It’s funny how some people long for twins, and others (like me) really have no desire for twins and would rather take things one at a time.  I love newborns, but they’re a lot of work, and personally I always wished for one baby at a time.  Infancy goes by so quickly and is such a blur, and I’m sure it’s even moreso with twins.  I was expecting identical twins a few years ago, and sadly miscarried them toward the end of the first trimester.  I was very nervous about how I would manage with two newborns.  But you’re so right that God knows what he’s doing.

My “twins” are 12 days apart, and we had 14 days to go from one to two, but I hear you babe! Two is harder, and I didn’t ask for it (I blame my hubby foor that, he took the phone call) However, looking back at my now 6 year old “twins” I wouldn’t change a hectic, crazy, joyful or blessed moment of it! God bless you on your two baby journey!

I was certainly never one to wish for twins either, but now that I have them I realize what I would have missed out on if I had been in charge. I am definitely glad that I had my twins together and would never wish them to be two years apart. I hope you feel the same way in a few months when you see how sweetly they interact with each other. My twins love all of their siblings, but the special relationship they have with each other is so beautiful and it wouldn’t be that way if they were born 2 years apart. The first few months with twins ARE really hard, and you find out that you are much more capable than you thought you were. For me, it got a little easier when they hit four months old (and really hard again now that they are 2!). Now I’m pregnant again and our entire family was quite disappointed when the sonogram showed only one baby. Despite the extra challenges, we would really love to have twins again.

I tried to order twins and God did bless us with a set, but neither of them lived. I often think of how much more complicated parenting would be for me if I had twins—because of things like napping. I also like to nap with my babies. I often wondered how one does that with twins. The same goes for feeding, playing with and cuddling them. I like to think I would have figured it out, but instead, I choose to believe that God knows better than me. As much as I wanted twins to raise, I can appreciate why God sends our babies one at a time.

Blessings to you on your twins. Continue to enjoy them!

Arwen those boys are just adorable!  IS there any thing more beautiful than a baby with chubby cheeks…and there’s two sets of chubby cheeks!  Wishing you a good night’s rest!

P.S. Your babies are so cute!

I love your posts!  I went through all of this 6 years ago with my twin boys and love hearing your beautiful thoughts on raising twins.  I know you aren’t looking for logistical answers here and I hope I don’t come across as the annoying commenter who has missed the deeper point to this blog post. 
But, for sleeping with my twins I would lay them side by side and then I would lay on one end of them on my side with my arm stretched over both of them.  One of them got to be closer to me.  But the other one was close to his best friend.  Next time I would switch up who was closest to me.  The bonus was that I got to gaze at them the whole time.  And gazing at my little identical twin boys took my breath away.  It still does.

One day you’ll be out of the “how should I do this?” stage and into the “how did I do that?” stage. 

Arwen,  that picture is so sweet!  I used to do like Jill B and put both babies in the middle of the bed and then sleep on one side.  Actually I did that at night, too, for the first months when they nursed a lot.  I would switch sides during the night depending on who needed to be nursed.  And we’d just fall asleep together nursing.  My husband slept in the guest room a lot during that time so he could function at work.  I got more sleep too.  I assigned each baby a side to nurse on every day and then switched daily, so they changed sides they slept on each day, too.  My twins just turned six, which amazes me!

That photo is so precious ... challenges and all, you certainly have two adorable little ones!  Just looking at the photo makes me happy.  Thanks for the smile.

Your post just made me re-live my life from 8 years ago. There were so many emotions. We added an extra bed in another room, and many nights we both slept with one twin and switched them few times. But they grow, and thought the infancy period seemed sooooo long, arduous, joyful, frightening, all wrapped up together, I actually miss it now. Talk about graces!

You’ll be surprised in a couple of months how many special little moments unique to twins will have added up to replace the little moments you had with singletons that you’re longing for. Better perspective comes once the infancy fog lifts a little. Raising twins is such a blessed experience and hard to understand until you’ve done it. Since my twins came first, I found myself missing all the aspects of their bond with my 3rd even though I basked in the joy of bonding with him in a way I never got to with the twins who had a very strong bond from the beginning (I always played second fiddle, lol).

My twins came as babies number 6 and 7 when our oldest child was 12. I considered myself a pro at the whole mom thing, stay at home parent, cloth diapers, breastfed everybody til they were at least 12 months, nursed while folding laundry, hauled the younger kids to the older kids’ school activities. Coming home from the hospital 4 days after a C-section and the flu I was unprepared for the logistics of trying to take care of two babies for night feedings alone. Practically ready to surrender to bottles and my mother taking over the night feedings, I collapsed into my recliner with one of the babies and a couple of pillows. When the other woke a few minutes later my husband brought her to me also. Thus began 4 months of sleeping peacefully in the chair, cuddling with my girls. I got in an afternoon nap most days this way too, with my older preschool boys taking their naps on my bed nearby. Having twins later in the birth order made me appreciate the whole new baby thing all over again. Everything was different and presented new challenges and new joys. My older children loved holding babies and it seemed like there were enough to go around this time! The best advice I ever received when I was expecting my first was to sleep when the baby sleeps. Thankfully I was able to carry this out with twins and though I was still as sleep deprived as any new mom I was able to get through it and continue breastfeeding through their first year. I went from carrying the nursing baby in a sling while I continued the daily routine to sitting and cuddling and appreciating two beautiful little girls while they nursed. The challenges got easier as they grew and it seemed easier to me to have 2 going through the same stages at once. We too experienced a tinge of disappointment when our next pregnancy was “only” one! They are 15 now and though I occasionally wonder how we did it I am so thankful we had them together. God bless you as you get through this stage and may you always know the joys of adjusting to life as it is.

Congratulations on your beautiful family, Arwen! I enjoyed reading your postings. I was reading my Spring 2011 issue of F&F and saw mention of F&F live and saw your name and pic. You are almost famous lol!