“I laid there while she took hundreds of pictures. She said, ‘Let’s see if I can get THEM to smile.’ I replayed her words in my head over and over again. I ran to text my husband that we were having TWINS! She said, ‘Not twins… triplets!’”
‘Normal people had 9 months to prepare for a baby. We were given 2 hours. We received an unexpected phone call. All of a sudden, we went from 0 to 2 babies!’
‘I knew something was up. She walked over to the couch, sits down, turns the TV on and I realized. It’s freaking Bachelor season.’
“It’s the grand opening. It’s like a crazy hormonal circus for married chicks. You bet your right freaking leg she can Instafollow, Snapchat and Facestalk 24 random women, working with nothing more than a first name a grid reference of 200 square miles.”
‘When they come out, everyone is gone. Their father is nowhere in sight. Michael looks nervous. ‘What are we going to do?’ ‘I don’t know.’ They both begin to panic.’
“They have no way of contacting their parents. Michael is getting nervous. ‘We’re going to ask that policeman if we can use his phone,’ she says bravely. They approach the officer. Michael is afraid to speak. So is Emma.”
‘When I wiped, I felt something coming out. My world came crashing down. I got a sick feeling in my stomach – I knew what was about to happen.’
“I laid on that cold bed, put my feet in the stirrups and prayed. After moments that felt like forever, my doctor looked up at me. ‘You’re having twins!’ We were in shock. But seconds later, our doctor had a weird look on her face. She said, ‘Wait! I think I see triplets!’”
‘He looked other worldly, like a magical being. I thought, ‘WOW! Am I the chosen one?’ Everyone was going nuts about his ‘blond’ hair. He was the star of the ward.’
“My OBGYN looked at my husband. ‘WOW, check out the hair!! Does anyone in your family have blond hair??’ Deep in pushing, I yelled back at him, ‘Can we have this conversation later?’”
‘My roommate and I were looking at each other wondering if we were thinking the same thing. Part of me wanted to blab it all in that moment and reveal this huge secret.’
“He was named ‘Baby Boy’ since his mother had left just hours after birth and not provided him with a name. I could feel the fear inside me and the chills in my body. Something was different about this one. Could they have the same mother?”
‘Let him move, God,’ I would silently plead over and over. We endured 9 long months of uncertainty. I easily lose patience and become consumed with exhaustion.’
“For me, it was 9 months of living in fear that each kick from within, each twinge, each flutter, would be the last. And for him, it was 9 months of surviving in a womb that had left his two previous siblings without breath, a womb that had seen more death than life.”
‘When I learned I was having twins, I cried. ‘But I already have a baby!’ were the first words out of my mouth as the ultrasound tech told me there was not ONE, but TWO embryos in there.’
“I felt at my breaking point. ‘JUST SLEEP FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!’ Slamming doors and screaming, I was having a temper tantrum of my own.”
‘It was only yesterday we were reckless and 18, and now we have an entire world of responsibility. Time is never guaranteed.’
“Since the age of 13 when I began to crave that drivers license, 16 when I began to crave freedom, 18 when I began to crave independence, I’ve been wishing to be further ahead in time. If only we knew how fast the time would actually go.”
‘Babies ruin bodies.’ The body I worked hard for, to eat next to nothing, to exercise any indulgence out of, would all go to waste once I decided to get pregnant.’
“Loose skin, stretched skin, white lines. Abdominal separation, prolapses, third degree tears and cesarean scars. Weight gain and weight loss. Wider hips, bigger breasts. It’s all there. A body that is a far cry from what it was. ‘Babies ruin bodies’”
