My Journey with Twins

After 12 weeks of bed rest. A belly that was 64 cm up & down & 55" around. Thirty nine weeks with four tiny feet kicking away waiting to come out. It was 6am when we arrived at the hospital for our scheduled C-section. You would think that I wouldn't be nervous, but I was. I don't know if I was more nervous or it was a different kind of nervous. We couldn't believe in just a few hours we were going to have twins in our arms & our family would grow from 7 to 9.

At 8am they rolled me back to the operating room. I was shaking with nervousness, anxiety and excitement. The anesthesiologist was training and asked if I was ok if the student put the spinel in. I said it was ok, but he had one shot. If he didn't get it right. The anesthesiologist was doing it. Well once the student inserted the catheter I felt really weird and made them pull it out immediately. They wanted to know what I was feeling, but I explained it didn't matter. I didn't like it and the student had his shot. Once the anesthesiologist got the spinel catheter in they laid me back and put the drape up. 

Finally, my husband was with me and I could breathe somewhat. I know it made him at ease to know I was ok. Before long we heard the first cry of baby A at 8:35am weighing in at 10lbs 2oz. Then exactly a minute later baby B was born weighing 9lbs 9oz. Yes, you read that correctly. No, I didn't have gestational diabetes. I just make big babies and these twin weren't going to let their siblings show them up. 

Shortly after they were cleaned and swaddled up we were in recovery waiting to go back to our postpartum room. It was overwhelming looking at these two little faces figuring out how was I going to feed them. I wrestled with breastfeeding or bottle feeding when I was on bed rest. However, the choice was made for me. My colostrum or milk never came in. It was nice in a way because my husband would be able to help more and he wanted it as well. 

Finally we were in our postpartum room. Soon after arriving the air-conditioning didn't seem to be working. We found out that it was, but since we had the corner room it didn't flow well down where we were. They were so nice to provide us with a fan. 

A few hours had went by and 10 little feet come bursting in to see these babies twins. The excitement and joy on their faces was so touching. You could tell they were proud to be big brothers and sisters to these little guys. 

Once word got out that these babies were here and their weight. A friend of ours called local channel Fox19 (click the link to read article) to get them to do an interview. Never did I think they would show up with a camera man. The interview was very intimidating, but exciting. Who can say not only do you get to show off your baby to family and friends, but to the whole Cincinnati area, so I thought. Before long our friends were letting us know that people they knew in other parts of the U.S. were calling them asking if they knew us. To our surprise Jay Leno did a monologue on us. We also had a phone interview with a British magazine. It was crazy!!!

We stayed in the hospital for four days. They wanted us to stay another day, but our other babies were missing us. Our nurse's were great. They knew I hadn't slept while on bed rest since the babies were putting so much pressure on my lungs. I slept sitting up on the couch. Some may say not to send the babies back to the nursey. However, I needed to send them. That rest allowed me to build the energy I needed once I got home. 

The next 3-4 months me and my husband took care of these little guys sleeping downstairs in our living room. They ate, changed and slept at the same time. There were nights one of us didn't hear the babies and the other would do double duty. Most nights we would tackle it together like most things we do. 

When the time came for them to sleep in their beds was hard. Not just for me, but for them too. They didn't like being in separate cribs and we allowed them to sleep together. It worked for them even when one was sick and the other wasn't. Let's face it, they knew each other better than we did. 

Today they are nine years old and still inseparable for the most part for fraternal twins. They have common interests like their love for superheroes and soccer, but are opposite in other parts like one is more athletic and the other is more artistic. Being fraternal twins means they don't look a like. However, they take that to extreme. One has blue eyes, tans easily and has sandy blonde hair. While the other has chocolate brown eyes, brown hair & light skin tone. 

Happy Birthday Lucas and Dylan!!! You have completed our family in more ways than we can count. Keep being each other's best friend. We love you both!!!