Good News, Bad News
Twin pregnancy is totally a good news/bad news proposition. Like, the bad news is you get humongous and you have twice the hormones rushing through your body, but the good news is you only have to go through it once and you get two babies for the price of one pregnancy. And so on, and so forth.
When we first saw the ultrasound with the two tiny sea-monkeys in their two little amniotic bubbles, my engineer brain did a quick little bit of math. The average parents of a single newborn probably spend something like 7 to 10 hours tending to their new baby's basic needs -- feeding, burping, changing, calming down. So for twins, multiply that by two -- let's see, carry the one -- that gives you 14 to 20 hours a day. Out of, um, 24 hours.
Uh oh.
The shell-shock lasted a good week or so. I freaked out and bought two twin books the day we found out we were having twins, and I read most of both of them within the first couple days. And the books of course listed all sorts of additional problems that I hadn't even thought about. Not so comforting. Both Kathy and I spent the first week or two in a sort of haze of disbelief.
Over the next few months, though, for reasons we don't entirely understand, we came to really like the idea of having twins. A lot. I think it might be some sort of brain defense mechanism, but you start coming up with all these twin advantages in your head, like:
- Our daughters will have to learn how to share at an early age, because they won't have any other choice.
- Our daughters won't be spoiled rotten, because we won't have enough time or energy to spoil them rotten even if we wanted to.
- We won't ever be in the position of having to try to calm a colicky infant while simultaneously trying to deal with a tantrum from a toddler in his terrible twos.
End of mushy post.
posted by Dave @ 9:53 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
...your math is right, but your assumption may need tweaking. =P As a parent of two, I can tell you that Baby #2 does not nearly get that much attention (poor child). But breeding hungry children (literally and metaphorically) does have its virtues, I think. In any case, your conclusion is still right. Say goodbye to cat naps, weekend basketball and anything that can be construed as "free time." =O Fortunately, it's a worthwhile investment. There is nothing better than being a parent!
Parhain terveisin (Best Regards), John
Ew. Math.
Twins won't be twice the work since many baby-related tasks will overlap in time suckage. But they WILL be twice the LOVE.
Also, I will gladly spoil my nieces. It's only fair since I was the recipient of much spoiling.
yay, I for one am glad you are blogging about this....say hi to Kathy for me...so exciting, any day now!
I have to say i am one of many probably that asked about Jon & Kate + 8, even though it's a totally different situation...or was that Patricia who first brought it up?
hugs,
Gigi
Hey Gigi -- We actually love talking about John and Kate because it makes us feel much better about our situation. It could be so much worse!
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