People always ask us, “What was your reaction when you found out you were having twins?”
Well, the first thing I did was cry tears of joy and amazement. What a unique and awesome thing to find out that you are carrying two babies in your womb! I was on the phone with my mom the second we were out of the doctor’s office, and then my 3 sisters, my best friend, my grandma… You get the picture. I mean, who wouldn’t want to share their fabulous news with the whole world?
Then reality hit. It took a few days, but people started asking me questions that I didn’t have the answer to and I started to get a little anxious about how having twins would change my life.
“Are you going to go back to work?”
“How will you afford daycare?”
“Where will they sleep?”
“Do you want my baby’s hand-me-downs?”
As the gifts and second-hand baby stuff began to fill every spare corner of our apartment, my anxiety grew. Where were we supposed to fit two more people in our small apartment? Could we really handle taking on two newborns?
For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why we were having twins, and for some reason that drove me bonkers. In my hormonal preggo mind, I had to have an answer for myself and for others. Why were we having twins? My grandfather had twin sisters, and my mom’s cousin had twins, but that doesn’t seem like enough examples to say with confidence that twins run in the family. Twins are common among women who are tall (nope, not me. I’m 5’2″) and who are in their late 30’s (I was 32). Cute as they were, I just had no explanation for the twins’ presence.
Not that expecting twins was a bad thing, of course. Oddly enough, ever since we began trying for a baby, my husband wanted twins so badly that he insisted we would have twins. Imagine his surprise when turned out to be right! Naturally, I wanted to prove that this twin pregnancy was therefore his fault.
I was entirely unsuccessful. It turns out that twins are pretty much always a result of the mother. Without getting into biology and boring sciency-stuff, let’s just summarize by saying that, in spite of the fact that my husband was the one who “willed” the twins to happen, I was the one who gave them life.
And I think that’s a pretty cool thing to be able to say, don’t you?
Be sure to check out my first weeks and first trimester experiences, and what you really need to know when you are expecting twins!