Just shy of their first birthday, twin baby girls from New York met Monday for the first time since their birth. Marija Sparano, 37, and Daniel Sparano, 36, welcomed their daughters Nina and Emma last May, but they were separated shortly afterward. Emma was healthy, but Nina required medical intervention and a long-term hospital stay.
Daniel Sparano shared his family's story and details on Facebook about what led to the emotional reunion 340 days in the making. Nina and Emma's story was complicated and scary from the beginning, but seeing the girls together this week made their family feel whole. He and his wife look forward to the day they will all be home together.
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The Sparanos knew early on the pregnancy would have complications.
Daniel Sparano explained that within weeks of learning Marija was pregnant, the couple knew their pregnancy would require special care. Doctors spent hours caring for the girls in utero as they tried to understand what was happening inside their mom.
"But, in the beginning, we didn't know it right away — actually, we didn't know for weeks — but the placenta had folded over on itself, and trapped inside a small pseudo-sac was little Baby B: Nina," he wrote in the post.
Things looked grim in the beginning.
Daniel Sparano told the story of Nina and her struggle early on. He said doctors didn't feel enough amniotic fluid surrounding Nina, and the umbilical cords continued to cross. Nina struggled to survive in what her father called her "cramped studio apartment."
While the couple continued to look for a possible positive outcome, the medical staff at Morgan Stanley's Children's Hospital were not as confident.
"Doctors were not as positive as we were on our prognosis, as we were told many times by them, in so many words, that Baby B was not likely to make it, in their opinion," Daniel Sparano explained. But Nina defied the odds and survived, although it's been with tremendous challenges.
The couple was prepared for complications, but reality set in when the girls were born.
Nina's doctor, Dennis Davidson, told ABC 7 that Nina's condition is rare.
"She was born with anomaly of upper airway called Pierre Robin Syndrome. And that's a combination of both cleft palate and small jaw that pushes back the tongue and therefore makes it difficult to breath," he explained.
The family tried to stay positive, but the twins' father said it was sometimes challenging.
"She was born with a facial cleft, cleft hard and soft palates, and essentially a dislocated jaw. Due to her clefts and her jaw being pushed both back and down, her airways were very constricted for the first few months of her life. Those were the scary times for us," he wrote on Facebook. "Heart rates over 220. Oxygen under 70%. Tubes out of her nose, out of her mouth. The inability to hold her in our arms without her vomiting. The words 'difficulty thriving' used by doctors many times."
Her care team transferred Nina to Blythedale Children's Hospital in September.
Nina's parents told Good Morning America that Nina has had multiple surgeries and treatments since moving to the Valhalla, New York, hospital, including a tracheostomy to help with breathing and a gastrostomy-jejunostomy, or G-J, tube surgery to help with feeding.
Marija Sparano told the news program that her daughter had major jaw surgery in January to help push her lower jaw forward slowly, but she will need additional surgeries.
Nina's care team and family finally agreed this week that it was time for the twins to get together, and it was nothing short of a miracle for the parents. Marija Sparano told Good Morning America that she held Nina as the two babies reunited. "I started to cry immediately as we walked out of the hospital," she said. "It was just so, so emotional."
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Daniel Sparano continues to remain upbeat.
Despite incomparable challenges and sometimes heartache, he reminds us that no family is perfect, and we all need to look out for each other.
"Everyone is going through something; this has been our something. We are incredibly fortunate to have both of our girls, and feel incredibly fortunate to be in the position we are, because every day, we see children who have more difficult journeys, and more difficult paths back to their families than we do," he wrote on Facebook. "It could have been much worse in many, many ways, and we are thankful for everything that we have and that we go through. It is only going to make our family stronger."
The girls won't be home together for their first birthday next month, but Marija Sparano told ABC 7 that she hopes the girls will be able to take their first steps together.
"She's a little warrior. She's like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly," she remarked about her daughter.` "Slowly. Slowly. She will get there over time."
