A received an email last week from a mom in my Twins club (www.mpomba.com) suggesting the moms of Winter/Spring 09/10 get together for some social time. I was thrilled – as many of you know, I am a wonderfully social person who is HORRIBLE at organizing social events. And early life with twins can be horribly isolating – I have really noticed how little I leave the house this time around compared to with my older daughter, Bridget. Hooray for organizers! I get so excited when I meet “organizer-types”, as I can barely keep my dirty laundry organized into piles, let alone setting up social events with other moms!
Amazingly enough, four twins moms (two of us with older children as well) managed to find a day and time we were all free, and braved a public get-together at the park. It was a crazy stinky hot and humid day, but our new friend Tamara picked a spot near a Splash Pad (water play area) so the breeze brought occasional cool misty relief as we all sat in the shade and talked about how life has been so far.
And here is what I noticed: while life with “twinfants” is definately more intense, and absolutely each activity (from diaper changes to breastfeeding to loading in the car) takes A LOT longer, the chatter was pretty similar to what I talk about with my singleton mommy friends! I’m not sure why I find that so surprising, but I do. We talked about the ups and downs of our pregnancies (and of trying to get pregnant, for some), our health worries for our kids, foods we can’t eat while nursing, swapped funny spouse and in-law stories, griped a little bit here and there, and mostly boasted about our amazing kids. It was incredibly enjoyable.
Most enjoyable was how for each mommy there, I heard about something I was totally in awe of. Stories of “above and beyond” kinds of dedication that made me feel so lucky for the “simplicity” of my life with my girls! Imagine, eh? All the babies are getting breastmilk, which in itself for 4 sets of twins is amazing! It was great to meet other breastfeeding moms of multiples. For one of us, nursing hadn’t been possible so she was pumping breastmilk multiple times daily to bottle-feed to her boys. Wow… That’s like feeding quads – just whenshe gets finished making/pumping/storing the breastmilk for her twins, she then still has to FEED the twins! My hats off to her!! Another mom had her twins significantly premie – they were born at only 4 pounds, and so now carries all of the NICU and early infancy stress that come from such an experience. After hanging out with these ladies, I left realizing that women are so amazingly capable. When things happen to complicate life, we just dig deeper… And even more, I felt humbled and very blessed for how easy the girls and I have had it. Wow – my kind of day!
Just the eight of us... Clockwise from upper left: Taylor & Kennedy (g:g, 6m), Grayson & William (b:b, 4m), Sarah & Matthew (g:b, 3m), and Gabriel & Zachary (b:b, 4m)
We have already set a date to get together again, and hopefully will be able to get another group pic, but until then, here’s our little clan in action:
Twinside Out: When twins make it "three under three" 
Great post Kym! Looking forward to our next get together! It is awaking that all eight of these babies are nursing!