More Than Expected

This blog is by Jennifer Flaten

My mom is an only child and so am I. Until I was about 15, I lived with my grandparents in the north woods of Wisconsin. There was only one other girl, actually the only other child really, within five miles of my grandparent’s house. To say I had a quiet childhood is an understatement.

As a young woman, when I thought about having children, I always envisioned having one child, which I always (for whatever reason) imagined would be a boy.

During my first pregnancy, my husband and I were out browsing at the local baby superstore. As we cruised down the stroller aisle, he pointed out a double stroller and said, “Wouldn’t it awesome if we had twins.” I remember rolling my eyes at him.

Fast forward a few weeks we are in my obstetrician’s office for my 16-week ultra sound. My husband is sitting in the chair across from the monitoring equipment. While I am, of course, flat on my back on the exam table.

Our doctor comes in and greets us. Before he begins the test, he confirms we don’t want to know the baby’s sex and then he starts the test. He spends a few minutes quietly moving the wand over my tummy. Then he hesitates. From my position, I can’t tell what he is doing and I start to get a bit worried.

He fiddles with the machine a bit, runs the wand over my tummy again and then announces he has something to tell us.

Practically hyperventilating I scramble into a sitting position. Worry wart that I am I am assuming he is going to give us some kind of bad news.

Instead, with a huge grin, he announces that we are going to have twins. From his chair in the corner, my husband starts laughing. Still in shock, I can’t say anything. All I can do is look at my husband and start laughing too.

37 weeks later, I gave birth to healthy twin daughters. Two years later, I had my son. So much for my plans for one quiet little kid. While I have many words that describe my kids (most of them good) quiet isn’t one of them.

In addition to the noise level, I’ve had to learn how to deal with the sibling dynamic. Sometimes, as I watch the siblings interact I feel sad that I don’t have a sister or brother(s) and other times, when one a kid has greatly wronged another kid I am glad that I don’t have siblings.

Sibling! (Photo credit: Gus Dahlberg)

I wouldn’t change a thing–okay, maybe I would ask for a volume control.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful mothers out there, especially those of you who got something a little more than you expected.

 

 
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