WHEN BJ Madex and Kyle Carlin first found out they were expecting twins six weeks into BJ’s pregnancy, the couple were shocked and excited but not surprised - twins run in the family.

Over the next few months, BJ said things were pretty normal. Like many expectant mothers, aches and pains were a regular occurrence, but at 24 weeks, BJ experienced cramping that she said caused her to become concerned.

“I didn't think anything of it in the beginning but then I noticed they were coming and going in waves, so I started timing them, and they were exactly 10 minutes apart, she said.

“I called the Warrnambool Hospital where I was supposed to have (the twins), and they said call an Ambulance right now and try to come here (Warrnambool) or to Hamilton.

“There they checked my cervix and said I was already one centimetre dilated, which hands down was the scariest moment of my life.”

BJ said she and Kyle did not believe babies could survive out of the womb that early.

From Hamilton Base Hospital, BJ was rushed to the Mercy Women's Hospital in Melbourne where she spent the next few days on bed rest, while medical staff prepared Luca and Levi for life outside the womb.

By Sunday, things had progressed, and the boys were born via emergency c-section.

“The boys were both breech, so they had to rush me in for an emergency caesarean, and that went well then they both went to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) ward … I was able to see them when they were born, they quickly showed them to me and they looked like little aliens, they didn't look like babies … I was able to go see them afterwards and there were cords and wires everywhere, it was very confronting,” she said.

After three months at the Mercy, and four months at Warrnambool Hospital, BJ and Kyle brought Luca home on Christmas Day, 2020.

Not long after, a doctor noticed Levi’s eyes were sunsetting, and following a cranial ultrasound, discovered he had Hydrocephalus - the build-up of fluid on the brain likely caused by contracting meningitis while in hospital.

“He got rushed back to Melbourne to the Royal Children’s … they installed a shunt in the back of his head, which has a catheter … it drains the fluid into his stomach,” BJ said.

“Levi was still on oxygen when we got home, so he had a tank hooked up to him, until he no longer needed it.

“He’s been back (to the Royal Children’s) a few times.

“The first time I think it (the shunt) just stopped working and they replaced it, and that second one didn’t work, I think it was too small for his brain, it wasn’t draining fast enough and then not long after he got an infection, and then just before Christmas last year we noticed the same symptoms we always notice, vomiting, lethargic, and just not himself, so went back and it was actually broken - a few days before he had fallen, which he does 20 times a day, but he had hit directly on the shunt.”

Each time Levi has had to receive additional treatment for his shunt he has been transported from Hamilton to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Parkville via the Paediatric Infant Perinatal Emergency Retrieval unit, also known as PIPER, allowing the family to access vital services in a timely manner.

After a challenging start to life, Luca and Levi are like any other 19-month-old’s, mischievous and inquisitive, climbing everything in sight and taking a tumble every now and then.

BJ said while they have been told contact sport would be out of the question for Levi for now, living in such a footy mad town will make it hard for him to stay away from the field.