When my ob/gyn asked me, "What do you think about this?" I stared at the two boxes before my jaw dropped - TWINS! Oh, my goodness! Well, that wasn't the exact phrase I used, but there are NO twins in my family - NONE!

I was caught totally off guard.

Regardless, I proudly displayed the portrait of my uterus to friends, family, and co-workers. However, the taunting began immediately: "you're going to have to buy double the diapers", "you're going to have double feedings", and the most common rant was "you're going to have to buy two of everything." (Fortunately, that wasn't true. The only thing you really need two of - at least in the beginning - is two swings.) I got a lot of "you don't look pregnant with twins" comments too.

When I started feeling the twins move, it felt like little, painless muscle twitches. As they got bigger, they felt more like two, rock solid knots.
It wasn't long before I could tell them apart from their movements. Baby A - the very active one - was positioned up front toward the left, and calm Baby B sat peacefully to the right in the back. One night they rolled over - at the same time - from opposite sides of my stomach. They bumped into each other, and I felt them both jump and immediately return to their respective sides. I laughed all night over that.

During one of my ultrasounds in the second trimester, the doctor asked me if I wanted to know the sexes or if I wanted to be surprised. I didn't hesitate answering, "NO! NO MORE SURPRISES FROM YOU!" The doctor said that she thought they were both female and an amniocentesis test later confirmed the sexes (which by the way - an amniocentesis test looks a lot worse than
it feels.) Toward the end of the second trimester, all the "you don't look pregnant with twins" comments immediately stopped too...

By thirty six weeks, I went to the hospital for a mild case of shortness of breath among other things. The doctors decided to err on the side of caution and do an emergency C-section thus sparing me the pain of labor.
Two healthy baby girls were born. Baby A was named Tara, and Baby B was named Abigail, although strangely enough her nickname went from "Abby" to just plain "B."

The first two years flew by. I survived breast feeding, juggling two schedules on top of mine, the croup, gastric upsets, and lots and lots of attention from every kind of stranger that ever crossed our path. I tried taking them out a lot, but Tara would fight any notion of being tied down i.e. strollers or car seats. Her little face would get so red, and I would tell her, "Tara, I'm 120 pounds. You're 20 pounds. Who's going to win?"
She was still so hard to buckle down!

We spent most of their toddler days at the park. They'd run toward two different slides, so I played centerfield a lot. We would stop at the snack stand for brunch. "B" took awhile to understand the concept of a french fry. For months, she would dip the fry repeatedly into the ketchup and lick the ketchup off the fry. When the ketchup was gone, she would throw away the fry.

They are two and half now. I dreaded the terrible twos, but they aren't that bad. Of course, the only time Tara and "B" would work together is if they were waking me up in the morning. Tara rips the covers off of me and steals my pillow. "B" pinches my eyelashes and yanks open my eyelids. "Get up, Momma," the yell simultaneously.

But I look forward to it all. Every day is adventure - an adventure I wouldn't miss for the world. I never saw a life as a mother of twins, but now I could never see a life without them.



Sarah V. Richard is the author of several young adult and children's stories. Visit her website at www.publishedauthors.net/sarahvrichard