Paisley

An HIE Angel

These are my sweet girls, Mila (right) and Paisley (left). They are my husband's and my first babies, and they're spontaneous twins. Never in our wildest dreams would we have ever thought we'd be twin parents! At our first ultrasound, when we saw two little beating hearts, our world changed forever. It took MONTHS for reality to set in that we were expecting two. Not only that, but I'd be 20 weeks along at our wedding! We ended up doing our gender reveal during our wedding reception with our friends and family, and it was so so magical. These little girls were so loved from day one!

They were born on February 23rd, 2023, at 35 weeks even. Mila was our baby A and came naturally, weighing 4 lbs 10.8 oz and measuring 18.1 in long, at 10:18 a.m. Like most preemies, she struggled with some breathing issues in the beginning but was on room air by 24 hours. Paisley was our baby B. She had a ventricular septal defect early on, but it ended up healing on its own by 25 weeks. She made her arrival 6 hours and 12 minutes after Mila, at 4:30 p.m., when an emergency C-section was called. Paisley was a bigger baby, but still tiny. She was 5 lbs 6.4 oz and 19 in long. Paisley suffered from severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) during delivery and passed away 36 hours after birth.

Mila is now 3.5 years old and the twins have a one year old little sister named Holly. Holly is named after the life flight nurse that cared for Paisley during her transfers between hospitals.

To say this was the most unimaginable outcome isn't even close to explaining how we feel. Mila often looks to the sky or Paisley's urn and smiles, giggles, and points. I truly believe she sees P. Things that remind me of our sweet P are the color pink (that was her color, Mila's is purple), butterflies, and cardinals. 🤍