents, family members and friends, but also for professionals, including physicians, nurses, therapists and genetic counselors.”- Dr. Paul Cook, M.D., with The OB/GYN Center of Houston affiliated with Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital

“Anyone in the field of fetal medicine, or any field of medicine for that matter, should consider reading Crystal’s book. It is an uninhibited disclosure of a mother’s experience with a life-threatening pregnancy complication. Not only does it show the sometimes yawning chasm between what doctors counsel and what patients hear, but Crystal reveals it with clarity, wit and empathy. Her story displays the extraordinary courage of a pregnant mother and the enduring compassion, talent and wisdom of her team of providers. It is an uplifting example of what humans do best: care from each other. This book is Crystals way of caring by sharing her experience so that others can benefit.”
-Stephen P. Emery, MD. Director, Center for Innovative Fetal Intervention, Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC

Interviews

The Story Behind the Book About five years ago my husband Ed and I were on a family vacation in Maui. It’s one of my favorite places in the world—with lush vegetation, expansive beaches and rolling white-capped waves. We considered it a baby moon—and were ecstatic since we had just found out I was six weeks pregnant. We were going to be parents, we announced, sharing the news with everyone we met. Ed and I were walking along Kaanapali beach when my back began to throb; heavy cramps pounded inside me like an earthquake, burning like an inferno. I hunched over in pain, and then Ed picked me up and carried me into the hotel room. I had a miscarriage in the midst of paradise. Devastated, we spent hours waiting by the phone for my OB in Houston to call us back, answer our questions and advise us on next steps. We spent a day and a half in the Maui ER contemplating going through with the dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure—which vacuums the fetal tissue out of the uterus. I ultimately decided that it would be too painful, both emotionally and physically to do it, and opted to let the fetus pass out of my body naturally. The morning before we left for home, as the last of the fetal tissue trickled out of my body, I silently said goodbye to my baby. When we returned from Hawaii, I was so overcome with the loss that I stayed in bed for days reading up on pregnancy procedures. I was determined to get pregnant and try again until we succeeded. Exactly a year later, I gave birth to our daughter Abigail. She was our little miracle; the baby we had prayed for. It was worth every moment of pain, we had endured just to hold her in our arms. *** Two years later, I’m lying exhausted on the couch in the living room suffering from sleep deprivation, trying to process the last three years of my life—from the miscarriage in Hawaii to my imprisonment (aka bed rest in the hospital) to feeling co-opted as mother by a monitoring machine, and helping my twins fight for their lives. That’s the moment I realized that I wanted to share my story—not just for the women that have had high risk or even twin pregnancies but for all women that journey through the mysterious and (sometimes dangerous) path of pregnancy into motherhood. This story is for all of us: for the obstacles we overcome, for the decisions we make, for the hope that we each find our strength when faced with what seems like untenable adversity.