DOUBLE TIME

A new mother chronicles her adventures raising twins.

“I worried that I might love one baby more than the other. I worried that I wouldn’t have the time or energy to bond with them the way mothers bond with a single baby, because I’d be so busy juggling the two of them.” These were just two of the many thoughts tumbling through Roper’s (Eden Lake, 2011) head when she and her husband discovered they were having twins. With humor and frankness, the author opens a private door into her life as a new mother of fraternal girls. She elaborates on her struggles to combat depression while evolving into a good mother and continuing to work part-time. Roper illustrates the complexities of parenthood, times two, including pre-pregnancy fears, labor and learning how to juggle the needs of twins. Nursing strategies, diaper changes, feeding and sleeping routines, the complications of taking two children shopping—all are captured in Roper’s matter-of-fact account. The author also holds nothing back when discussing her sudden drops into depression, a state that pushed her to scramble into bed, despite her children’s needs. “I don’t know one woman…who doesn’t struggle at times with the push and pull of children and work and spouse and self,” she writes, “not to mention the dreams and passions that fall outside the realm of simple logistic possibility.” It was with this thought in mind that Roper made changes in her work and her medications so she could genuinely claim to be “doubly blessed.”

A straightforward, honest look at how raising a child is difficult, but raising twins can be exponentially more demanding.