Help Caylynn and Perry's Twins (Beating TTTS)

We believe firmly in solidarity and community and hope that this fundraiser will alleviate some of the stress and pain we are going through right now in our fight to keep our twins strong and healthy. In early April, our mono di (identical) twins were diagnosed with stage 2 twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. This means that one baby is essentially sending too much of its blood and nutrients to the other baby across the placenta. We were devastated to learn this news at a routine ultrasound and that Baby B had no amniotic fluid, no bladder showing, and was growing smaller than Baby A. The options presented to us were to have immediate laser surgery to sever the connections between the babies and stop the donor (Baby B) from sending nutrients to the recipient (Baby A), or have the strong likelihood one or both babies dying in the weeks ahead. We immediately opted for the laser surgery at Hopkins. Thankfully, both babies survived the surgery and Caylynn is recovering well. We need to spend the coming days and weeks watching to see if Baby B's fluids will come back and whether his growth will stabilize. It is extremely stressful and painful to say the least. But we are fighters and so are they.

In all of this, Johns Hopkins has already become our second home with more time spent there on the horizon. While we are privileged to have insurance, the medical bills are already mounting and the babies are very likely to have stays in the NICU once they're born. On top of it all, Caylynn is now required to rest as much as possible to prevent an even earlier delivery. The average delivery after laser surgery is 10 weeks later, which would put us at week 28. In the meantime, Caylynn's ability to teach ceramics is in question (she's on semi bed rest for now) -- and might not be possible for many months (especially knowing we have another long road ahead of us after they are born). Because of the impacts to Caylynn's body in a very hard pregnancy, she's also not been able to make ceramics since 2023.

We are reaching out to our communities and friends because we could use a helping hand right now. We were already feeling the financial impacts of years of trying for a baby via IVF and IUI (with no success -- these little boys somehow came naturally after we had totally given up!) and we now have to face the reality of no second income and mounting medical debt on top of it all. While we are not in immediate danger to lose our home, we have had to dip into savings way too much in recent months and worry about how things could look if we continue this approach for much longer. Not to mention the way inflation has been kicking all of our asses lately...!

While we fully recognize that many have it much worse than we do, and we understand being selective with where you send your extra money right now, we would welcome any help you are willing to provide. This is the most stressful and nerve wrecking thing that either of us have been through and alleviating some of the monetary stress on top of worrying about whether our boys will be ok would mean everything. It will keep us going and strong mentally for when they do get here (because they will -- we will keep fighting for that with everything we have). We love you all and appreciate your kindness and love you've already shown during this rough time. Even if you can't donate, please share and help us boost this fundraiser so others see it.

Sincerely and with all our love and appreciation,

Perry and Caylynn