The couple whose charmingly shocked faces made them viral stars when they found out they were expecting quadruplets say all four babies are doing fine after surgery to fix complications of the pregnancy.
“The ultrasound looks great — there were four heartbeats so we’re all smiles over here,” Tyson Gardner said in a YouTube video after the procedure this week.
Gardner and his wife Ashley, of Pleasant Grove, Utah, tried to conceive for eight years before they turned to in vitro fertilization this summer. Soon after, they learned they were going to be the parents of two sets of identical twins — all girls. That’s when a photo of their stunned reaction to the news went viral.
The couple has been excitedly preparing for their daughters’ arrival, but on Monday, doctors discovered that one set of babies had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), according to the Gardners’ Facebook page. The rare condition means blood flow from the twins’ shared placenta has become unbalanced, resulting in one fetus getting too little blood in the womb, while the other receives too much.
The couple flew to California, where Ashley saw a doctor specializing in the condition and underwent surgery on Wednesday, which successfully treated the problem, according to the couple’s Facebook page.
“Our tears have been replaced with relief,” the Gardners wrote. There was some tension as the family waited for an ultrasound that would reveal whether all of the babies had survived the surgery but once again, they were relieved to find out all were fine.
The couple is now back in Utah, where Ashley — who is about 20 weeks along — will be on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy.
“The doctors' goal is for her to make it to 28 weeks, but we think our little fighters will stay in longer,” the Gardners wrote.
Ashley's fertility problems were caused by endometriosis, so the couple at first tried intrauterine insemination, she told BabyCenter.com. When that didn't work, they tried IVF, which cost them $12,000 out of their own pockets.
Ashley has been chronicling her struggles and her pregnancy online, hoping her story can help other couples struggling to conceive.
"My whole goal in opening up about this is to promote infertility awareness," she said in a recent YouTube video. "It's not something that's talked about a lot and it's a really hard trial that people go through."