Surviving 5 years with Twins

Well, we did it! We survived the past 5 years raising twins and a 7 year old.

Let me take you back in time to when I found out I was expecting twins.

I didn’t go back to work at my job after having my oldest daughter because they didn’t allow me to return to work on a part time basis.  So I told my husband I was going to start my own business and teach prenatal and postnatal fitness classes because there were only 1 or 2 classes in south Edmonton that was teaching postnatal fitness.   4 months into starting my company, I went for an early ultrasound when I found out I was pregnant.  That night I dreamt I was having twins.  That morning, my friend who was watching my daughter while I went to my appointment made a joke and said, “Could you imagine if they find 2 babies in there?” We both laughed and I said I’ll be back in a hour.  I get to my appointment and the ultrasound tech kept going over my belly, and over my belly and over my belly.  She looked at me and said, “Do you have twins in your family?” I said not on the female side.  She told me that she could only can see 2 sacs, but only 1 egg and I would need to come back in 3 weeks to confirm if I was pregnant with twins or not.

I started to cry. Like ugly cry. I shouldn’t have even drove from my appointment because I would barely see out of my eyes because they were swollen with tears.  I called my husband and said, “We might be having twins.”  His response, “Sweet, we can get them bunk beds!”.  So not only am I crying, pregnant and emotional, I now wanted to scream at my husband for being excited.  When I got to my friend’s house to pick up Avery, she saw that I was crying and thought there was something wrong and there was no baby.  When I told her I might be pregnant with twins, she gave me a nervous laugh, like most of my friends and family did when I told them the news.

I’m going to be honest.  For the next 3 weeks, I wished and prayed that there was only 1 baby inside of me.  I have had such guilt saying that statement out loud for years because I know there are women who have such difficulties getting pregnant and would be so thrilled if they could have twins.  Not me.  My ‘vision’ of being a mom was having 2 children.  1 would be a toddler holding my hand as we walked to the park and the other would be in a carrier on my chest sleeping. I had 2 hands, I can control 2 children, when my husband is home we can both take 1 child and be in charge of them when we went out … and that was going to be our life.  So at our next ultrasound I made my husband some with me because I was a mess!  Well, we were pregnant with twins!

So not only do I have a 17 month running around, I was pregnant with twins and running a new company teaching fitness classes. I cried for months and kept thinking ” Why me”. I have enough shit going on in my life right now, why was I chosen to be pregnant with twins?  I couldn’t change what was going on and I knew that I needed to stay healthy and keep moving during my pregnancy, but there are no guidelines and information about fitness and twin pregnancy. I  just listened to my body and just kept moving to feel good about myself and help with my mental health. It worked! I didn’t gain a lot of weight, I ate healthy and delivered my babies vaginally (1 was breech) without having any incontinence or prolapse problems!  I wrote all about my pregnancy in my twin pregnancy blog posts.   

There we are, a family of 5.  This was the start to our journey. 

From feeding to sleeping to potty training to starting preschool and every other milestone in between, we have survived!  I remember the nurse telling me that I better have my tribe ready to help me when I get home … I told her I didn’t have a tribe.  I didn’t have family in Edmonton that would help out (my sister just gave birth to her first daughter, so she was busy enough).  So I raised our 3 children on my own.  My husband works long hours, so I needed to figure things out myself.  Yes there were days where I was lonely and cried, but it didn’t stop me from going out.  I would go and get groceries at Costco with 3 kids and it was my norm.  I taught them to not run through parking lots.  To stay beside me in a store.  Did they scream and cry in a store and I would have to leave a cart full of groceries or give them a time out in the store … yes. But that was parenting and not caring if I was being judged.  We were all surviving and learning as we went along.

My twins are loving, kind, beautiful and funny and I am so thankful that there were 2 babies in my belly when we went to that ultrasound.  I believe all things happen for a reason, and I will figure out one day why I was blessed with 3 children while I was running a new company! So here I am, 5 years later … still an entrepreneur, keeping 3 children alive, being an awesome wife, good friend and I still have wine in my wine fridge!

Is my company where I wanted it to be when I started it 5.5 years ago … no.  I needed to put that part on hold so I could give more of my energy to raising my daughters!   BUT…  new things are happening and exciting changes are coming and I can’t wait to share my next journey with all of you!! Stay tuned!