That elation quickly turned to heartache when a 20-week scan revealed a rare, 

life-threatening condition called twin-twin transfusion syndrome. 

The couple received a phone call and Ms Jenner was asked to return to the imaging rooms for a second scan.

It was then the couple learnt the likely fate of their babies.

“We were told there was a 60 per cent chance we would come home with one of the twins,” Ms Jenner said.

“We were given an option to terminate, have surgery, or not do anything and run the risk of losing both our children.

“Immediately I thought I had done something wrong.

“I was blaming myself,” Ms Jenner said.

“We said straight away to doctors to perform the surgery to try to save both of them, which we knew were identical boys,” Ms Jenner said.

She said the surgery involved the burning off of blood vessels that were attached to the larger of the two babies, whom they had named Slater.

“This all just happened so quickly. We had the initial scan, then four days later we were having surgery, then before we knew it the boys were born.”

The twins were due on July 13.

Slade came first, delivered at John Hunter Hospital on April 18, weighing 1180 grams.

Slater was delivered six minutes later weighing only 180 grams. He had died before delivery, after the surgery that saved his twin brother.

“We kept Slater in our room and had time with him, to bath him and take photos,” Ms Jenner said.

“It was so hard for us.

“We kept it quiet, telling only close family and a few close friends. 

“It was all too bittersweet. 

“We had a birth and a death. It was tough.

“There was no joy of putting a birth notice in the newspaper, nothing on Facebook. We didn’t know what was going to happen with Slade because he was so premature,” she said.

Slade came home on Wednesday, just in time for Ms Jenner’s birthday on July 8.

“That’s all Pete and I wanted, was to be at home together as a family for my birthday,” she said.

“Slade is starting to smile now. He is ­developing well and is recognising us and our voices and holds onto our fingers so tight,” Ms Jenner said.

“He is a miracle, but it’s his guardian angel in heaven, Slater, his brother, who saved his life and is looking down on him from heaven giving him a second chance.”

Mr Burl said Ms Jenner had been a rock and no one would have pulled through the ordeal if it was not for her positive attitude.

“I still don’t know how she is going through all this but, at the end of the day, we have a healthy baby boy and we are trying to take the positives out of this rather than the negatives.

“Slater has been Slade’s guardian angel from day one and I know he is smiling on us from the other side,” Mr Burl said.

Twin-twin transfusion syndrome is a rare, serious condition that can occur in pregnancies of identical twins where they share a placenta.

Abnormal blood vessel connections form in the placenta and allow blood to flow unevenly between the babies. One twin, called the donor, becomes dehydrated; and the other, called the recipient, develops high blood pressure and produces too much urine and over fills the amniotic sac. 

TTTS is a disease of the placenta, not the babies themselves, and affects each twin differently.

The donor twin, who is becoming dehydrated, does not produce as much urine as it should, resulting in a low amount of amniotic fluid and poor fetal growth.

The recipient twin, whose system is overwhelmed by too much fluid, produces more urine than usual. This eventually leads to an enlarged bladder and excess amniotic fluid.

The excess fluid can put a strain on the recipient twin’s heart, sometimes leading to heart failure.