For Louise

I love to talk about the twins and the experience of being pregnant with them. This picture was taken on February 27, 2005. Almost exactly 13 weeks into my pregnancy with the twins. I look like I'm 6 months instead of three!

We had been trying to get pregnant for a long time so we knew almost immediately when I got pregnant and Eden heard us talking about having another baby. At this point, she had just turned 4. She started telling anyone who would listen, "My mommy's having two babies." I told her every time she said it. "Eden, honey, don't tell people that. Mommy is only having one baby." At which point we would go into the battle (Yes, I actually stood and argued with this child.) This picture was taken about two weeks after we found out that Eden was right. When I went to visit the doctor for the 11th week visit, I told her that I knew I would show earlier with the second pregnancy but I was already wearing maternity pants. She informed me that she was having a hard time keeping track of the baby's heartbeat and asked if I would let her do an ultrasound. She moved me over to the room where they do the ultrasounds (I forgot to mention that Michael and Eden were waiting in the waiting area so that after the doctor found the heartbeat she could bring them back so that they could hear it too.) and they helped me up on the table and I pulled my shirt up to my bra to expose this belly and the second that paddle hit my belly, there they were! Two heads! So the doctor went to get Michael and Eden and she didn't warn either of them that they were going to see an ultrasound. I remember the look on Michael's face. I swear I thought we were going to have to pick him up off the floor. He was so surprised. He left shortly after that to go back to work and he called his dad on the way home from the doctors office. I was still finishing up the check up. By the time I made it out of the Dr's office they had called Uncle Randy and I was getting a call about how excited he was that I was having twins. From that point on it was a free for all inside my belly. I'm one of the lucky few who didn't have to be put on bed rest and I carried the twins to 37 1/2 weeks. 38 is considered full term with twins.

Just look at the size of this thing!!! I was in the Payless shoes about 2 months before I had them, and I had my back turned to the clerk and she came up behind me and asked if she could help me find anything. When I turned to the side and she saw my belly, her jaw dropped. "Oh honey, please tell me that you are not here walking the mall so that you will go into labor. I would just die if you had that baby right here in the store." I had to explain to her that I still had a good two months left and that I would not be having my twins in her store. As you can probably tell by the beautiful hospital bracelet on my wrist, this was taken seconds before I went into the door you see behind me and changed into a hospital gown to be wheeled upstairs and deliver my precious bundles of joy.

In the picture, Jacob on the left, Tyler on the right. I thought they were easy to tell apart. So, no Amy, I never worried that I had them mixed up. I did however, worry all the time that I would love one more than I did the other, or think that one was cuter than the other and would have moments of guilt over it and then I would hold the other twin and feel the same way all over again and I finally discovered that they all three hold a special place in my heart and I truly do not think that one of my children is more beautiful and precious to me than the other, which I'm sure is a feeling that we all relate too.

My room was a zoo! I had my OB/GYN, an intern that was following her for the day, Michael, Mom, Dana, my nurse, Baby A nurse x2, Baby B nurse x2, the epidural guy, (in case you lost count that's 11 already) and by the time I started pushing, I had every nurse on the ward in my room. I think that at last count there were 23 people in my room. None of the nurses, (and the one with the most seniority had been there for 8 years) had ever seen both twins born without one being delivered by c-section.

Tyler was baby A, I pushed him out at 1:15 p.m., that's right, I'll say it again, I pushed him out. No c-section! I remember Michael saying "Oh my God! Look how big he is." He was so cute, he just kept saying it and I finally looked at him and said "I know how big he is, I just pushed him out of me!" The whole room burst out laughing!

Jacob spent the last month and a half of my pregnancy in the breech position, so after delivering Tyler, the Dr. told me I could take a small break and they were going to use the ultrasound to check on baby B. Yup! Still in the breech position. So, while using the ultrasound, they used all that extra belly that was Tyler, and they pushed Jacob around to the head down position. Not to bad, didn't hurt at all because I had the epidural and then.......Jacob decided that his arm should come first. Since this cannot happen because it would break his arm or collar bone,or worse, or break something in me, they had to put the arm back in. I'M POSITIVE THAT NO AMOUNT OF EPIDURAL MEDICATION CAN MASK THE PAIN OF A BABY ARM AND A DOCTORS ARM GOING INTO SOMETHING THAT IS THE SIZE OF LEMON! Jacob was born at 1:33 p.m. 18 min. after his brother. Tyler weighed in at 7lbs 11oz and Jacob was 7lbs 2 oz. 15 lbs of baby in that belly. I still have horizontal stretch marks! Oh yeah. Did I mention I PUSHED THEM BOTH OUT!

We were the talk of the hospital until we went home.

In this picture, Eden, Jacob and Tyler, and mommy of course!

At this point I have to say that I totally agree with Louise, the first year was hell! I love them and they were worth every second of lost sleep but it's not an exaggeration when I say that for the first 6 or 8 weeks we slept in 15 min. intervals. I nursed them, and we tried everything, including nursing them both at the same time and it didn't matter. One would get up and nurse and the other would wake up and cry until the first one was done nursing and then I would put the first one down because he was back to sleep and then nurse baby no. 2 and by the time I got baby 2 nursed and back to sleep I would get 15 min. of sleep and then baby 1 was up again wanting to be nursed. It was a nightmare! I never even considered NOT nursing them because just the thought of the cost of formula for two babies scared the hell out of me. I'll say again. It was worth it, but there for a while I felt like a diaper changing cow! No, I am not pretending to be asleep in this picture. I am passed out in this chair. God bless my father-in-law who bought me a comfortable chair to pass out in. Not to worry. Michael came to the rescue after he took this picture and put them in their crib.

They are just a few weeks old in this picture (Jacob left Tyler right) and they slept like this for about 6 months. I finally separated them when they started waking each other up by the one that woke up first crawling over the other one and waking him in the process.

I have to say that twins is definitely a lesson patience, whether you want it or not. And I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes, I really miss this stage.

Well, I feel like I've just written the Great American Novel, so I'll wrap it up with these pictures.

Louise, I think that in the picture of us it is, you, Jacob, Natalie, Regan, me and Tyler and in the picture of just the twins it's Natalie, Jacob, Regan and Tyler. How did I do with getting the girls right?

In the top picture is Michael, (who I haven't mentioned is a ROCK STAR daddy! He was a HUGE help to me when the boys were so little and still does a terrific job with all three of our kids! He was always right there to help me, he would bring me the baby that wasn't currently nursing and take the one that was finished so that I wouldn't have to get up and he was always asking if he could get me anything. I am not a water drinker but when I was nursing them I would drink two HUGE plastic cups of water and chomp on the ice. I couldn't get enough!) with Jake on the left and Tyler on the right. The next picture is of Jacob, I sat him up on the couch next to Eden and went to get the camera off the table and before I could take his picture he fell asleep like this. I love this picture of him. He looks like a toy doll instead of a real live infant! Following that is Tyler. I gave him a bath and greased him up with lotion and put a diaper on him and sat him in the corner of the crib, I went to help Michael get Jacob out of the tub and when I came back in the room Tyler had fallen asleep in the corner. Isn't he precious?! In the last picture, the boys are about 18 months old. This was right before I did the unthinkable, not to mention regrettable, and got them their first "big boy" hair cuts. Look at those curls. :o(

While I have so much more to say, because I could go on for days, I feel like at this point, I should say "And that's all I have to say about thaaaT."