My friends are expecting twins in 8 wks and are cracking me up. [View All]

[Bouncy Ball]

They are first-time parents, both in their mid-30s, been married for 12 years, but put off kids, then grappled with infertility (they are in vitro babies). Everyone is THRILLED for them. They are fraternal twins, fertilized separately.

We had their shower this past weekend. The dad to be is the one really cracking me up. Before the shower, he kept saying "two babies don't take up that much space." And I kept telling him it's not the babies, it's their CRAP. They live in a 900 square foot, two bedroom, one bath home. I said "Wait until after the shower, when we drag all that crap back to your house and look at it then." Did I mention they are packrats? There is not an inch of closet space left in the house. They've managed to make the second bedroom into a nursery, but there is still a curio cabinet, a huge recliner and a drafting table with PC and junk on it in that room. They don't know where that stuff's gonna go.

Well, we got the stuff they received from the 60 guests. We hauled it into their house. He had a minor panic attack. You literally couldn't fit it all in there. We made paths to walk through. Some stuff is piled up on their dining room table. And they kept their registry only focused on very practical items--nothing too big or bulky, nothing unnecessary.

Then yesterday they had another ultrasound. when the doctor told them "it looks like eight weeks and they'll be here" he turned about eight shades of white. Got dizzy and had to sit down, drink some cold water. The reality of it all was hitting him hard.

When they got home, he started doing stuff like a mad man, cleaning things, moving stuff around. His wife said he was bug eyed the entire day. Hardly spoke. On the plus side, he did get a lot done he had been putting off.

I just don't think there's any way you can TOTALLY prepare for something like that. Especially TWO babies. She's been pretty realistic all this time, but he's been going along blithely laughing off all the warnings about sleep deprivation, etc. (He is going to be a full-time stay at home dad after she goes back to work when they are three months old.) I told him when he's home with them full-time he is going to need to develop some kind of network of adults to talk to in order to save his sanity. "Oh" he said "no I won't! I'll be fine!" and he laughed.

I'm sure he'll be fine, but.....eh. Those of us with kids are probably obnoxious to those about to have them anyway. I just don't want it to be TOO much of a cold shock to him. He seems to have this idea he'll just sing songs to them all day and he even said "it'll be easy taking care of two babies." He thinks they just sleep constantly.