Chelsea: Doctors usually give conjoined twins
about a 5% chance of actually being born alive
and then a 2% chance of being alive past 24 hours.
The fact that the girls are standing strong today is pretty incredible.
And they have started to learn how to coordinate with their walking
Callie and Carter are our daughters
and they are Omphalo-Ischiopagus conjoined twins.
The girls's body clashes together like two waves,
a certain part is Callie's and the other part is Carter's.
They each have their own hearts
stomachs, upper extremities.
When we get kind of towards the small intestine,
the second part of it is where they start to share.
We initially thought that separation surgery
was the best way to go.
But after they were born,
they sat us down in a classroom
and told us that
the girls didn't need to be separated
because they were completely healthy as they were.
And separating them would essentially break apart two good things,
making them have some serious complications with their health.
Doctors usually give conjoined twins
about a 2% chance of being alive past 24 hours.
We're just so pleased with their progress.
It has been over a year since we last filmed with Truly.
Within a year, conjoined twins usually have a lot of medical challenges
and a lot of other challenges that they have to face.
But Callie and Carter have been doing exceptional.
They're starting to coordinate how they move around the house.
Callie has one leg and Carter has the other leg.
And they're just starting to talk a lot more
and be able to communicate with us instead of each other.
Due to COVID-19
the girls haven't been able to go
to school for their physical therapy.
So I've been doing physical therapy here at home.
Right now we're doing Callie and Carter's walking exercises and stretches.
The girls don't know how to exactly walk just quite yet
but they started to move their feet
and with a little bit of help,
they're able to hold on to the couch
and flip around the house.
Conjoined twins like Callie and Carter
need to work on their coordination at an early age
to make it extremely helpful for them
to be able to walk in the future.
They're able to stand up on their own two feet.
Initially, we thought Callie and Carter were going to start walking
at the age of four.
And no one really knows when they're gonna walk.
It's all on their own time.
And how much they are willing to work with each other.
Callie and Carter have both separate personalities.
Callie is more laid back
and she likes to watch YouTube all day
while Carter likes to build
and be able to color with things.
Carter usually tends to lead the way
but they actually work pretty good together now that they're older.
I home-school the girls every Tuesday and Thursday.
Nick and I have been homeschooling the girls
for a couple months now due to the lock-down.
We're mainly working on their Cs,
trying to get them to be able to write their name for the next school year.
I don't believe the girls think that they are different from their siblings.
They go through the house,
they play around, they crawl and they jump around.
And I don't think it limits them.
They value each other's lives now
because they're both depending on it.
The girls are not on track for their age group.
They are currently three years old
and they are about 24 months of
language at the moment.
Due to their bilateral hearing loss,
language is a little bit harder for them to be able to pick up.
Callie and Carter's learning has been a lot
better since they've started school.
I feel that their
language skills have definitely become a lot better.
Nick: The girls get along with their siblings very well.
The girls adore Jason and they adore Mykah.
I think the girls watching Jason and trying to
mimic the things that he does
has improved a lot
since they started going to school.
They understand that
people do things differently,
but they still try their best to do it like them.
Chelsea: We didn't think that we were gonna leave the hospital with babies,
let alone two babies that were stuck together
so we are absolutely amazed with how they are progressing.
I just hope the girls have a wonderful life
even though they are faced with a bunch of challenges.
They are going to be best friends for the rest of their life.