Quiz Time!

What eats every two hours?

1. A newborn infant
2. A vampire
3. A woman pregnant with twins

Which of the following will gnaw off your arm if you don't feed it quickly enough?

1. A newborn infant
2. A vampire
3. A woman pregnant with twins

Which of the following gets shaky and confused if not fed regularly?

1. A newborn infant
2. A vampire
3. A woman pregnant with twins

Which of the following follows this pattern: eat, pee, sleep, eat, pee, sleep?

1. A newborn infant
2. A vampire
3. A woman pregnant with twins

If you answered 1 and 3 to all of the above, you are correct!

Well, the twins?! thing is still blowing my mind. No, I'm not "excited" yet. I'm not sure when I will be. Some day, I hope. Right now though, let me put it into perspective for you - this is from Eric.

It's just like an unplanned pregnancy.

We were planning for one more child and that was supposed to be it. I had no intention of any more than that. That was as much as I was prepared to handle. For those of you madly in love with larger family sizes, good on you! You go get 'em! And no, before any of you get all excited about the idea: I am NOT having a fourth to "even it up". That was the most insane suggestion I've had so far.

Everyone seems wildly thrilled for us to be having twins, except for two or three folks that kept their heads about them. Twins seem like a thrilling idea until you're living it. It's more than just "Ooh! Free extra baby!", it's actually adding to the potential complications during gestation and birth. The possibility of them growing at disparate rates or coming too early and winding up in the NICU unit for days, weeks or months. The extra testing involved (2 amnios, remember?), the extra expense for the testing, the additional ultrasounds (although I'm looking forward to that part), the extra risk. I'm already a somewhat risky proposition just due to age. Adding twins into the mix doesn't lower my risk any. Extra school expenses, more gear, more "stuff", extra college expenses, an extra wedding....

And, for those of you so excited, keep in mind that we're the ones that will be raising them, breastfeeding them, changing 40+ diapers a day and having even less sleep than you get with a singleton. On the outside, we'll look like a mini circus, on the inside, we're likely to be crazed lunatics.

I'm sorry I sound all grumbly.

I'm glad that you're excited for us, just don't expect us to be excited for us until we know that everything is going to be OK. That time frame will be anywhere from 6 weeks from now (post-amnios) to 6 months from now (post-birth). Please don't expect me to accept magical thinking and your assurances that "Everything will be just fine!". You don't know that - you think that. You might even feel that, in your gut. I need to know. I need to be prepared. I'm trying to not worry (too much). I can't just ignore the fact that I'm pregnant with twins for the next several months or assume that everything will go swimmingly. I'd like to think I have an excellent chance at everything going well and that there won't be complications, but it doesn't mean things will work out exactly as I would hope them to.

Look, I'm scared and stunned. I'll get over it, I'm certain of it. In the meantime, keep being supportive, without expecting me to be all squeally, bright eyed excited. Tell me reassuring things without blowing off my fears. Don't ask me to skip testing or not think about all of the possibilities. Send me articles that talk about how my chances are better than I think they are (Cindy sent an article about new research on amnios suggesting odds are 1 in 1600 for potential miscarriages instead of 1 in 200, which helped!) and I will appreciate them.

I'm not worried about the parenting part. We've had loads of practice! I'm more concerned about producing healthy, full term babies. One level of stress will drop away in 6 weeks. Then it will be a matter of hitting a series of milestones throughout the rest of the pregnancy. Good weight gain, fetal movement, low stress, good exercise, that sort of thing.

Currently, I'm hoping for healthy. Next on my wish list is one of each sex. That would be pretty cool and something to be excited about. Caitlin could have both a younger brother and a younger sister! And I could use both of my names. I'm not going to concern myself with thinking up a second name for each sex until after the amnios. Then we'll know if I need to or not!

Finally, thanks. Thanks to all of you for the well wishes and congratulations and commiseration and excitement. We really, really appreciate it.

I'll keep you posted!