When she was just 27 years old, Megan Overton was told that she would never be able to have children of her own.
Just a year later, the Sydney native had a dream that she was pregnant – one that turned out to be a premonition. She was expecting triplets.
But that happiness would later turn into heartbreak when two of Megan’s daughters didn’t survive.
‘I was meant to have three babies, but I don’t,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
Megan Overton, 29, and her partner Jesse kiss their newborn daughter Milo, a miracle baby after her mum was told she would never be able to have children
Mum found out after Christmas in 2016 that she was not only pregnant, but that she was expecting triplets (pictured in ultrasound)
Megan’s struggles began in 2015, when she had a constant period for six months straight. A tumour was found and surgically removed.
Then, Megan didn’t get her period for a long time. Tests found that she ‘basically had no eggs left’ and she was diagnosed with early menopause.
The news came as a shock to Megan, who had dreamed of having babies and never thought she might one day be unable to have her own children.
‘You don’t really worry about it, do you,’ she said. ‘You just assume that you can and when you’re ready it’ll happen.’
‘I’ve got a large family, I’m one of four. And Jesse’s one of seven, so we always wanted to have our own family.’
Doctors told Megan and Jesse their ‘only chance’ of having children was to try IVF. They got three eggs after one round, which didn’t make it past the first day.
It was a devastating blow to the newly engaged couple, who began to look into egg donation and adoption.
But then one day, just after Christmas in 2016, Megan had a vivid dream that she was pregnant.
It was incredibly exciting news for Megan and Jesse, who had been told they would never have children of their own after she was diagnosed with early menopause
The couple began to plan logistics, like moving into a bigger house, and even named their three future daughters: Georgie, Estelle, and Milo
‘I was looking down at my belly, and I had a big belly, and my hands were on my belly, and I knew I was pregnant,’ she said.
Megan woke up and immediately told Jesse, who thought she was being ‘ridiculous’.
She bought a pregnancy test that same day and the couple saw that very dark line.
‘I kind of just laughed,’ Megan recalled of the moment. ‘I thought of it a bit as a joke, we thought it could be wrong.’
Jesse ran out and got a digital test which revealed Megan was two weeks pregnant. She continued to take tests every few days, still not quite believing it was possible.
Megan’s doctor warned the couple not to get their hopes up, and they knew there was a high chance of miscarriage or a chemical pregnancy.
It wasn’t until the ultrasound that Megan believed she really was pregnant – and found out just how many children she was expecting.
‘The lady doing the ultrasound, I think she was a junior, she kept squinting at the screen. She said “You’re definitely pregnant”‘, Megan recalled.
‘But she kept squinting. I asked, “Is there a heartbeat?” and she said “Yeah, yeah”. Then I asked if it was ecotopic, she said “No”‘.
‘Then she said, “I have to call my superior, I think there’s more than one”. I said, “How many more?” and she said “I think there’s three”‘.
But at 13 weeks doctors found that Estelle had fatal heart defects. She had to be medically terminated, and Georgie didn’t survive the birth. Milo (pictured) spent nine weeks in the NICU
For weeks Megan didn’t feel like a mother, having lost two children and having her surviving daughter in intensive care. She burst into tears the first time she got to breastfeed Milo
‘I just started laugh-crying and Jesse went pale in the face.’
At first the couple, who lived in a one bedroom apartment with two dogs, were focused on figuring out logistical matters like moving house.
‘How do you deal with three newborns? That was our main concern for the first few weeks,’ Megan said.
But the couple were also excited, even deciding on names for their three future babies: Georgie, Estelle, and Milo.
‘When we found out I was pregnant we thought it was going to be a boy and named it Milo,’ she said. ‘When we found out they were all girls, we didn’t have the heart to change it.’
But at the 13-week ultrasound, doctors delivered crushing news that would soon take over the couple’s world. Estelle had fatal defects.
‘It’s likely you’re going to lose one, if not two,’ they told the couple.
The doctors suggested selective reduction, which would terminate both Georgie and Estelle, early on so they could give Milo the best chance of survival.
Megan was just 28 weeks pregnant when she was rushed in for an emergency C-section as doctors rushed to save Georgie and Milo (pictured)
Jesse was the one who had to tell Megan that they had lost Georgie, bursting into tears after she asked him if she had made it
But Megan and Jesse pushed for palliative care ‘for a very long time’, hoping that when Estelle was born the anomalies wouldn’t be as bad as first diagnosed.
‘We were going to cardiologists to get ultrasounds on her heart, speaking to all types of specialists and neonatal surgeons and doctors to see what could be done and what kind of life she would have,’ Megan said.
There was also the issue of Georgie, who shared a placenta with Estelle and was her identical twin.
‘We tried to find any way we could to take home Milo and Georgie, and see if there was anything we could do to to save Estelle,’ she said.
‘But it was conclusive that Estelle wouldn’t survive, and that it would be a slow and painful death for her.’
After meeting with ethics committees and consulting numerous doctors, the couple were told the only way to save Estelle from terrible pain and give Georgie a fighting chance at life was to medically terminate.
Megan went into surgery on July 5, but just after she was moved to the hospital’s delivery suites to be monitored, Georgie’s heartbeat started to drop.
The couple are putting they’re all into raising little Milo, and plan to tell her about her sisters from the very start
The couple are currently in counselling to help deal with not only grief but guilt at feeling so happy to have Milo, despite their sadness at losing Georgie and Estelle
‘Suddenly 50 people were in the room and they said “It’s going to happen now” and they ran me down the hallway straight into surgery,’ she recalled.
Megan, who was 28 weeks pregnant, was rushed into an emergency C-section.
‘Someone was putting a catheter in me and another was putting on a blood pressure cuff while another put oxygen on me,’ she said.
‘I was so scared they were going to cut me open before I was asleep because they were going so fast, trying to get Georgie out.’
Doctors put Megan under and delivered Estelle and Milo, who they intubated and sent to the ICU, before delivering Georgie.
After 20 minutes of trying to save her life, they called time of death.
Megan woke up to see her doctor and Jesse standing at her bedside.
‘I asked where the girls were. The surgeon was saying something and I didn’t know what he was saying and I asked Jesse, “Did Georgie die?”‘ she recalled.
‘He just started crying and said yes. Then they showed me pictures of Milo and said she was doing okay.’
Milo has made a full recovery since returning home from the hospital. Megan said the couple are slowly processing their grief, with more ‘good days than bad’
Megan entered the hospital with three babies, and – as Milo was still recovering in the NICU – left with none.
‘I came home with no babies with me, and it felt like a really horrible feeling,’ she said. ‘I felt like I wasn’t a mother yet, even though I was.’
‘My body bounced back very quickly, eight days postpartum I was back in my old jeans. You couldn’t even tell I had been pregnant.’
But Megan was still having a new mum’s sleepless nights, pumping milk for Milo and yearning to finally have the chance to breastfeed her baby girl.
‘I sobbed like a baby the first time she breastfed. I think the nurses thought I was weird,’ she said with a laugh.
It was Milo who kept Megan and Jesse strong as they struggled to cope with the loss of two children.
‘From the second they were born, everything that we did was for Milo,’ Megan said. ‘It was all for her.’
The couple are currently in counselling to help deal with not only grief but guilt at feeling so happy to have Milo, who made a full recovery, despite their sadness at losing Georgie and Estelle.
Milo continues to bring the couple plenty of joy, especially when she ‘farts like a champion’ or stares adoringly at her father
‘We haven’t really figured it out yet,’ Megan said. ‘We’re getting more good days than bad though.’
Milo continues to bring the couple plenty of joy, especially when she ‘farts like a champion’ or stares adoringly at her father.
‘She’s obsessed with Jesse,’ Megan said. ‘She can just stare at him all day. As soon as he walks in the room, she stares. They look exactly alike as well.’
A picture of Milo with her two sisters, taken after the birth, hangs on her bedroom wall and Megan said she plans to always keep them apart of the family’s life.
‘We’re just going to always tell her that she had two sisters in mum’s belly with her and they’re not here anymore, but they’re watching over her,’ Megan said.
And Megan hopes that by continuing to share her story, people will realise that Georgie and Estelle were real people – not just memories in a photograph.
‘The girls, they were real and they existed, they’re not just in someone’s head,’ she said.
‘To a lot of people that didn’t see them or meet them they’re nothing, but they’re real.’