Tracey Egan - It Gets Easier: Surviving Twins During Their First Year

Firstly; huge congratulations! Has anyone actually said that to you? Or are they too busy telling you how busy youll be and about their friends neighbours cousin who has a two year old and a set of twins and how they cant imagine it If not, then let me say again: huge congratulations. Youre having twins! Twins are amazing and will bring you more than double the joy. They are an enormous blessing; fun and so cute and great company for you and for each other. Yes I know they are scary in the beginning. But honestly life gets easier and a whole lot more fun as the months go by.

Having twins is a unique experience. It is fun, busy, and at times overwhelming. My twins brought out in me an entire range of emotions that I wasnt prepared for: profound joy; overwhelming pride; ferocious protectiveness. They scared the living daylights out of me when they were sick. I learned the value of being organised and to ask for, and accept, help. There were some magical moments too, like the first time the twins smiled and gurgled at each other, the first time they smiled and gurgled at me, or the first time they slept through the night.

They are also hard work in the beginning and chances are you will have no idea what day of the week it is or which end is up. When you are in the middle of an Olympic feeding marathon and youve only had two hours sleep you cant imagine that it will ever end. But honestly these crazy early weeks pass and before you know it youll find yourself saying you wish you could go back to the beginning for a day to see the twins as babies again and just enjoy holding them. Or to be able to nip to the bathroom and know that they will still be in exactly the same spot when you come back! But mostly just to see them that size again and marvel at how cute they were because you really do forget. It can seem never-ending at the time, but I promise it does get easier.

It gets easier and easier by degrees until one day you find yourself relaxing with a cup of tea while the twins are having a nap, and those crazy early weeks and months are a distant memory. I remember asking everyone when it would get easier good friends, strangers in the street, no-one was safe. I needed to hear that life wouldnt always be this demanding, and that I would get to sleep properly again one day. Life with new twins did gradually get easier and at the same time I got better at dealing with two demanding newborn babies. It gets steadily less difficult as the babies get bigger and stronger and their natural feeding patterns become established and more predictable. So if you take nothing else away from reading these pages, at least remember this one point that I know you need to hear it will all get easier soon.

So were you shocked when you found out you were having twins? This is usually the first question people asked when I told them. That is, it was the first thing they said after theyd stopped laughing and gasping and clutching either their sides or my arm. Wow, twins they would gasp. Are there twins in your family? It was nearly always the same.

It was fun though and I quite enjoyed having news that surprised people. Because lets face it some or most of your friends and colleagues will have guessed that you are pregnant by the time you break the news officially at twelve weeks or so. Women often guess when their friends are pregnant anyway and this is without having a bigger bump that shows earlier than most. What no-one ever guessed though, was that there were twins on the way. I have to admit I did enjoy telling them and seeing their reactions. There is something great about having a good piece of juicy news to tell your friends, especially when it is happy news like this.