“Two Angels and a Princess”
The Johnson family and their little miracle, Jesselyn; Valdosta, GA

The spring of 2006 was an exciting time for us. My wife and I were ready to start our family. The excitement and anticipation of the joy to come were so exhilarating. We just couldn’t wait for the day when we could hold our precious baby in our arms. That’s when our world came crashing down around us. Please allow us to share our story.

We started dating after high school and married five years later on August 17, 1996. We worked our way through college, receiving my BS in biology and she her dental hygiene degree, and had just begun to live our life when tragedy struck. My mother died from pancreatic cancer in 2002 and then my father’s health declined until his death in 2006. We found ourselves the guardian of a teenage girl. My niece, adopted by my parents as an infant, came to live with us for the duration of her high school career. Once she was off to college, we decided it was time to start our family.

The joy and anticipation slowly faded as month after month passed. Then there were the two false positive tests that further eroded our confidence that a baby was soon to come. We decided it was time to consult our physicians. Several rounds of Clomid failed to facilitate a pregnancy, leaving us with more questions. After several tests and trips to our doctors, we decided to see a fertility specialist.

Our consult with Dr. Williams at Women’s Health at Magnolia Parke in Gainesville, FL forced us to face our dreaded reality: We would not be able to have a healthy child without extraordinary medical intervention. We were committed in our efforts to have a child and were willing to do whatever it took. The additional work up yielded an unexpected surprise: I had been born with a balanced Robertsonian translocation defect. Now we had no choice but to proceed with IVF and the associated PGD (Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis) and ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) procedures. We are fortunate to have a strong family and church support system and knew that their support would be vital to our success.

We began the process but had to stop mid-cycle because of ovarian problems. We were concerned when they began using the term “ovarian reserve”. We both knew that this greatly limited our time and chances of being successful. The second IVF cycle began in the summer of 2007. As retrieval day approached, we were cautiously optimistic. The big day came and we watched our hopes dwindle when only three eggs were recovered. The term “ovarian reserve” kept echoing in my head. We returned home to await the daily calls to let us know how our three little eggs were doing. As our three embryos continued to grow, the biopsies began. When the day for the transfer came, we were down to just one viable embryo. After the transfer, we went home for the longest two weeks of our life. Then the long awaited news we were pregnant!

We were so excited that we could hardly keep quiet, but managed to do so until near the end of the first trimester when Jennifer seemed to start to show overnight! We went for a routine visit when we were treated to an ultrasound surprise...twins! Our single embryo had split and we were expecting identical twin boys! Our life was changing so fast that we could hardly keep up. It was such a wonderful time for us.

We called Magnolia Parke to give them the exciting news and requested a consult with their high risk specialist. After an extensive evaluation, we were given the dreaded diagnosis of monoamniotic-monochorionic twins with a high risk for Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. We returned two weeks later to learn that our worst fears had come true. We were referred to a specialist in Tampa who would attempt to surgically correct many of our complications. Unfortunately, as often happens with TTTS, Jennifer went into early labor just hours before seeing the doctor. After stabilization she was sent back to Shands for further evaluation. They were unable to stop the fluid loss and could not prevent the delivery of our boys at 20 weeks gestation.

We were fortunate to be surrounded by family and close friends during the most trying time of our lives. We were able to love, hold, and share our boys with our family for a brief time before we sent our family away so we could be alone with our boys. Our first born, Jonathan, lived almost two hours and his little brother, Joshua, lived almost four hours. We had our boys cremated and held their memorial service once we had them back home where they belonged. We were overwhelmed by the large number of family and friends who came to show their support and love for us. We were obviously devastated by this cruel turn of events. We had come so far and overcome so much to have it all taken away from us. We knew that God had a plan for us and that he would show that to us in time. After a brief recovery period, my wife was cleared medically to try again. We knew that time was not on our side. We decided that the best thing to do was to get started right away.

We began the third cycle only to get to the day of transfer and have the rug snatched out from under us again. This time none of our five embryos were viable for transfer. How much more could we take? How close were we going to get only to have it taken away? We found comfort in our family, friends, and our church who had been praying for us the entire time. With little else to lose, we decided to give it one more try. Things progressed as they had on the previous three cycles. We were getting to be old pros and the regimen was committed to memory by this time. Again, as the retrieval day approached, we were cautiously optimistic. We had been praying earnestly for many months that this day would be a tremendous success. We decided to pull out all the stops this time and even tried acupuncture treatments. We couldn’t help but think there was something special about that day. After all, it was our twelfth wedding anniversary. The retrieval went off without a hitch; the five eggs fertilized and were doing great! The daily calls couldn’t come soon enough. By the time we got to the transfer on day five we were back down to a single embryo for transfer, but we were feeling surprisingly optimistic this time. Something was telling us it was going to be OK!

The next two weeks were even more nerve racking. The days passed and the time was at hand. It was the day for the long awaited pregnancy test. Just as before, it was positive! The blood work followed and the numbers kept climbing! It was hard to keep our excitement hidden. We tried to keep the news quiet until we could confirm that everything was going well. After all, we had been here before and had things go horribly wrong. We didn’t rest easy until we saw that first ultrasound which confirmed a healthy singleton! We didn’t care whether we had a boy or girl; we just wanted a healthy child. I knew my wife would prefer a girl and I was pleased to hear the news – it’s a girl! Thrilled, we watched in amazement as our little one tossed and shyly hid her face from view.

The next several months seemed to pass ever so slowly. You see, we just couldn’t wait to get our hands on our little princess. Fortunately, we were distracted by the numerous baby showers and all the work we had to do to get ready for her arrival. We had to decide on what color furniture to get for the nursery, what style bedding to get for the crib, and what color pink to paint the room. Who knew there were so many shades of pink!

Even though we couldn’t see our little princess, we knew that she was very real. Jennifer delighted in the constant flutters of movement from the baby as well as from the unusual sensation she had when the baby had the hiccups. As for myself, she always seemed to lie still when I reached to feel her move. Then it happened; the baby kicked me! I don’t remember what I said but it sure must have made her mad because she kicked the tar out of me! That was the very moment when I had my first physical contact with our little princess, long before she made her entrance into this world.

Soon the kicks and flutters led to almost alien like movements across her mommy’s belly. It was so funny to watch her twist and turn as she prepared for her big day. An elbow here and a foot there, she was stretching and flipping trying to make room in her rapidly shrinking world. Her big day was coming and she was getting ready to make her grand entrance.

When that special day came, the entire family was there waiting to see our princess. Then, after six hours of hard labor, the big moment came. There she was, all seven pounds and fifteen ounces of her! She was twenty and a half inches long and had a full head of hair! We were ecstatic! After all that we had been through; the death of our twins, the subsequent setbacks, and all the sleepless nights, she was finally in our arms! The next few days were surreal. All that we had worked for, hoped for, and prayed for, had finally come true. The Lord had given us a beautiful, healthy, little girl!

Two days later, our little princess went home in style. You see, many people had been preparing for her arrival for quite some time. She had a special gift from her deceased twin brothers, a pair of Beanie Baby Angel Bears. She was dressed in a soft yellow dress that her Grammy bought for her and she was wrapped in a yellow blanket set that her deceased grandmother had bought for her. That’s right, my mother bought her a yellow blanket set and baby book two years before her death, over seven years earlier. Upon finding out that she was sick, she told us that her only regret was not being able to meet our children—plural. How could she know? I often catch our princess staring off in the distance and smiling as if she’s talking to someone very special. Could it be her grandma and granddaddy? Could it be her big brothers looking after her?

Looking back, I know we would gladly go through it all over again. Our advice is to educate yourself about the procedures and don’t spend too much time on the Internet! Don’t be afraid to try non-traditional treatments, like acupuncture, in conjunction with your program. Most of all, find support in each other, and in family and friends. And ladies, remember that your husband is going through this with you. You may feel like you are in this alone but you aren’t! We know we would not have our little princess without the wonderful people at Shands, the University of Florida Physicians, the hard working folks at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and countless prayers offered on our behalf. There is no doubt that the Lord blessed the folks at Ferring Pharmaceuticals with the ability to help make dreams come true. For all your hard work, we will be eternally grateful. We can’t repay you for the extraordinary gift that you have given us. We humbly say thank you for what you have done for us, for others, and for the work you will do in the future.