"We had so many close calls, but it's all worth it."
After a long and disappointing journey with IVF treatment, Lola and Scott Crank were absolutely ecstatic to find out they were expecting a baby. When Lola became extremely unwell with morning sickness, the couple knew things weren’t as they seemed. An early scan revealed three tiny heart beats One of the two embryos split, meaning that Lola was pregnant with identical twins Caspian and Arzak, and singleton, Winston. “It was mixed emotions, we were excited, and then you think oh my god its three babies! How am I going to cope with three babies? How is my body going to cope with three babies?” – Lola For the coming months, Lola experienced a very physically and emotionally difficult pregnancy. Initially the twins were thought to have been mono-mono twins, where the babies share one placenta and are at high risk of choking each other with cord entanglement. The boys were cleared at 12 weeks, but at 16 weeks a routine test showed that the amniotic fluid around Caspian was very low.
Scott and Lola were told that the twins were showing early signs of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. “It was terrifying; we thought we were in the clear and then we weren’t. We thought that we would lose them." – Lola Thankfully a week later things began to stabilise with Caspian and Arzak. “Every time we came out of a scan, it was like a little victory.” – LolaBut the ride wasn’t over yet. At 19 weeks, Lola was told her cervix was only 2.2cm, which is very short for that time in the pregnancy. One week later it was down to 1.1cm, meaning that she could go into labour at any stage, and ultimately they could lose all three of their boys. “We thought we had beaten it all, and then we were at very high risk of losing all three. We were basically told not to expect this to be a viable pregnancy.” – Scott Riddled with devastation, Lola spent her sleepless nights researching everything she could about her condition. A friend of the Cranks and Midwife at The Royal, Michelle Simpson, encouraged them not to give up. Lola eventually found what worked for her, and at 26 weeks her cervix was up to 2.2cm again. “The doctors said that I was out of the woods with the cervix. We just couldn’t believe it, we were delighted.” – Lola The relief was once again stripped from the new parents-to-be.
They were told that Caspian’s growth had begun to slow, and at 26 weeks it had almost completely stopped. Lola was hospitalised so that Caspian was under constant monitoring. “At this point, we really did think that we had beaten it all. It was really stressful, but Lola is such a strong person.” – Scott At 28 weeks and six days, the triplets made their early entrance into the world. “We had mixed emotions on the day. Happy because we were going to have our babies with us, but terrified at the same time that they were not going to be born healthy or that they wouldn’t make it.” – Lola The boys were rushed to The Royal's Newborn Care Centre. The first 48 hours saw some setbacks, with Winston and Arzak both experiencing breathing difficulties. “It is such a great team at the NCC. They care for your babies more than anything else…there are so many angels flying around that room.” – Scott For the next few months, Lola and Scott spent every single day coming to The Royal to be with their boys, and each day their babies grew stronger. “It was a really hard time, and I used to always think, did we make the right decision? When you look at it and go there’s Caspian, there’s Arzak and there’s Winston. Yes we did. I couldn’t imagine anything I’d want more in life than three little healthy happy boys and with the woman I love.” – Scott “We had so many close calls but it’s all worth it. Everything is a distant memory when you see those boys…and when you look at those perfect little faces; you know that it’s going to be ok.” – Lola
