Baby Olli half the size of twin brother Alfie

December 3, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

Baby Olli is doing well despite weighing half as much as his twin brother Alfie.

Rachael Reid, of Banff, Aberdeenshire, had tried four years to have a baby with husband Barry Reid. The Scottish couple was delighted when in February of 2009 they received news that Rachael was pregnant with twins.

“I was over the moon — but I was delighted when my first scan showed it was twins,” Rachel told The Scottish Sun.

Four months later, the couple was involved in a car crash, and Rachael asked for a scan to ensure the twins were in good health. The crash had no real effect on the twins, but doctors discovered something else. Alfie’s placenta was suffocating Olli’s placenta, cutting off vital nutrients and oxygen to Baby Olli.

Doctors monitored the situation closely over the next several months. Finally in September, doctors gauged the risk to Olli to be extreme and made the decision to deliver early through Caesarean section.

On September 29, staff at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital first removed Olli, weighing in at 1 pound, 8 ounces. Three minutes later, staff removed Alfie, weighing 4 pounds, 15 ounces.

Rachael Reid told The Scottish Sun: “I was listening with every nerve strained to hear if Olli was crying when he came out. It was without a doubt the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

“I’d never seen a baby as small as Olli before. He was so tiny and we weren’t sure he would make it. It was the scariest time of my life. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing one of my precious boys.”

The two babies were quickly placed in neonatal care. Alfie suffered a collapsed lung during his stay while Ollie had two surgeries on hernias that developed. But the two pulled through and are now both back at home with their parents. Ollie now weighs 4 pounds, 1 ounce while his brother now weighs 8 pounds, 9 ounces.

“My wife’s pregnancy was a nervy time,” said Barry Reid. “I was always happy to get through each weekly scan with no complications.”

“When the twins were finally born and I was told there were no problems I was over the moon. I was the proudest dad in the world.”