Miracle mum Vicki shares Katerina and Anastasia's story:

In 2023, after a horrendous ectopic pregnancy, my husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to access IVF. We were pleasantly surprised when our first fresh embryo transfer lead to a positive pregnancy test. Well, I all but fainted when we were told identical twin girls were heading our way August 10th 2024!!! Despite it being a high risk and hard pregnancy of multiples we were elated. I kept telling my poor husband I had just copied and pasted myself and the house would be run by girls ! Haha. Sometimes though… our happy endings are not quite what we expect and in April just post 24 weeks, we were told the devastating news that one of our twins had passed. At 27 weeks, after a week in hospital and labour, I was rushed to RPA and told I was to deliver my girls early. Katerina was born sleeping at 366g and Anastasia was born bigger than life at 947g. We were thrown into a world we barely knew existed. We talked survival rates of our daughter A, and planned K’s funeral in the same week. NICU is not for the weak of heart and yet we found the strength every day in that little girl playing inside the incubator. After 2 weeks We moved to Westmead Adults NICU for 100+ days and finally Hunter Bailey. There were so many doctors and nurses, scans, blood transfusions, cannulas, Cpaps, X-rays and so many Brady’s/Desats I still hear the beeping in my nightmares. It was hard. It’s still hard, there are so many doctors appointments and follow-ups, I yearn for quiet. Our daughter was born with a cleft palate and required an NG tube from birth, but despite all her “labels”, all her “we expect…” she thrived. She thrives!!! I made some beautiful lifelong friends in those walls and I learned a new kind of strength that comes with being a NICU mum. I often mourn the weeks I lost carrying my babies, the experiences we missed because these weren’t normal circumstances. But I’m also extremely grateful more than ever that though my hands are full, they aren’t empty. Anastasia will be 1 years old in May, and she is still bigger than life. I’m watching her play in her walker as I sit writing this at 7 months pregnant, with a little girl ❤️

P.s. Of course the girls were born spitting images of my husband !!! 😂