Born As Siblings

by Mary
(Del Mar, CA)

When I first found out I was going to have twins I was shocked and worried. Not because my body would be distorted by the weight of two babies, and not because I didn't think I could handle two newborns, I was worried about how these two babies would relate to each other. How would they get along? How would they handle a copy of themselves?

My husband and I are both only children, and we told each other that we wanted to have at least two kids so, unlike us, they could have a playmate, a friend, someone to call family. When my husband's mother passed away before we were married, he wished he had a sibling to go through it with, to help out with his dad, to talk to. Family events are boring for lack of uncles, nieces, obnoxious brother-in-laws, so we declared to have at least 2 kids to keep each other company.

I never expected twins. I wanted our first to be a son who we could name after his father, then 2 years later we wanted a daughter, someone to bring a yin to our yang, but things don't always go as planned, and now I have two baby girls growing inside of me.

Having no experience at all with twins, I worry about the psychological damage of not being an individual. Will they be opposite of each other? Will they be so alike its creepy? Plus, girls, GIRLS! I am not a frilly girl myself, but I can only imagine them fighting over makeup, the bathroom mirror, boys!

As I type, I am getting worked up and I can feel the both of them moving, kicking, wiggling inside me as if to say "calm down mom or I'll sock you in the stomach" or maybe the quarrel has already begun, "stay to your side of the uterus."

Soon I will understand what it is like to be a mother for the first time. I understand that even if the two babies put me through hell, they are my first and they, being born together, are all they will know of each other from birth. So, even though the appearance of a third hand on the sonogram was unexpected, this will be a new chapter, two girls born as sisters and two parents understanding the power of the sibling connection through twins.

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