![\"P1020385-1\"](\"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/P1020385-1-214x300.jpg\" "\\"P1020385-1\\"")
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On our walks, I often hear people say, “Double trouble!” when we pass them by.\u00c2\u00a0 I smile and agree.\u00c2\u00a0 In truth, having twins is double the trouble, but there is also double to love.<\/p>\n
There are the obvious quandaries with twins, like how to keep them from waking each other up in the middle of the night and during naps, and how to feed them at the same time when they’re both crying and hungry, and how to provide them with the love and attention that they both need and most certainly deserve.\u00c2\u00a0 Then there are the logistical problems to consider, like how to get two babies from the house to the car when you live in the city and the car is parked two blocks down and one block over (this may sound like a simple task, but I can’t even begin to tell you the hours I have spent thinking this over in my head).\u00c2\u00a0 There is the gift of patience, which each of us must work to improve upon and pray for more.\u00c2\u00a0 I think this is hardest for Ryan and Juliet because they don’t understand why mommy won’t pick them up when they’re crying. Unfortunately, there’s two of them and only one of me during the day hours, so one must wait while the other gets changed, or fed, or loved. Worst of all, there is the question of what to do when one baby gets sick and you want to protect their twin from catching it. Answer: impossible.<\/p>\n
Ryan and Juliet came down with a cold a couple weeks ago.\u00c2\u00a0 It started out with Ryan having a runny nose.\u00c2\u00a0 Daddy came home that night and told Ryan not to worry and “we would get through this.”\u00c2\u00a0 I thought, well of course we’ll get through this!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just a runny nose!\u00c2\u00a0 That night his runny nose turned into croup.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh God, I didn’t know what croup was before this, and I wish for that blessed ignorance back. Croup is awful. It means a fever, vomiting, coughing, and an inflamed larynx that makes breathing difficult. His voice became very hoarse and his cough sounded like a seal bark.\u00c2\u00a0 The breathing seemed the most difficult to bear and the harder he tried, the worse he got.\u00c2\u00a0 As a parent, your worst fear is that his larynx might become so swollen that breathing might become impossible. At the doctors suggestion, I brought him outside into the cool night air and held him.\u00c2\u00a0 He calmed down and the fresh air helped him to breath easier.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually, I brought him indoors, opened the window in the babies’ room, and rocked him to sleep.<\/p>\n
The next day our fears doubled when Juliet got a runny nose.\u00c2\u00a0 Dan stayed home from work that day, as he was sick too, and we took the babies to the doctor.\u00c2\u00a0 The doctor said “No more monkeys jumping on the bed,” he gave Ryan a steroid to help with the inflammation of his larynx, and lastly he said to hope for Juliet’s cold to remain just that.\u00c2\u00a0 The next night was easier for Ryan, but he still remained very sick throughout the week. And sure enough, Juliet started to show the same horrible croupy symptoms.\u00c2\u00a0 Because it was the weekend, I took her to the ER and they started her on a similar steroid.<\/p>\n
Seven days and many sleepless nights later, we had two healthy babies again. They’re now back to smiling, and playing, and exploring their world full of wonders and beauty. For Ryan and Juliet, they will forget this ever happened.<\/p>\n
As for me, I fear I might be perceived as being a bit over-reactive the next time one of them gets a runny nose and I rush them to the ER. I’ve heard it before, but now I understand \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A mother’s love has no bounds\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On our walks, I often hear people say, “Double trouble!” when we pass them by.\u00c2\u00a0 I smile and agree.\u00c2\u00a0 In truth, having twins is double the trouble, but there is also double to love. There are the obvious quandaries with twins, like how to keep them from waking each other up in the middle of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-juliet","category-ryan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryanandjuliet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}