PhotoBlog: Once Upon a Time…
Once upon a time, Righty and Lefty lived together in some mighty cramped quarters. For 38 weeks and 4 days, they floated around without a care in the world. (Aside from the occasional bump, push, and kick from their fellow womb mate, that is.)
Despite the tight living arrangements, life for these twins was great. No hungry bellies, plenty of rocking back and forth. It was the perfect place to call home.
Until…
POP!
Merely hours before they were scheduled to arrive into the world, Lefty had decided that he had endured enough.
“Ouch, dude!” I yelled. I was lying in bed, not sleeping anyway, when it felt like Lefty had straight up kicked me in the cervix. Nanoseconds passed before I realized that my water had just broke.
“Oh. SHIT!”
“What?” Clint asked, jumping straight out of bed. His cat-like reflexes were impressive.
With my hand between my legs, I swiftly crab-walked to the bathroom and stood in the tub. I barely made it. To this day, when I hear a bunch of liquid being poured into a tub… I distinctly remember my water breaking.
Soon, Clint’s parents arrived and we were on our way to the hospital. Since I was already scheduled for a c-section and the babies and I weren’t in any trouble, they said there wasn’t any reason to bump my c-section up. Neither Clint nor I had anticipated this whole concept of laboring. He flipped through channels while I breathed through contractions. Having been to the end of labor with Colby, I knew they weren’t the worst contractions in the world, but they weren’t exactly wonderful to experience, either.
“Will you stop flipping channels!” I yelled at him.
“What? I’m trying to help you!” he defended himself.
“Then help me breathe, don’t annoy the shit out of me!” I snapped.
(FYI: I’m not nice when I’m in pain.)
At 8:05am, Lefty entered the world weighing in at 7lbs 3oz.
We named him Wyatt.
Today, he rocks an impressive 25 pounds (and probably more):
One minute later, at 8:06am, Righty, a.k.a. Zander, busted out weighing 7lbs 13oz. He had some issues breathing, so he was taken to the nursery for observation for about 24 hours. Scared the bejeezus out of me, even though I knew it was merely precautionary.
Today, he weighs slightly less than his womb-mate. I’d guess around 23lbs (we’ll see at their year checkup in a week).
If you’re taking tabs… that’s 15 pounds of baby on this 5’3″ mama. Yowch.
I do not miss that swollen face or that ginormous belly. It hurt.
Their first birthday was fairly low-key. We’re planning one mega-party for all of the kids’ birthdays in late October, so we decided to go simple and just had the six of us and some cupcakes.
I have a tradition with my kiddos on their first birthdays. Before I frost their cake, I add a special little note. Since we were only doing cupcakes, I had to go simple and short, but still, I think it got the “I love you” across:
Then, the fun began.
There was the initial taste testing, to make sure I wasn’t fooling them with something gross (why do they learn that so early?!)…
Then the realization that this cupcake business is the best idea ever:
Followed by going all in, baby!
Zander made an enormous mess and finished his cupcake in a matter of minutes.
Wyatt took his sweet time, enjoying every morsel. (Notice Zander’s already cleaned off high chair next to him?)
He did end up making an impressive mess, though.
Celebrating their first birthday feels very different than Colby or Lily’s first birthday did. They are our last, true. Sure, that has a bit of an emotional sting to it (although I do not… I repeat do not want more kids). I was a weepy mess the morning of their birthday, which I never do. It occurred to me much later that day why I their birthday feels so different.
I survived.
We survived.
This year has been wonderful, don’t get me wrong. But for every beautiful moment, there were at least two emotionally, financially, or physically trying ones. Caring for twins is not easy. It is incredible, it is a complete blessing, but it isn’t easy.
We made it through one year.
It’s so hard to believe that they’ve come from this:
To this:
Dang, those babies are cute.
I have two more PhotoBlogs to share this week. One of them addresses the reason why the boys are wearing crazy tight clothing in that last picture, the other one is an exciting sequel to Maul That Twin.
Thanks for letting me share my little men with you this past year, and for the years to come. I can only imagine how much more hilarious the stories are going to get. (Especially since Wyatt seems to share his sister’s affinity with putting stuff in his mouth…)
