Hannah and Hilary turn 20!!

People have asked me many times what it is like having twins. I am sure that I give a different answer every time, but in truth, it is amazing! I have loved having twins and it has been a fantastic trip through these past 20 years! It has been crazy at times, that's for sure. (Puberty in stereo was interesting, but it only lasted a couple of years so it is all good!! :p) )

Our trip down the road of twinhood started when Ben was about 2 years old. I had really wanted a girl when I was expecting him and was rather sad when he turned out to be a boy. (I was going to name her Melissa, but obviously Melissa wasn't appropriate so we named him Ben.)
We loved Ben very much, but I really wanted another girl and so when we decided to have just one more baby, I really hoped it would be a girl. Emily shared my feelings and she was so cute; whenever it was her turn to pray, she would ask Heavenly Father to "make Mommies baby a sister." (I think it was her sweet plea that brought about the twins. Heavenly Father was so touched by her entreaties that he said, "Lets give her two!")

I was deathly ill at the beginning and middle and most of the end of the pregnancy. Other than that, things went well. I grew so quickly. After each Dr. visit, my mother would ask me if it was twins. The doctor had delivered all of the other kids, but Aaron, and as each one was about 10 oz bigger than the one before, he told me that this one was following the pattern and would be bigger than Ben's 8lbs 6ozs.

I went to my appt. in November and the dr. was out delivering a baby, but since my baby wasn't due until Valentines day, the nurse did the weighing and measuring. Upon reviewing my chart later that day, my Dr. notated to have me have an ultrasound as I had grown an enormous amount since my last appt. I didn't make it to my next appt. My water broke on December 3rd and when we called the Dr. to report, he said to head to the hospital but not to let anyone check me inside until he arrived and we could do an ultrasound. He wanted to see where the placenta was. (I had had a placenta previa with Ben.) During the ultrasound, the technician said, "Here is the placenta," and then, "Here is another placenta!" That is when we discovered it was twins.

I was flown to the U of U Medical Center where I laid around leaking for 3 weeks. At the time, it was one of only 8 places in the US where they had surfactant, an experimental drug used to soften the preemies lungs. After 3 weeks and no twins, they sent me back to Idaho where the twins were born a few days later via C-section.

The birth of the twins was a fantastic, wonderful time and the last 20 years have been the same. They have brought so much joy and love into our family and they are dearly loved! They are my little girls and I am so proud of the beautiful women that they are becoming!!