I have been engaged to my fiance for 2 years when we moved out of the dorms and into our first apartment together, less than a month later I was pregnant, about a month later I found out ‘it’ was ‘them.’ I found out I was pregnant with twins at an abortion clinic. I wanted a baby but not at that point in my life, not when I was at the end of my teaching program, not before I was married….NOT NOW…is all I kept saying. When I was laying on the table in the clinic and the lady looked at me and said ‘I detect multiples.’ I cried, for the first time I cried because I knew they were here for a reason. There was no history of twins in my family, I wasn’t doing IVF, and I was only 20! Nothing says that I should have had twins. I felt like it was a miracle.
Anyway, I was happy about my pregnancy and told my parents and family when I was 9 weeks pregnant. We found out at 21 weeks that we were having a boy and a girl! We were super excited. It took forever to figure out their names but we finally chose them: Delilah AnnMarie and Leon Jason Paul and we were thrilled! I was going to school full time while my fiance was working full time.. At 31 weeks along I went to my OB for my appointment and he said ‘you are too complicated for the local hospital, so here are all your records, go find another doctor.’ I didn’t get names to other doctors but it didn’t matter because the next night at midnight while I was getting in the shower my water broke. My fiance drove me to the ER and they sent me by ambulance to a wonderful hospital over an hour away. I stayed there for 5 days while they tested me and tested me. I was borderline gestational diabetic and severe pre-eclampsia. At 9am the doctor said ‘there is no way she is leaving. We’re keeping her here until 34 weeks and then we’re taking the babies.’ At 5pm, the same doctor walked in and said ‘we’re having the babies in the morning.’ I was FREAKING out…to say the least.
My sweet baby girl was born at 8:04am and her little, yet bigger, brother was born 2 minutes later. Delilah weighed 3lb and Leon was 3lb 3oz. I saw them for 2 seconds and then they were ran down the hall to the NICU and they lived there for 48 days. They came home a week before their due date. During that time I was recovering from my c-section. It was brutal!
Concerning my weight and body image: I have never thought I looked good. I hated my body. A week before my twins were born I weighted 299lb…that is my highest weight. I don’t know how much, if anything, that I have lost, but since the beginning of the year I have set the goal for myself to love my body and to get to a healthy weight. I know I have a lot of work to do but I feel so much better since I’ve been eating better. I have been eating little to no junk food, no carbonated drinks, eating whole grains, and low fat, low sugar foods.
I’ve included pictures of me in the hospital, pictures of my belly when I was pregnant (all those pictures I keep off facebook) and a picture of me breastfeeding my son (to show how huge my boobs were) and a picture of me last week trying to get a picture of the 3 of us. That one is the hardest for me to look at, because I look so wide. Anyway, I think this site is amazing and will help me love my body.
Your Age: 21
Number of pregnancies and births: 1 pregnancy and 2 births
The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 10 month old twins
What a story! It sent shivers up my spine :) I LOVE the picture of you breastfeeding your son! It’s so precious and I commend you for nursing twins! Thanks for sharing, it sounds like you went through quite a lot!
Congratulations on your beautiful twins! I am also a 21 year old mum of twins, but mine are just 6 weeks old. (I have also made a submission to this site but it has not yet been published.)
Well done for making a decision and an effort to change your lifestyle for a healthier life and love of your body. And also for breastfeeding the twins, I’m still breastfeeding mine and it’s been a challenge to say the least!
Congratulations again x
Wow, a kindred spirit! I have twins too – 4 month old girls – and I can totally identify with you… I’m only 23, have no history of twins in my family, and although my husband and I were trying to get pregnant we didn’t think it would happen so fast (1 month!) or X2!! You said it best: they are truly a miracle. Every day is a challenge, one that only twin moms like us can understand, but it is so worth it, isn’t it? All I can say is you have done fantastically, you have gorgeous babies, and you are a beautiful mother. And this site IS amazing, it helps me love my body every time I visit :)
your kids are soooo cute!
You adapted very quickly to an unplanned and scary situation, and it looks like you have a beautiful family! It’s great that you both stayed in school and worked and stick with your goals (even if each day feels packed now) so that you can be satisfied in your own career and life and therefore be a happy mom to your lovely kids. :)
I am a twin and your story moved me to tears. You acted with love guiding you, and nothing could be more beautiful!
I was cleaning out my inbox and found my response for the submission to this and realized I’d never looked back at it….over a year later…thank you for the comments. I was scared reading this and wondering what people’s comments were because very few people know where I really found out I was pregnant with twins. Thanks for the amazing comments. Sadly I couldn’t continue to breastfeed my twins for more than 7 weeks because they were lactose intolerant because they were premature but I loved it during the time I got to. My beautiful twins are now over 2 years old and running around like a couple of nuts. I love them dearly and couldn’t imagine life without them!