HereCare – Shelby, Rowan, and Lana’s Story

When Shelby learned that she was pregnant with twins, she was shocked! There was no history of twins on either side of Shelby’s or her husband’s family, but her team at Ascension Seton Hays did their best to prepare her for having twins.

Shelby and her husband, Mavrick, had been prepped that twins often need to spend time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) so they toured the NICU ahead of the twins’ delivery. The Ascension Seton Hays NICU also kept two beds reserved for Shelby’s babies to ensure they would not need to be transferred to a NICU at another hospital.

At 32 weeks, Shelby started to have very high blood pressure. At one point, her coworkers at the elementary school where Shelby teaches became very worried about her severely swollen ankles. They insisted Shelby go to Ascension Seton Hays where she was admitted and monitored for a week. She received multiple rounds of steroid injections and magnesium to support the twins’ lung development. After she was released, she had to return to Ascension Seton Hays daily for a neonatal stress test (NST) to ensure the twins were still doing well.

During a routine ultrasound appointment at 34 weeks, her physician determined that Shelby’s blood pressure was too high and that the twins needed to be delivered.

The twins, Rowan and Lana, were immediately taken to the NICU following delivery. Mavrick was able to visit Rowan and Lana the first night they were in the NICU while Shelby recovered. Mavrick changed his first diaper that night, which was no easy feat with such a small baby and lots of monitors to work around.

The twins ended up having very different experiences in the NICU.

Lana did very well and was discharged from the NICU after two weeks. Before going home, the NICU nurses made it possible for Shelby and Mavrick to stay overnight with Lana in the hospital. Shelby remembers that it was the first time she saw her baby girl without an IV or any kind of tube.

Rowan had a harder time and struggled with apnea and bradycardia episodes – periods of abnormal breathing and an abnormal heart rate. To be discharged from the NICU, Rowan needed to go five days without having an episode, which was very difficult for Shelby and Mavrick emotionally. “At one point, we were told to bring in the car seat and then he had an episode the next day.”

During the entire time that the twins were in the NICU, Shelby felt so supported by the NICU team. “I got to learn how to be a mom in the NICU,” she says.

Lana and Rowan just had their 15-month well-checks and are doing extremely well! They’re both starting to walk and their big personalities are coming out.

“The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do was leave the hospital without my babies. It was really emotional to not even be able to have them with me post-delivery. But, I look back on that time and am so thankful because I learned so much,” Shelby said.