Happy Birthday Daddy!!

A pretty popular question from people when they find out you have twins is "How do you do it?" Since I'm a SAHM, I'm the one who usually fields this question. My answer is usually something like...well, you just do. And that's true, but it's only part of the answer. I know, deep down, that how I do it is that I rely on Chris.
When we were expecting the girls, a lot of burdens ended up falling on him that neither one of us anticipated. I was so tired early on, Chris took over the cleaning, cooking, & shopping. He would work all day, then call me to find out what food sounded like something I could eat that day. And he would drive as far as a half hour out of his way to get it for me, if that's what sounded good. He learned to turn the channel without me even saying anything when a certain commercial came on for a cheesburger with jalapeno peppers came on, because the thought of that burger made me nauseous. He tolerated the way I would go from...hmm, I'm a little hungry to a meltdown within about 5 minutes, and would patiently get me food as quickly as humanly possible. He refilled endless water bottles for me, and pushed me to drink ever more in an attempt to stave off contractions. He sat by me in the hospital, and even offered to spend the night when I had to stay at 26 weeks and was homesick. He did all the baby shopping that I couldn't get done because I was on bedrest, and put everything together and organized everything. And when he went to Babies R Us, he came home with a more expensive swing than the one I had on our list because "Nothing's too good for my girls." He bought breastfeeding supplies without flinching.




And when the girls came, it became clear that all of that during the pregnancy was just a warmup. He got up just as much as I did at night, for the entire first 15 months. 50/50, no questions asked. He never pulled the "I go to work during the day" card. He changed lots and lots of diapers, without ever acting like that was special. He was better than I was at feeding the girls when they were tiny, he had more patience to work with them without getting discouraged when it took them 30 minutes to drink 10 cc's. He sang the Michigan fight song to them every single day that they were in the NICU, and most days since. He established a post-bath routine of singing and dancing around with the babies to music he downloaded and made into a baby playlist on Itunes. He has done more dishes, more laundry, more cleaning up after both Mom and these babies than anyone can see. The first thing he does every night after work is pick up his girls, change his clothes, and head to the park to play until dinnertime. When we talk about the girls growing up, he insists that he never wants them to leave, they can just live here forever. He did far more babywearing than I did, Rowan spent a lot of evenings in the Baby Bjorn in her first 9 months or so. He doesn't complain about the money we spend on little girl's clothes, even though it means he wears 10 year old t-shirts most of the time.






I think the girls are luckier than they will ever know to have Chris for their dad. I, however, know exactly how lucky I am. I couldn't imagine raising kids with anyone else. So today, like every other day, Saoirse, Rowan and I are celebrating, grateful for the day Chris was born.