Alayna's Story

 May 28th 2021  was the day Jeremy and Cindy Bottine’s lives changed forever. “There are two heads.” was the words that came out of husband Jeremy’s mouth. Our OBGYN followed up with “yes, you are correct. Now we need a more detailed ultrasound.” This was after we had already been in about a month prior and there was only one baby, but it was measuring small so our doctor wanted us to follow up in a month for measurements. 

From the moment we were pregnant, Cindy thought it was two babies. My doctor was sure there was ONLY one but after a few doctor’s appointments it was confirmed. Cindy was right. 

Two heart beats. 

Two little identical twin girls. 

Following that appointment we were referred to a perinatologist. A perinatologist is an obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN) who specializes in high-risk pregnancies. They work in conjunction with your regular OBGYN or Midwife. 

We anxiously awaited hearing from the Maternal-Fetal medicine team to determine what type of twins we were having. It was at that appointment, we learned we were having Monochorionic diamniotic (Mo-Di) twins. These are identical twins that share a placenta but have separate amniotic sacs. We also learned something else. One of our twins was developing abnormally, and chances were our pregnancy would never reach viability. One of our baby’s was developing with potentially a diagnosis of either Gastroschisis or an Omphalocele. It was too early to determine which, but the outlook was not optimistic. We were crushed.

There are many other differences between the two diagnosis’s which you can read about online, but to keep this brief the main difference between the two is when a baby has gastroschisis there is no sac protecting the organs which are located outside the abdominal cavity. They are free floating in the amniotic fluid. With an Omphalocele the organs outside the body remain inside a sac which is pushed out through the belly button. 

We had two options. Termination of one baby and continue with the pregnancy to deliver one healthy baby, or wait and potentially lose both. In that moment, we could not understand. How could this have happened. Cindy had a healthy pregnancy with our first child. We never imagined anything going wrong the second time around. Why was my body failing me was all Cindy could think. We remember hearing the perinatologist saying it was not either of our faults, but how could it not be was all that kept repeating in Cindy’s head. We had to have done something wrong. Honestly, Cindy thought of everything. She over analyzed leading up to 14 weeks prior to the appointment wondering where could our daughter’s organs not developing inside her body happened. Maybe it was because of this, or maybe it was because of this. The truth was there was no answer. That was the hardest thing to accept.

After many many ultrasounds we made it to 22 weeks. Then those weeks past and continued to make it to 24 weeks and then 28 weeks. Anxiety filled at every appointment. We held my breath until both heartbeats were heard. We had appointment after appointment with the neonatologists, pediatric general surgeons, my regular doctor, genetics teams, cardiology, and of course our perinatologist. We had more ultrasounds and scans. Finally, we made it to the finish line. Our delivery day was scheduled for October 26th 2021 at 0800 in the morning. Jeremy and Cindy made it to our delivery date of 34 weeks and 4 days. That beautiful sunny morning we welcomed two beautiful girls into the world Alayna at 0900 and Payton right after her sister at 0901. Alayna was quickly baptized inside the operating room by Jeremy. A moment we will both cherish forever, and she was whisked off to surgery. Payton came out shortly after. 

Two beautiful girls safely earth-side. 

On December 10th 2021 Alayna Bottine passed away in the arms of her parents following an infection. In the upcoming months they attended virtual grief support, and attended events that were available but they were not local to the community. 

This is what lead in 2023 as a way to honor their daughter's life and continue to support the local grieving community to creating and founding the N-E-W Healing Hive. A space where all families can share their story, honor and remember the life their child/ren lived.