My first year with twins; singleton evny

There are days when DH and I still say "I can't believe we have twins"! Considering we went through what seemed like hell and back it really is pretty unbelievable I did carry twins and to 38 weeks at that! And despite my title and what I am going to say in this post I feel I need to write in a disclaimer: I would change NOTHING!!! I can't even imagine life without both of my daughters. I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to be in the multiple moms club. In fact before going through my IVF treatments I bought a fertility necklace from La Belle Dame and made a wish upon it that I would have twins. And I did not take that necklace off until the day I was put into labor. [I won't even get into my superstitions!]

That being said, while I still feel as lucky today as I did the day we got to leave the hospital with TWO babies, I do find at times I have some singleton envy. It takes me some courage, a lot of planning and a minimum of an hour to leave the house with 2 babies to do the simplest tasks. If I also want to be showered beforehand that's another 15 min. [Typically I say screw it, throw on a hat and worry about myself during naptime.]

For example I've started taking the Chiklits to the library for story time, it takes me an hour and a half to drive 5 min. to sing some songs and hear a story in 20 min. And thank goodness there is a story time at 10 & 11am b/c we'd never make it for the 10am story! I had wanted to start taking them to story time during Christmas break, I finally started going mid-Jan. - it took me almost a month to work up my courage to actually bite the bullet and just go.

Grocery shopping - only have attempted a full grocery shopping trip twice in a year!! I am not a fan of grocery shopping as it is and carrying a kid on your back while entertaining the other in the carriage while doing something I loathe isn't my idea of a good time.

Carter's childrens clothes store - made one miserable trip there with the double tandem stroller, never again! What childrens clothes store is not made for a double tandem stroller to fit through the racks?! And don't even get me started about the set of doors you need to enter through that aren't automatic! This single experience has made me have to pre-plan any shopping trips I want to take with the Chiklits.

Target & Joann's are two of our favorite places other than of course the great outdoors which is our #1 favorite hangout spot!

On some days, I just think, how simple it must be to get only 1 baby ready, into the car and popped into a carriage. And the single stroller envy I have! All single strollers are so nice and small and sleek, cute even... There is nothing "cute" about a double stroller besides the 2 kids strolling around in them!

Never mind how many more diapers we go through, how much harder nursing was, how much less sleep we got during those first months of feeding around the clock, how much formula we go through in a week...$$$$$

And I am learning or am told there are some things singleton parents can be jealous of us twinkie moms for: starting and finishing your family in 1 shot, being on the same schedules, the comfort the twins have due to simply having a twin, being through all the stages at or around the same time, being in the same activities. Typically you'll hear a singleton mom tell a twinkie mom, "I don't know how you do it!" I know I prefer hearing this. I'm pretty sure if I got a, "You have it so easy" comment someone would end up with a black eye! Let me be the one to tell you it's not so bad!

I will admit there were two things I was seriously freaking out about (other than how the hell are these kids going to get out of my body?!); how was I going to love 2 infants as much as they needed and be able to pay equal attention to both. These were the only things that were upsetting me about having twins. I really wasn't sure how I was going to be able to be "fair". What was I going to do when they were both crying for my attention at the same time?? All I could think was that infants need so much of your time and attention and I'm not wonder woman. But like all things twin related you just do! I learned very quickly these fears were ridiculous!!! I have more love than I knew possible for both of them. And they each get as much of my attention as they need. Besides that they are very helpful by being 2 of the best babies on Earth! And it's actually probably better that I have to share my attention and affection b/c I'm pretty sure if I had a singleton I'd have been a smother-er and ended up with a stage 10 clinger. As it is I'm pretty sure I do a fair amount of smothering V & H! Now that they are getting older DH and I will start having some special one on one dates with them. I look forward to those since most days it seems I have a twin on my hip, one clinging to my leg and the dogs running circles around the 3 of us!

Phew, that was a lot of writing...if you got this far here is your reward!