Our Two Feisty Fellas

The boys aren't even here yet and we can already tell they have some very, very strong personalities.  There have been many a doctor appointment where it’s exclaimed “My you sure do have some movers!  I can’t get a good measurement until they quiet down.”  So we would wait and watch and I chuckled as little arms and legs flailed everywhere thinking nothing of it. But last week our 8 day stay at the hospital shed a bit of a new light on what our future may hold.

When expecting moms are in the hospital (or at least in our case), the baby’s heart rate is monitored continuously or at least very frequently.  In a typical patient, the heart rate is found and then a monitor is strapped to mom to keep an eye on baby.  For us, that lasted about 10 minutes.  The first go round took the nurse about 20 minutes to track down both boys.  Once found, she strapped on the monitors and left the room only to come racing back in about 5 minutes later.  The boys, with their hatred of the monitors, had kicked and squirmed their way away from getting tracked and were setting off alarms left and right at the nurses’ station.  Whoops. I assured her both were fine since I could feel them having a grand ol’ time.  But that put an end to continuous monitoring.

The following night around 3:30am, the nurses were having yet another difficult time tracking our munchkins.  Nick was asleep and I was about ¾ out of it because of the cocktail of meds I was on to stop the contractions.  But at one point, and I made sure to confirm the next morning, there were four nurses and a resident trying to get our fellas to cooperate.  They even had to bring in a sonogram machine!    

There has also been one thing consistent.  Almost every friend, nurse or doctor that hears or sees our active guys tells us “You know, their personalities before birth carry over.”  Mind you that is still to be determined but I have a feeling we won’t get bored with our two.  And I guess it’s a good thing I have my sister Ellen to talk to about parenting a spirited child.  Our nephew Jackson is the kind of kid you have to remind to walk instead of run.  Everywhere.  But we sure do love that little guy.  I can already hear a common phrase in our house being “BOYS! What was that crash???” followed by some mischievous giggles.

I'm Being Stalked

You know how when you buy a new car you notice just how many cars exactly like yours are on the roads? Or when you think you are being trendy with a new fashion and it seems as though everyone else is all of a sudden wearing the exact same thing?  Well, that’s my life right now.  Except that I’m being stalked. By twins.

Before we knew we were expecting our little guys, I swear we knew maybe two or three sets of twins.  I never saw them in public and if I did, I silently thought to myself “Good lord that double stroller is huge.  Can’t they downsize to something that doesn't take up the entire aisle at Target?”  Oh karma, you really think you’re clever.  Well now, I swear twins are everywhere.  I mean EV-ER-Y-WH-ER-E!!! We see them when we’re out at breakfast, during tv commercials and plastered all over Facebook.

In fact, last weekend while we were waiting to check out at the grocery store I turned around to see twin boys in the cart behind us with their mom.  I mentioned how darling they were and asked their age.  She said “Twenty months.  Though they came two months early because this one had a mind of his own and was kicking so hard that he broke my water.”  Wait…whaaaat!?  That can actually happen?  (Side note: I’m screwed.  I have two little soccer players.)

I will say though, meeting other twin parents has actually been kind of nice.  I had heard that parents of multiples kind of stick together and boy were they right.  Every single person we've met has offered us tips and words of wisdom.  They've also told us we will lose our minds for the first year but after that, it’s really great.  Ok maybe not the most helpful thing to say to new parents.  But, we've also been told of great play groups, consignment sales and one person even offered to give us the name of her night nurse.  Really, it’s incredible.

I will be curious to see what it’s like when the kiddos actually arrive.  Will we get more unsolicited advice from strangers?  Will we be able to pick out those young couples who just wish we would get out of their way with our massive stroller? Will even more twins come out of the woodwork?  Who knows.  I guess we will wait and see.  And as their arrival time draws nearer, I think about this stuff more and more. 

Oh and for those who have asked, I still haven’t had a random person ask or try to touch my belly.  I’m guessing that is also just a matter of time.