Illustration: Gillian Wilson
When I was pregnant, everyone had a gruesome twin tale they just had to tell me: poop explosions, mangled lady parts, the bottomless pit of sleep deprivation. Thanks to these cautionary tales, I had a pretty good handle on the logistics of twin parenthood early on. I could bounce a baby on my knee and rock the other with my foot. I could juggle two car seats with aplomb. Double-duty lactation" No worries. I was, however, woefully unprepared for the emotions?the giddy, effervescent, ugly, scary ones that lie at the extreme ends of human experience that come with having twins.
Being a mom of twins is the loveliest, loneliest, most exhilarating and most exhausting experience I?ve ever known. On any given day in that first year, I?d swoon in adoration, tear my hair out in frustration, cry because my reheated coffee had gone cold for a third time and melt into a puddle of goo at gummy smiles and squishy hugs. It?s as if I started each day strapping myself into the most insane roller coaster ever created, without a safety harness. Once my partner went back to work and my parents returned to Australia, I had to ride it solo. My girls are now four, and the realities of life with two babies is quickly fading in my rear-view mirror. But in the spirit of all those parents who shared their wisdom with me, here are some hard-won nuggets that I wish I?d known from the start.
My daughters? cuddling at the hospital after one twin was re-admitted. Photo: T...