Double Trouble (What It's Like Raising Twins)

One of the most asked questions I get is "what is it like having twins?"  Because it will be my daughters 15th birthday tomorrow, I thought I would tell you a little about raising twins in honor of my daughters.  Before I had children, I had joked with my husband about being next in line to have twins.  I didn't really think I was.  Only after having all four of my children did I find out that my grandmother had twins and lost one at birth.  No one knew until after she had died, and they found the surviving twin's birth certificate.  I really was next in line for twins.  So needless to say, finding out I was expecting two children at once was quite the shock.  As anyone would guess, I got huge really quick.  By the time I was 7 months pregnant, I was the size of a 9 month pregnant woman.  We were visiting a friend who had just delivered a baby.  The nurses thought I was the one about to deliver.  They weren't wrong.  At 7 months, I went into labor that couldn't be stopped, and surprise, our little family of three instantly became a family of five!  After a month in the NICU, my little girls joined our family.  We lived in a small house that fit three comfortably, but five was rather crowded.  Everywhere you looked there was two of every piece of baby equipment known to man.  I felt like I had to do the Cupid Shuffle to navigate my house filled with  baby stuff.  I spent many sleepless nights feeding and changing my babies.  Then came the walking and talking years.  The girls had their own language that I had not learned.  Eventually, they let me in on their communication, and we all spoke English.  When one child thinks up ways to get into trouble, it is scary.  When two minds come together, be afraid!  Be very afraid!  They would come up with ways of escaping- whether it was from their diaper, their baby-gated room, or at one point, the house.  They climbed on the baby changing table, opened a very heavy window, kicked the screen out, dumped toys and blankets on the ground, and jumped out the window.  They were three years old!  I knew nap time seemed quiet, so I knew something was up- or should I say down.  I noticed the open window and ran around the house thinking someone had kidnapped my babies, only to find them in their escape route.  This led to a tighter imprisonment.  As they grew, the mischievousness also grew.  I tried to dress them in cute, frilly dresses.  Their hair was curled and placed in ribbons, only to have them rip out the ribbons and pull off the dresses.  At one point, I found their brother giving them a hair cut.  He had decided he wanted brothers.  This resulted in the most pathetic pixie cut ever!  My husband found me in the back yard picking up dirty locks of blonde curls and putting them in a baggie.  I'm still not sure why I felt the need to save the curls, but I think at that point, I was in a state of survival.  When one lost a tooth, the other lost the same tooth on the opposite side of the mouth.  At one point during preschool, Aimee told me Megan was crying at school.  Aimee attended a different preschool.  When Megan made it home, she said she was crying when Aimee had mentioned it.  As they grew, I would sometimes get the tricks where they would pretend to be the other.  I started seeing girls that looked so very much alike become very different people.  Each became their very own unique self.  They swore they wanted time apart from each other.  At one sleep-over for their 11th birthday, they decided to sleep in different rooms.  That next morning, I found them curled up together in the same room.  They don't dress the same or like the same things, but they both love singing.  When they sing, a natural harmony comes out.  So what is it like raising twins?  It is exhausting.  It is exhilarating.  It is life-changing.  I have learned that even though you can look at the outside of a person, the inside is very different.  It shows the amazing creativity of God.  He can make something look identical and yet it be so unique.  I've learned to let my children be themselves and not try to make them copies of each other.  I've learned that nail polish comes off way too fast, so if you don't want to mix up your babies at birth use a darker nail polish on each child!  Happy Birthday, my sweet babies!

Have a great week high-heeled warriors!