On August 2, 2025 Nicole went into preterm labor on the second day of a family vacation to Oahu, Hawaii, after being cleared by multiple members of my OB team, to have a fun and relaxing vacation. At just 23 weeks and 6 days, Jeremy Dean and Madilyn Renee Richardson were born at Kaiser Moanalua Medical Center. At just 1lb 8oz each, their road ahead is long but promising.

Jeremy couldn't wait for the emergency c-section team and made his appearance into the world rather quickly, appearing just after being transferred onto the OR table. Madilyn patiently waited for the emergency c-section to occur. Born just 11 minutes apart, both babies required extensive medical support after birth. Both were placed on ventilators by their own Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) teams and were transferred upstairs to the NICU.

The Richardson twins will be staying at the hospital in Oahu, at minimum, until their 40-week due date, which is November 23, 2025.

Nicole was discharged after 4 days in the hospital, is recovering well, and is making twice daily trips to see the babies in the NICU to see their progress and to ensure they know they are loved. Nicole will be staying in Hawaii until the babies are medically cleared to fly back home to southern California. Josh will be making frequent trips back and forth during this upcoming school semester (as he is a community college professor).

With the support of her mother, Michele, and mother-in-law, Garilyn, Nicole will not be alone. Nicole was accepted into one of the local Ronald McDonald houses, a few miles down the road from the hospital, where she will be staying for the next few months while utilizing her maternity leave.

Both babies have made progress in these past two weeks, taking steps in the right direction. Jeremy has been successfully extubated from the ventilator and is now requiring a CPAP machine. Madilyn is still requiring a ventilator for respiratory support but is improving with lower and lower settings. Both had heart ultrasounds after trouble maintaining their blood pressures which showed an open PDA. PDA is an extra arterty (hole) in the heart that babies have but as they mature in mommy's tummy, it will close on its own. Due to their extreme prematurity, they are both requiring medication to assist in its closure. They will receive a course of medication to assist in its closure and repeat scans after completion to see its progress in hopes that it starts to or completely closes, which will improve their blood pressure and respiratory support requirements. Madilyn was finally able to tolerate her feeding tube placement after two failed attempts and a few days of rest between attempts. Jeremy has been tolerating his feedings via OG tube and is receiving increased breast milk feeds daily. Both babies received head ultrasounds which both showed one-sided brain bleeds, Jeremy's graded at a level 2 out of 4 and Madilyn's a grade 4. Both babies are requiring head safety precautions and weekly scans to see their bleeds stability and healing. After their first repeat scan, both bleeds are stable and not active or progressing.

Madilyn has opened both her eyes and is a very curious and active baby, kicking and moving her arms about. While her big brother likes to be curled up on his tummy, with his hands by his face. Jeremy has just opened his eyes but prefers to keep them closed most of the time.

Each day there will be steps forward, lulls, and even steps backwards but we are trusting God, the neonatologists, and the amazing nursing staff. These twins are surrounded by support, love, and confidence that they will advance to where they need to be. With continued support, love, and prayer these little fighters will make it home to southern California in time for Christmas. They have a wonderful host of guardian angels watching over them including their recently deceased great-grandmother, Wanda, who passed away just two days after their birth. She kept telling everyone she wasn't going until "those babies arrived". God's timing is impeccable.

Say a prayer, keep them in your thoughts, send love to their parents and family members, and donate to help make these hard times a little easier giving these first time parents, one less thing to worry about during these times.

You can personally reach out to Nicole, Josh, or their family members for the address of the Ronald McDonald house if cards, flowers, or care packages are wish to be sent. Safeway grocery stores, COSTCO, Walmart, Target, Amazon, Instacart, Uber eats, Alaska airlines, or Texaco gas station gift cards can be greatly beneficial for these new parents. We have also set up a Meal Train where you can send meal gift cards or donate as well, the link is below.

As time gets closer to their release date, Nicole and Josh will need help from their peers obtaining all the items needed for their twins at home since they made their arrival well before the baby shower could occur or the nursery being ready. Nicole and Josh had been working on their registry in preparation for their baby shower in mid September. You can find the link below for babylist.com.

Please feel free to either donate to this GoFundMe, buy off the registry listed below, send a meal gift card via Meal Train, send them gift cards via email, or a combination!

Let's help the Richardson family during this time of surprise and uncertainty as Nicole stays thousands of miles away from home for months and Josh continues to travel back and forth so he can see his babies and wife.

Meal Train: https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/14yq3z?utm_source=postmark&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign-lnk-train-view-t-create

Baby registry: https://my.babylist.com/hvtceywmf

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support for the Richardson family over the next couple months.