Home Alone: A Guest Post by the Mom

Home Alone

Our twins were born in July, which is smack dab right in the middle of our summer break. So we were very fortunate to both have the next several weeks off of work until school started back up in August. I remained on maternity leave as the school year started up, and I am still on leave, scheduled to return to work in just a couple of short weeks. But Devin went back to work at the start of the school year. At that point, the twins were around five weeks old. How lucky was I to have had Devin around full time for a full five weeks?! You might think that by then I was totally cool with being on my own with the babies, basically a pro. I mean, by five weeks old they should practically be taking care of themselves…haha. This image illustrates how I was feeling the first day I was on my own with the twins:

Schedules

We have been parents for 3 months, and I already forget what it is like to have my own schedule.  We eat, sleep, and go to the bathroom on their time!  Social life, gone!  I must apologize to all our friends with whom we have lost touch. It is extremely difficult to get out with newborn twins, but feel free to visit us!  Just make sure it is within the short 2 hour time slots between feedings. 

The Birth

If you didn’t catch my previous blog about our scary experience with labor, you will want to check that out (here) before you read this one.

It was the early hours of July 7, 2014.  The nurses called me into the operating room.  Amy and I had always hoped to have our baby (babies in this case) delivered naturally, and by naturally I mean without surgery.  As we got closer to the delivery date and both babies remained breeched, that wasn’t going to be an option for us.  A breeched baby is in the womb head up, but the head needs to be down for the safest delivery.  Rather than entering a delivery room, I was joining Amy in an operating room for a c-section.  We were nervous about the idea of a c-section at first, but through conversations with those who had experienced it, we felt comfortable.  We knew it was the safest option for our babies in this particular situation. 

Growing Twins: A Guest Post by the Mom

I’ve only been non-pregnant for three months and I’m already losing touch with what it was like. So, I’m going to attempt to jot a few things down to commemorate my pregnant-with-twins experience. 

Being pregnant with twins is much like being pregnant with a singleton….you know, in terms of growing a person, only I had two. From the very beginning of my pregnancy, I had a strange feeling that there was something different going on. I don’t know how to explain it other than it just felt like there was a lot of activity going on in my uterus. At my first OB appointment after a positive home pregnancy test, my midwife was pressing on my abdomen and said “Oh yea, there’s definitely something growing in there”. This comment only made me worry more (yes, I admit that I was terrified of the thought) that I might be pregnant with more than one baby. A day or so before my first ultrasound, I told Devin that I had a bad feeling, which I corrected with “unsettling” feeling, that there was more than one baby growing in there. Don’t worry; it wasn’t all doom and gloom when the duo was confirmed. We were so excited. Terrified, yes, but underneath a lot of joy and anticipation.

Labor?

The moment I walked into the bedroom, I knew the twins were gone.  I tried my best to hold my composure, as if everything was alright, but I believed deep down that we lost our twins.  All I could do was pray that I was wrong, that somehow Amy could bleed so much, and everything would still turn out fine.  

Blood was all over Amy, the sheets, the floor, and anything Amy touched.  The bedroom looked like a murder scene.  Normally, blood would make me sick, but this was a high pressured situation and I was in go mode.  I gave Amy the towels and made sure she physically felt ok.  Then my focus turned to getting to the hospital.

Happy Anniversary: Hospital Vacation

        June 10, 2014 was our 3^rd wedding anniversary.  I had to spend all day at a class for my teaching job, and Amy was going to see the doctor because she had been feeling cramps for the past few days.  For the evening, I had reservations set for the Fish Market, and tickets purchased for The Fault in Our Stars, a movie made from a book we both had read.  This was going to be one of our last HURRAHS before the twins were born. 

         At class, I was catching up with old and current teacher friends at our Leader in Me training coarse.  Most conversation focused on Amy’s pregnancy and the twins.  When 90% of your coworkers are women, and your wife is pregnant with twins, that’s all they want to talk about.  I didn’t mind, I was excited about it all!  Amy still had a little ways to go being at week 33, but many co-workers joked to keep my phone on in case she went into labor early.  It is very typical for twins to be born up to 10 weeks early.  Even with the joking, everyone was surprised when my phone starting vibrating and I told them it was Amy. 

The Good News

My plan is to do weekly posts, writing about my experience with twins as they happen.  But I have a lot to share about pregnancy through the first 10 weeks, so I am going into blog overdrive.  Think of it like a Netflix binge, trying to catch up on a show until you are current with the new airings on TV.  If you read my first post, you might be wondering what happened.  No you didn’t miss anything, that is called the classic cliffhanger.  However, you probably guessed what happened next.  If you didn’t read my first post, you might want to scroll down first (past my wife’s guest entry) and take a peek. 

With the surprised expression of the doctor, and the picture of the ultra-sound, we both knew it before she said anything.  “How would you like to be the parents of two babies?” Amy had told me several weeks earlier that she thought it was twins.  I told her she was wrong!  There was no way we were having twins. She just felt like she had a lot going on inside.  I guess she was right, just like always! 

Why I’m Not Ashamed of How Our Twins Came to Be (Guest post by the mom, Amy)

(My wife was motivated by my first blog and wrote her first guest piece already, and so soon! Why did I ever doubt her?  She is a great writer, so enjoy!  I will post the second part of my first blog by Friday)

One of the very first times we told anyone we were expecting twins, we got the question, “Did you take anything?” This would be the first of dozens of similar questions. When I responded, “yes”, it was as if I could see the level of excitement in their face drain ever so slightly. Twins weren’t as exciting when a couple used help getting pregnant. From that moment on, every time I was asked a similar question, I felt extremely insecure, not to mention offended that so many people felt it was appropriate to ask such a question. No, I don’t believe that the history of my reproductive system is any of your business, but I suppose I can tell you the last time I ovulated if you insist.

In the beginning…

Hello fellow fathers, fathers of twins, mothers, mothers of twins, grandmothers, whoever decided to open my blog.... hello to you. I wanted to open this blog with an introduction of myself.  My name is Devin, I am currently 28 years old.  I would define myself as a born again christian, husband, father of... TWINS, teacher of... 2ND GRADERS, and a Reds fan.  The last one isn’t so important, unless you know me, then you know that it IS important.  I also love to go to movies, shoot my shotgun at clay pigeons, and be active.  All before I had twins of course.  Those are the basics of the basics about me.  If you continue to be a reader of my blog, I promise you will learn much more.  Probably more than you want to know about me.  Especially if you are family, you have been warned.