The Cub Twins turn 1 today! That’s right, the longest, shortest 365 days of my life have passed.
I can confidently say that this is the most sleep-deprived I’ve ever been, but that it has consistently gotten easier as we transitioned from feeding and pumping every two to three hours to baby-led weaning and saying bye to my pump for good.
It hasn’t been easy and I haven’t loved every minute of it. There are days when I crawl into bed (usually about five minutes before one or both of them wake up) and realize I didn’t savour a single moment with my boys; I just kept them clean(ish) and fed and tried to juggle a whole bunch of other things. And that’s okay.
So without further ado, here are 10 things that still surprise me, 365 days after I gave birth to my twins:
1- How many times in one day I can be told that I have my hands full.
2- How often I talk to complete strangers about my reproductive organs.
3- How poorly adapted our world is to wheelchair users. If I can’t access a bathroom, an entrance or a store with my twins in their double stroller, neither can a wheelchair user.
4- How two babies who grew together in the same uterus and now experience the exact same environment still hit their milestones at different moments. (So relax, moms comparing their same-age babies in Facebook mom groups!)
5- How much of an affinity I immediately feel when I meet another parent of multiples (and how helping a family with quads really puts the difficulty of twins into perspective).
6- How grateful I am that Twin A quickly developed a mole on one leg so I could tell them apart in moments of panic.
7- How often I wonder if some twins were accidentally mixed up by their parents at some point and they just never realized.
8- How being only 4 minutes apart, I still consider one older than the other.
9- How equality has become oddly important: if one twin is getting changed out of pyjamas, I need both of them out of pyjamas. One needs a bath? They’re both getting a bath!
10- How every so often, even a year later, I can look at those two little faces and think: “Holy crap. I have twins.”
I can’t wait to find out what surprises year 2 will bring!
Twingle Mommy says
My twins are 4.5 years old now and most of these still ring true for me. I have an older daughter as well so #1 is something I still hear almost every day. Congrats on making it through the first year and happy birthday to the twins. It does get easier!
Lindsay says
Haha yes I have two older kids and my eldest is always like “MOM! Why do people always tell you you have your hands full?!”
Bonnie Way says
My twin brother is only 1 minute older than me and my parents still acted like he was a year or two older. He was the oldest and that was that. I hated it for most of my life. 🙂 I mean, we were basically the same age!!! 🙂 But I hear ya about the “hands full” comment (I get that a lot too) and the strollers / wheelchair. So many places are SERIOUSLY hard to get to with wheels. 🙁
Lindsay says
I also wonder if my twins will have a complex about their size difference- or possibly the “older” but smaller twin will catch up!