Please Don’t Feed the Animals
10 month post forthcoming. I’m having a hard time pulling this one together. In the meantime, please enjoy this (admittedly not exactly action-packed) window into an aspect of my morning routine with the babies.
Filed under Cuteness | Tags: food, standing, twins!, video | Comments (3)Back to Work
Wednesday was my first day back at work. As quickly as I became a mom, I have now become a working mom. While there’s no question that it’s a pretty big transition, I suspect that every transition in my life henceforth will be dwarfed by the transition of going from zero to two babies in an instant.
As part of my preparation for my return, I bought some new clothes and succumbed to the “Mommy Chop”:
Sadly, I ripped that brand new shirt on a nail later that day. Argh.
It is very disorienting to be in the office doing things that feel quite familiar and normal while thinking about all the things going on at home that had been my “new normal” for several months. For the most part it feels as though the twins exist in one dimension and my office exists in another, and I warp between them. Matt somehow discovered a portal between the two dimensions and brought Julian and Eloise on a field trip to visit me this afternoon.
I have a whole host of different emotions about being back at at my job: excitement about using my brain in a wider variety of ways; concern for Matt having to spend so much time on his own with the babies (something I still find daunting); and fear of being so overwhelmed with work that I’m not able to find anything approaching that elusive work/life balance nor able to enjoy or do either well. I’m actually quite happy not to be a stay-at-home mom, so regret about that is not among my many emotions, but that’s not to say I don’t miss the babies. This morning Julian was being so cute that he made me late — significantly late — for work. It’s easier to leave when they’re crying. (Well, easier to leave them. Harder to leave poor Matt.)
Anyway, the first few days felt quite surreal, but I’m sure I’ll develop new routines and patterns and will get comfortable with my new working mom identity. At that point perhaps I will no longer spend approximately 40 percent of my day gazing adoringly at the pictures of Julian and Eloise that I have thumb-tacked to my bulletin board.
Hey, for the first time since mid-October, weekends actually mean something again. TGIF, I guess!
Filed under Milestones | Tags: transitions, twins!, work | Comment (1)Reaction
It’s important to know your own foibles and faults. It helps to be aware of them to try to minimize them and their negative impact or impression on others. It also helps to exploit them for their humor value, especially if you’re looking for a way to introduce a short piece of non-fiction writing.
Here’s one of mine: I like attention. Well, I like the good kind of attention. I definitely dread public embarrassment, but public successes are the fuel that powers my engine. (Apparently, I also like clunky metaphors. And I’d rather undermine my own writing with disclaimers than edit.)
Anyway, there are very few opportunities for an attention-lover that are as gratifying as announcing that you’re having a baby. I admit it: I love watching people’s eyes widen and their mouths start to form expectant Os when I say, “Actually, I have some exciting news…” So far the reactions have been entirely gratifying.
It sucks, a little, to think about telling people my wife is pregnant as a performance (see above re: foibles and faults) but from a performance point of view, there are few pauses as delicious as the pause between, “Rachel’s pregnant…” and, “… with twins.” Can you think of anything that could be better? Even, “I bought a lottery ticket…” and, “… I won,” can’t compete, because even the greenest rube has to see it coming. (No one tells a story about losing the lottery.) Seriously try it out now on your own:
Rachel’s pregnant.
…
With twins!
Feel that? You’ve got one of the best one-two punches ever. The first one is pretty amazing. Everyone loves to hear that a friend is pregnant. They’re so excited! They’re surprised! They’re so happy for you! They have so many questions! And then, just as it’s sinking in, just as the waveform starts to curve over the top and start to fall off—BAM. Twins, sucka.
With at most one or two exceptions, nearly everyone has said something on the order of, “No. You’re kidding.” (Which kind of makes me wish I were. That would be hilarious.) Our friends seem as knocked on their asses by the news as we were. We almost always get a big hug after “pregnant” and slack-jawed shock after “twins.”
I think I’ll be a little sad when we run out of people to tell.
Filed under Pregnancy | Tags: friends, Pregnancy, twins! | Comment (0)Looks like we overshot a little
It’s twins. We’re having twins. There are twins in my uterus. As in twice as many as we thought. As in Bobbsey or Olsen. As in 40 percent of a basketball team. As in two-ninths of a Supreme Court.
Well, either it’s twins or it’s an alien. (Big hollow eyes, little mouth underneath, and it’s even giving a little thumbs up — see its hand just below and to the left of its head?)
Of the two options, I was sort of hoping for alien, but the doctor seemed pretty convinced it’s twins. Matt laughed and I cried when we got the news. How did twins happen? At my ultrasound right before my trigger, they told me I had just one follicle ready to go, but at today’s ultrasound the doctor was clearly able to see two spots on my right ovary where two eggs had been released. So much for the exactness of science.
This is going to take a little getting used to.
Filed under Pregnancy | Tags: doctors, Pregnancy, twins! | Comment (0)