Mother's Day last year was a terrifying one for Delacombe mum Louise Heaysman. Her twin daughters Alexa and Emmie were born the day before, 13 weeks early, weighing just 716g and 814g, and no-one could tell her whether they would even survive, let alone thrive.
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The first few months were touch-and-go as they suffered many complications and surgery resulting from their early birth.
Fast forward a year and Ms Heaysman can't quite believe her luck as she prepares for a big first birthday bash, a double cake-smash and Mother's Day over the weekend.
Every day we can't believe how lucky we are. Things could have gone so differently - we could have lost either of them, or both, or they could have had disabilities.
- Louise Heaysman
The girls, although still small for their age, are "speed demons" as they crawl around the house (usually in separate directions) and with both pulling themselves up on furniture Ms Heaysman believes it's only a matter of weeks before they're both walking.
"Small but mighty," is how Ms Heaysman describes her active girls.
"They're making all their milestones and are just doing amazing," she said. "The past month they've had a massive developmental spurt with sitting, crawling and talking."
Despite their rough start to life, both girls have "smiley, happy" personalities and love being social.
Even a simple trip to the shops or picking up big sister Trinity, 8, from school sees them become the centre of attention and they lap it up, particularly Emmie who is described as the "flirt" of the pair.
"They are very happy, very social and fairly easy babies. It's tiring and busy, but I'm sure it could be a lot harder if you had difficult babies," she said.
"I don't know whether they were always going to be like that, or whether their journey has made them a bit more calm and collected."
That journey was a nightmare for Ms Heaysman and partner Chris Campbell, albeit one with a happy ending.
While in the womb, the girls suffered twin anemia polycythemia sequence - a form of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome in which one baby receives too much blood and one too little from their shared placenta.
Emmie was red when born, having received too much blood in the womb, and Alexa was white and anaemic when delivered at the Royal Women's Hospital.
It was a week before Ms Heaysman and Mr Campbell were able to cuddle their tiny girls, but a day later Emmie suffered a perforated bowel and was rushed to the Royal Children's Hospital for emergency surgery.
For 101 days the family split their time between the girls as Emmie remained at RCH and Alexa stayed at RWH. In addition to Emmie's bowel surgery, during their time in hospital both girls were intubated, on CPAP, oxygen, had infections, blood transfusions, chronic lung disease, jaundice and had surgery for the eye condition retinopathy of prematurity, common in premature babies.
They were finally allowed home in August, a little over two weeks after their original due date of August 11.
Apart from a few minor issues, the girls are in good health and seem to have escaped many of the complications that babies born so early can suffer. Neither have teeth yet, but are enjoying their solids and have, so far, proven to be voracious eaters and not at all picky.
A small duct in Alexa's heart has not closed, a common side-effect of prematurity, and she will need a procedure when she gets bigger. Emmie has a few symptoms that doctors are watching, but it will be over the next 12 months when they do, or don't, become evident.
"Every day we can't believe how lucky we are. Things could have gone so differently - we could have lost either of them, or both, or they could have had disabilities."
They recently returned to the Royal Children's Hospital for a checkup and a visit to the ICU where Emmie was treated.
"The majority of Emmie's nurses were on that day and got to see her, which was lovely. It felt like being home and they all got to meet Alexa because only Emmie had been in there."
The twins' newfound mobility has also created issues with big sister Trinity as the twins now love nothing more than grabbing at her things and pulling toys out of toy boxes.
"But she loves them and she's so good with them. Alexa says dad and mum, Emmie says dad and Trinity is trying her hardest to teach them to say her name, or sissy," Ms Heaysman said.
"She has learned a lot. Usually babies come straight home from hospital, are not so small and don't have to go through what they did. She's learned a lot and when she talks to other people she explains everything."
The family will celebrate on both days of the big weekend.
On Saturday they'll host a birthday party, inviting everyone who has supported the family over the past year. On Sunday they'll go out for a Mother's Day breakfast before coming home for the twins to do a cake smash and photo shoot.
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