Hello everyone. 

These last months have been a rollercoaster of emotions for me and my significant other. We found out we were going to be having a baby back in October of 2022. This was terrifying but exciting and we started preparing ourselves for welcoming a baby into our lives and adjusting what our lives would look like from then on out. Our lives felt even more like a rollercoaster after my significant other had to be taken to the ER due to complications early on in her pregnancy; because of this we found out on December 4th that we were not bringing in just one baby to our lives… we were bringing in two.

 Two identical twin boys. We couldn’t be more scared, nervous, excited, and full of love to find out we were going to be doubling the love we had for one, and sharing it with another. It took us some time to pick out names for our babies, but we finally settled on some names. Koa, and Kai. We finally started getting more comfortable with the idea of twins and what that means for us as a family, and in the course of hundreds of doctor appointments that my significant other had to bear through for the sake of our babies, fate decided that the plan was never going to be in place as on February 21st, 2023, my significant other went into premature labor at just 25 weeks pregnant. 

We rushed to Doctors Hospital in Modesto where the doctors did everything they could to stop the labor, but the twins had other plans in mind. My significant other was rushed into an emergency c-section and the twins were born, and taken to the Nicu. They always say that babies decide when they are born, but that never made having micropreemies in the NICU any easier for us. Our lives really began to change at this point— every day going to the NICU, making phone calls every couple of hours just to check on them. We’ve never been so scared in our lives, but we tried our best to remain hopeful. 

The twins had good days, and bad days, as is to be expected when you have babies in the NICU. Kai seemed to be chugging along and fighting as much as he could, but fate brought our family to a conference room to meet with the NICU doctors and nurses to discuss our options for Kai. They told us he had a stage 4 bilateral brain bleed and an infection, and our options were comfort care, continue trying, or to opt for a second opinion. We did what any good parent would do and opted for a second opinion, and with that the boys were transferred over to Stanford hospital in Palo Alto. 

the NICU at Stanford was and has been much better. We found that Kai had a stage 2 bilateral brain bleed and not a stage 4, however it soon progressed to a stage 3, and they were working on treating his infection. 

Weeks went by and both boys were set to go home at 40 weeks, just 9 weeks away until that night we were struck with devastating news. Kai was rushed into emergency surgery where it was discovered that his small intestines were infected and not doing well. That’s when the doctors told us there wasn’t much left they could do, so we prepared ourselves for the worst.. but no amount of preparation really prepares you for the amount of pain you will feel. 

We called our family together, and we said our goodbyes to our beautiful baby boy Kai on April 6th, 2023. Our lives will never be the same, and although we want to stay strong for Koa, we know our hearts will continue to ache in Kai’s memory forever.

We are setting up this Go Fund Me to help us in  paying for all of the medical expenses and for living expenses for our other son, Koa. We appreciate any amount that is donated to us, even if it’s just a dollar. Thank you in advance for your help. If you are unable to donate, do not feel bad, all we ask is that you share this Go Fund me so that it may reach others. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I wish you all well, Lorenzo.