| Life As An Identical Twin |
| Shell and I were born on February 9th, 1975. We were born in a small town hospital during the morning shift change....I was delivered by one shift and she by another. Only one nurse stayed late to witness both of our births. My mom had a normal pregnancy. She didn't want to know if she was having a girl or a boy so there was no sonogram, she had normal weight gain, and there was a strong and even heartbeat so there was no need for worry. She had no idea she was having twins. Even in the womb we were in sync with each other, including our heartbeat. I almost always use "we", "our", and "us" where most people would say "I" or "my". Mom endured a normal labor and gave birth to me early that morning. Everyone was suprised at how small I was, only 4lbs and 3oz, but i was healthy and was given the name my parents had chosen for a girl, Amanda Sue. Mom stopped labor. The doctor was helping Mom push out the placenta when a look of utter shock passed across his face. Shell had kicked him. |
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| We still sometimes call Shell "the oh shit baby" because, when the doctor told her there was another one in there, Mom supposedly said "Oh shit! I only have stuff for one!". The doctor reinduced labor and, half an hour later, Mom gave birth to another girl. I almost lost her right then. She came out blue and silent after spending too long in the birth canal but she was soon screaming in tune with me. We were exactly the same weight. My parents had only chosen 2 names, one for a girl and one for a boy. The boy's name was Michael Dennis but was quickly changed to Michelle Denise, and so we were born. Our weight fell to 3lbs and 8oz and then stabelized. We could fit in the palm of a man's hand, wore half of a premie diaper, and shared an incubator feet-to-feet. I was healthier than Shell and gained weight more easily, but i would only gain a couple ounces at a time and then stabelize until Shell weighed the same as me. Then I would gain a couple more ounces. When i weighed 5lbs they sent us both home. |