From the featured blog, Life…With 5 Monkies
Yep, those were the words that came out of my mouth the day my mid-wife said she thought she saw twins. It was also the day I new I was psychic. Up until that day, 7 weeks and 3 days into the pregnancy to be exact, I had been searching eBay for triplet strollers, matching outfits, and reading up on twins. I told Donnie (my husband in case you were wondering) that either something was wrong with me or there was more than one swimming along in there. So, when the mid-wife said it, I was not in shock. I was just scared she would say triplets. I could handle twins, but triplets had me trembling in my boots. I do remember thinking as she excitedly told Dr. Wolfe, the head doc and the one who ended up catching Colton as he flew out-more on that later, that she was way more excited about it than I was.
Fast forward 27 weeks and 1 day and you would find me at home. Having just gotten back from a doc visit and being told we probably wouldn’t make it through the weekend. I was having small contractions. Nothing that would cause alarm. I remember walking outside and talking to my best friend on the phone when there was this really weird POP sound. It really did sound like someone had popped a balloon. No gush of water. No trickle of water. Nada. So I never guessed it was the beginnings of a fun couple of hours. The contractions got worse, so I went and decided to take a bath. This is the part that always gets Donnie laughing. Yep, I went and took a bath.
As a mom already having went through 3 singleton pregnancies, I knew a bath would ease the contractions and they would go away if it were Braxton Hicks. Only problem was when I stood up, the water kept flowing. I changed clothes 3 times before finally giving up and telling Donnie to cover the seat with towels and lets go. He had already loaded the other 3 up, my brother and SIL were meeting us at the hospital to pick them up and take them to their house while I was in the hospital. I am huffing and puffing. Contractions are coming fast and strong. I seriously thought that we might be delivering on the side of the road. Fortunately we made it to the hospital. To find my doctor leaving for lunch after delivering another set of twins. He walks by and says “Don’t worry. I won’t be gone long. We have plenty of time.” I was thinking “Just give me the drugs!” Oh, you thought that was good? Well how bout this…I am making a huge puddle of water on the floor by now after standing at the desk with the flood coming out for 10 minutes (I think I saw Noah float by), the lovely nurses decided to call a volunteer over to get me into a room. The wonderfully BRIGHT volunteer looks at me and says…“Would you like to HOP up on the bed and lie down?” Yep, she asks a woman pregnant with twins and having contractions ever minute if she wants to HOP onto a bed. I calmly said “No, but I will walk over and lie down. And then you might want to call a doctor because I feel a head poking between my legs.” This poor girl RUNS to the door and screams at the top of her lungs “Someone! Anyone! Get in here! The baby is coming out!” It was hilarious if I hadn’t been in pain and ready to hurt someone myself I might have laughed. The room flooded with nurses. They are telling me not to push. I didn’t. But out came Connor anyway. Donnie hasn’t even made it onto the maternity floor yet.
The nurses grab a random doctor (who just happened to be like 70 yrs old and had delivered my brother 15 years before, his son delivered Savanna) to come in and cut the umbilical cord. Dr. Wolf, remember him from before, happened to be walking by and came in to catch Colton 4 minutes later. And that my friends is when I became mommy to twins, and when Donnie fainted. Now the moment I realized they were identical twins was just a few minutes later. When Dr. Wolf place the placenta in a bowl and said the dreaded “One placenta”, I looked up and asked “Are you SURE it isn’t fused?” Thankfully the C’s only spent 20 hours in the NICU. And that was because the delivery had been so fast that the fluid hadn’t been pushed out of their lungs during the labor like a normal delivery.
The first year of being mom to ID twins was fun, aggravating, and tiring. But I would never say it was hard. Really it wasn’t. I just got blessed with really clingy babies. I managed to come up with some amazingly witty comebacks for the always present “Are they twins” question. My favorite came during Christmas shopping. Donnie and I are both standing there with one baby a piece. The lady behind me asks “the question” and I respond “Nope. One is mine and one is his girlfriends. We had them on the same day. How awesome is that?!” Lesson to be learned… just assume they are twins and go about your business. We don’t like repeating ourselves over and over again, and you never know when we might crack. By we I mean twin mommies in general. Another day that one flew out before I could help it was when the bug guy came by for his yearly spraying and asked “the question”. I replied with “Nope, one is mine and one is my baby brother. Amazing how genetics makes them look JUST A LIKE.” Oh, and while I am on the topic of questions that are silly to ask a mom of twins…If she says they are identical, don’t ask if one is a boy and one is a girl. I mean seriously! There have been 6 documented cases of that. Odds are, they are the same sex.
Okay, I got off track. I do tend to do that. The first few months were spent marking Connor with a black Sharpie until we noticed his birthmark on his wrist. I like to think God took pity on him with all the ink seeping into his system, and gave us an easy way to differentiate. Schedules were set. Donnie and I fell into a rhythm of him taking the night shift from 12-6 and me taking the days. Since I was breast-feeding along with bottle feeding I would swap who would get boob and who would get bottle. The one getting boob would be placed in bed beside me and would latch on while I dozed a little. Donnie would feed the other. During the day I would tandem feed a bit, but at night I got to sleep. It really was Donnie’s support during that first year that made it go by without feeling like the world was crashing in on me. I often look at the boys and wonder where my little babies went to. I miss seeing them cuddled together in a single bassinet. I miss being able to hold their little bodies across each arm. It is bittersweet to watch your babies grow up. Especially when they are your last babies.
Year two with the twins brought about drastic changes for us as a family dynamic. We moved to New Jersey and started over. Away from family and friends. Thankfully the twins went along for the ride and didn’t go through the terrible two’s. I spent their second year seeing their personalities flip flop back and forth. Their dominant traits always remained the same, but one day Colton would be all lovey dovey and the next it would be Connor being lovey dovey. Connor though possess the true older brother dominant personality, where as Colton is my “lovie”. I tell everyone he takes his baby role seriously. LOL The C’s have grown both in height and weight, but also in understanding. Watching them learn is a thrill for me. With their second year came words and the beginnings of potty training. There came the “why?” question, and the “oh” response. Two brought about a realization that “Hey I can tell them apart!!” Twos were a fun time. Spent getting to know them better and exploring their likes and dislikes. McDonald’s, known as Chickeeen Nuggets around these parts, is high on the like list, while dirt on hands is high up on the dislike a lot list.
Now year three is here. We are 4 months into it, and I am already starting to worry about their teachers when they go to school. Connor figured out a couple of months ago that his daddy uses the birthmark as a way to tell them apart, and will hide his arm behind his back and say he is Colton when he knows he is in trouble. Colton also had the epiphany about the birthmark. One night lying in bed we had a discussion about him being Colton and not Connor. The next day he comes up to me and says “Look mommy. I Connor.” Holds up his arm proudly to show me the nice blue circle he colored on his wrist. They have gotten the “I didn’t do it. Connor/Colton did it” down pat. They also have been learning new things like putting their shoes on by themselves and we finished up potty training. YAY! They have discovered how to truly aggravate the pee out of their older brother and sisters. Three has brought about the word “Bootyhead”, which I despise. With all that the past 4 months have brought, I can only imagine what the next 8 will bring. I don’t even want to think about what the next few years will be like!
“Yep, those were the words that came out of my mouth the day my mid-wife thought she saw twins.”
