Irish Twins

I've always said that I only wanted to get pregnant only twice. I wanted a son and a daughter, preferably with my son being the oldest. When my husband and I got married, I became a mom to his son. I didn't think I needed a son after that because technically, I now had one. I must have wished one too many times about having my own son first. Somehow, I got exactly what I had wished for, with a special way of delivery included.

First Came Chuey...

I was in the kitchen with my husband when I made a comment about how weird my stomach was feeling. I had been feeling bloated, but I wasn't sure why. My time of the month wasn't due for a few more weeks and my diet had been pretty balanced as far as I could remember. My husband pressed on my stomach himself, noting that the top felt solid and tight, and the lower region still felt plushy and normal.

I joked and said that maybe I was pregnant. He chuckled a bit and reminded me of the pregnancy test we had in the bathroom upstairs. I ran upstairs to get it, yelling through the house the whole time that I couldn't possibly be pregnant though. I brought the test downstairs so that I'd be closer to the kitchen when I got the results. I peed and waited what felt like forever.

"Babe... Tell me this isn't 'positive.'" I said.

The little plus sign was taunting me. I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. Surely, I was reading it wrong.

Mrs. Doubtfire and the NICU

Fast forward a few months, (the test was positive after all), I was at work and had just finished eating lunch.

"Okay Chuey, potty time and then back to work." (I had heard that talking to the baby while they were still in the womb was a good thing.)

I peed. I wiped. I glanced at the tissue. Just as I was about to plop the tissue into the toilet, I noticed a tinge of pink. Was this the mucus plug I had read about? I finished up in the bathroom and told my director of my concerns. She urged me to call the hospital, they then urged me to come into the office. I had just had an appointment the day before, so initially the nurse said I was probably just spotting from the cervix check. When she checked again, I had gone up a few centimeters. She called my doctor and I was rushed over to labor and delivery.

On July 1, at 4 o'clock in the morning, I saw my son for the first time. After no food, no sleep, and no epidural, all I wanted to do was hold my baby and rest. Unfortunately, he was born premature, so the nurses allowed me to hold him only for a brief moment before taking him to the NICU. While they cleaned me up and showed me how to use a baby diaper as an ice pack, my husband went down to the NICU to check on the baby.

Born with slight lung underdevelopment, Chuey had to stay in the hospital for nine days. Each day he was there, we went to visit him even if only for a few minutes. The nurses all loved him. One nurse in particular looked like Mrs. Doubtfire. Seeing her and seeing how attentive she was to my baby boy put my mind at ease. The day we brought Chuey home, "Nurse Doubtfire" was off for the day, but my husband and I left her a note, telling her how much we appreciated everything she had done.

Along Came Muppet...

It was October. Chuey had just turned three months old. He was growing so fast, you would have never known he was born premature. The weather was being weird, cold one day and hot the next, followed by a thunderstorm for the next few days after that. I was feeling a bit sick, but had thought that maybe I just had a bad cold or even the flu. I would come home after working with toddlers all day and just want to lay in bed with Chuey the safest way possible do I wouldn't get him sick too.

After a few weeks of feeling sick, I finally gave in and took a pregnancy test so I could rule that out as my cause of illness. At 5 o'clock on a Saturday morning, I realized that what I had was not contagious after all... I was pregnant, again.

The Greatest Gift of All

"It's a girl! Congratulations!" said the ultrasound-tech.

My husband and I were both excited and nervous. He had a son from a previous relationship and we had Chuey together. We didn't know anything about raising a little girl. I was excited that I was finally getting my baby girl, but I also felt bad because I felt like Chuey would miss out on mommy-son time because another baby was coming so soon.

During my pregnancy with Muppet, I had to see countless specialists and be extra cautious. With Chuey being born premature, I was told that there was a high possibility that Muppet would be born premature too. This was not the case at all though. When I thought she was coming, it turned out to only be false labor pains. When we wanted her to come out on Father's Day, she wouldn't budge. It got to the point where we stopped worrying so much and were just grateful that she was most likely going to make it full term.

The day before Chuey's first birthday, I was busy working on his smash cake. Originally against the idea of them, I thought it would be fun to do after all, so I decided to make a homemade one so that it would be cheaper and not as much of a waste. The whole time I was in the kitchen putting the cake together, my stomach was in constant pain.

"Ready to come out now Muppet? Can you at least wait until I finish your brother's cake?"

After a warm bath, I went to bed that night no longer in pain. At 3 o'clock in the morning, I woke up in extreme pain. By noon, I was holding my daughter. Chuey had spent his first birthday in the hospital. It wasn't what we had in mind as far as an "intimate family celebration," but what better way to celebrate the first year of life than to bring in new life for him to celebrate every year after that with?

People ask me all the time how did I manage to have two babies on the same day only a year apart. I laugh each time and tell them that I have no idea. When they look at my babies, some even say that I had the same baby twice, like they really are twins. For a one-year-old, Chuey has so much personality. He really is the smartest baby I have ever encountered (I know a lot of parents could say the same about their kids). At two months old, Muppet is such a sweet, happy baby. Her little smile lights up the room. I can only hope the two of them can bring as much positivity into each other's lives as they do with mine and those around them.

Thank you for reading!