The Pauline Twins Journey to Life

My name is Megan and I am fundraising money for my beautiful god babies & their amazing parents. Two years ago my cousin Ashley and her husband Matt decided to start a family. What they didn’t know at the time was what they would have to go through to become parents. Ashley was diagnosed with PCOS in 2020 and it was causing her infertility. Their dreams of becoming parents were being crushed one day at a time. But they decided to not give up and decided to go through fertility treatments (IUI), which was not covered by insurance at all. They became pregnant the first round of IUI but their dreams of becoming parents quickly vanished as of a week later, Ashley was miscarrying. Still, they didn’t give up and started their second round of IUI. The treatment did not stick so they decided to wait another month before they tried again. Finally on their third round of treatment, they got pregnant. What they didn’t expect was they weren’t just having one baby, they were having TWO! Their dreams of becoming parents were finally coming true!

Ashley’s pregnancy was not easy to say the least. Her ‘’morning” sickness was so bad that she had to be put on medication to get her through they day. Her insurance didn’t cover these meds and they had to dish out $70 each refill just so she can keep food down. But still, she was so happy she was becoming a mom that even though she was sick, she couldn’t be happier. Finally, they found out that they were having a BOY & a GIRL!

At her 20 week scan, Ashley couldn’t wait to see her baby boy & baby girl. What she wasn’t expecting, once again, was that her day would quickly go from amazing to being a whirlwind of emotions. Her doctor found out that her cervix was opening that day and her babies were in danger of being delivered sooner rather than later. They decided to have her immediately go to Leigh High Valley Cedar Crest and put her through surgery to do a cervical cerclage so her cervix could stay closed. From this point on, she would have to be bed rested for the rest of the pregnancy. Only two weeks later they had to do another cervical cerclage because the first one had migrated and she was in danger of delivering. At 23 weeks, Ashley was admitted into the hospital for inpatient stay to keep her monitored and make sure her babies stayed put. At 26 weeks and 4 days, after almost a month of being bed rested in the hospital, Ashley was having contractions. They tried their hardest to stop it but they couldn’t.

So on November 19th, 2022, via C-Section, Madison Ann Pauline was born at 5:44 pm weighing 2lbs 0.8oz and 17 inches long. Landon Richard James Pauline was born at 5:47 pm weighing 2lbs and 5.2 oz and 14.65 inches long.

They were immediately put in the NICU at Cedar Crest and will remain there most likely until their due date in February or later. What Ashley and Matt didn’t realize was that Ashley would not be getting paid from work while she is determining what type of benefits she could receive during her time off. This news was also followed by a letter from the insurance company denying Ashley’s almost month long inpatient hospital stay.

Four days after giving birth to her beautiful babies, Ashley was discharged from the hospital to go home without the twins. Going home without your babies is one of the hardest and most stressful things to go through in your life. Her babies are fighting so hard and all she wants to do is be by their side. But in today’s world, you need two incomes to survive. And at the moment, her husband is the sole provider. Driving an hour away back and forth to see their babies is becoming difficult with the price of gas, tolls, and food. All Ashley wants is to be able to stay by her babies’ side until they come home and be able to have a regular maternity leave once they do come home.

As you know, things add up quickly. And that is not even considering the bills that will come from all of the surgeries, other hospital stays, and the babies’ very long NICU stay.

I want to try and relieve some of the pressure for my beautiful cousin and her husband. I want her and her husband to be able to see their babies every day in the NICU. I want Ashley to be able to enjoy her babies when they come home. But that’s hard when all you have to worry about is money. As godmother & Auntie to beautiful Madison and Landon, it’s my job to look after them and that includes Ashley and Matt. They went through hell getting to this point just so they could have a family.

So I am asking for help so they can at least try and enjoy their time with the twins. With gas prices sky rocketing as well as oil and food, everything adds up quickly. The bills don’t stop when something happens in life. So I want to help them as much as possible.

Please consider donating, even if its just $2. Anything will help at this point. If you read up until this point, I thank you. And if you can not donate, please share everywhere you can. My godbabies are fighting for their lives and Ashley & Matt need to be by their sides while they do so!