Dad's Guide to Twins

Episode 252 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Anton Mykhaylov, father of identical twin boys. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: Had a high risk pregnancy – TTTS, TAPS Laser surgery to separate boys and drain fluid Water broke at 33 weeks and rush to hospital Premature birth leading to the boys staying in NICU for 30 days How to interact with twins in NICU Wife pumping to feed boys Twins sleeping in twin bassinet Taking shifts as parents during the night Hiring a nanny to help with the twins The gear that they’ve found most helpful Traveling with infants Connect with Anton via email. Podcast Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 As you know, twin pregnancies can be quite risky. So what do you do if your twins are at risk of actually not making it through the pregnancy? Today we talked with a father of twins, who had that exact thing happened with his twin boys during the pregnancy. We’ll talk about what they did to help save the lives of their boys, and how things have been going so before. Intro 0:19 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast, the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the “Dad’s Guide to Twins” Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:35 Hey everybody, welcome to the 252nd episode of the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always you can find me on the web at twindadpodcast.com where you can listen to all previous podcast episodes. Today we get real with another father of twins and some of the hardcore challenges that he and his wife and the babies had during the pregnancy and after birth. But the good news is that they’ve made it through and you can too, so want to take some inspiration, some motivation from this podcast, even though there may be challenges that you may face with your twins, life and death challenges. You can get through those and make it out on the other side. Before jumping on interview, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by my first book, it’s called “Dad’s Guide to Twins”, you can get a free audiobook version through audible over at freetwinbook.com once again, that’s freetwinbook.com. Today we are continuing our father twins interview series with a father of twins where he and his wife had some serious complications with the twins during the pregnancy and we’re gonna jump into those details in a minute. One thing we do talk about is TTTS and TAPS. Now those are both acronyms TTTS like we’ve talked about before on the podcast is twin to twin transfusion syndrome. And TAPS is Twin Anemia Polycythemia Sequence. those are both mouthfuls but now you know why we refer to them most often by their acronyms, TAPS and TTTS. So our guest today will jump into some details of how his twins went through this experience with taps in particular. But I just wanna let you know that, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, TAPS is a rare condition that occurs when there are unequal blood counts between the twins in the womb. unequal blood counts caused the twins to suffer from an imbalance in red blood cells. And hemoglobin. Let’s means that one twin is not receiving the appropriate amount of oxygen and nutrients. It needs to develop properly. TAPS can occur randomly with twins and has a much more severe case of twin to twin transfusion syndrome. Okay, so some of those details under your belt. You’re ready to jump into our conversation today. Today I’d like to welcome to the show father of twins Anton Mykhaylov. Welcome to the show, Anton. Anton 2:42 Thanks for having me, Joe. Joe 2:44 Anton, how old are your twins right now and what’s something exciting about this age? Anton 2:49 They’re about three months just to age. So they’re born premature 33 weeks on March 24th something exciting I think there are smiling a lot now they’re a lot more interactive. They’re not just you know, kind of lay there and stare at you blankly so it’s you know, they, they play with toys, they know this you. And something exciting is that they also started noticing each other very recently. So that’s that’s also been fun to see that. And just they just seem like they’re very curious now about the world around them. So it’s so it’s fun to see them do new things and just kind of explore. Joe 3:33 Do you have boys girls, or one of each? Anton 3:34 identical twin boys Joe 3:36 Yep. So let’s go back to when you found out that you would be having twins. What was your family situation like at that time? And how was your reaction to that news? Anton 3:44 These are first kids. And it was kind of funny the way we found out about it. My This is my wife’s I think it was her first. First your secon

So you found out that your partner is expecting twins? When will she start showing? When will you start to notice that baby bump? First, congratulations, you’re expecting twins! When can you visibly start to see that your partner is pregnant? It depends on a lot of factors including the size, height, shape, and physical makeup of your partner. Do you show faster with twins? If mom is really small and short, she’s going to show a lot faster and that she’s a larger woman. For comparison purposes, in a singleton or one baby pregnancy, mom is going to start showing visibly and start to have that baby bump in the second trimester. So that’s after three to four months of the pregnancy. With twins, of course, you’re growing two babies, and it’s going to go a lot faster. The bump will be measuring significantly ahead of a singleton pregnancy at any given point in the second and third trimesters. How early can you show with twins? Mom is going to start showing physical signs of pregnancy with that belly bump towards the end of the first trimester. Definitely before 12 weeks but it could be as early as six to seven weeks, depending on the mother. While significant bloating can begin at 6-7 weeks due to high hormones, the true uterine growth (the “baby bump” that is not just bloat) typically becomes visible to others closer to the end of the first trimester (10-12 weeks), or even earlier for a second or later pregnancy. I know as a dad, finding out that we were expecting twins was kind of a surreal experience because I only saw them on the ultrasound. I saw those pictures but when I looked at my wife, she just looked like she did before. It didn’t seem like she was really pregnant. It took those several weeks until I started to see the bump. And then several weeks after that to start to feel the babies moving. Then it really started to become real for me that yes, we would be having twins. Intellectually, I knew we’d be having twins because I’d gone to the doctor, I’d seen the ultrasound, and I knew the results. But it wasn’t until I started to see my wife’s body change and see that baby bump, followed later in the pregnancy with feeling the babies moving that everything started to get exciting. I knew that this is really going to be happening. Do you show sooner with twins? If you’re expecting twins, expect that baby bump on mom after six to seven weeks and probably by the end of the first trimester. Some moms may go longer before you start to see that baby bump. It all depends on your pregnancy, and your partner. If your partner has had babies before, we may be able to compare and contrast how this pregnancy is going versus the first time that you had children. Practical Tips Related to Showing Mom may need to buy maternity clothes much sooner than anticipated, often switching to them fully by the end of the first trimester (12 to 14 weeks), even if she didn’t need maternity clothing until later in previous pregnancies. Look into getting Mom some support gear for the second and third trimesters, such as a maternity support belt or belly band, to help with the extra weight and pressure. When did you start showing with twins? If mom has already started to show, leave a comment below with how far along in the pregnancy she was before you started to notice that physical change. The post When do you start showing with twins? appeared first on Dad's Guide to Twins.

Episode 250 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Randy Morton, father of 9 year old boy/girl twins. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: Getting twins to sleep early on Separating the twins in school Getting divorced when the twins were young Hobbies and interests similarities and differences between twins Challenges of not seeing kids during the week Grandparent involvement with twins Finding babysitters for the twins Overcoming reading challenges and behavior problems Getting out with the twins to parks or the beach Managing screen time with the kids and more… Connect with Randy via email. Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 Today on the show we’re talking with a divorced father of boy/girl twins about what he’s learned along the way through his twin parenting adventure. Intro 0:08 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the “Dad’s Guide to Twins”, Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:24 Hey everybody and welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always you can find me on the web at twin dad podcast comm where you’ll find the complete transcript for this episode. And you can listen to all previous podcast episodes. In fact if you have binge listened to a bunch of the podcasts I would love to hear about it you can reach out to me via email Joe at dads guided twins calm I’m also on Instagram and Twitter @twindadjoe. Today’s show is brought to you by twintshirtcompany.com where you’ll find dozens of T shirts designed specifically for families of twins. We’ve got lots of shirts for dads are twins, moms of twins, the grandparents and the twins themselves. Check out all those designs at twin t shirt company.com. Today we are continuing our father of twins interview series with a father of eight and a half year old boy girl twins. Let’s jump right into that chat. today. We’d like to welcome to the show, father of twins Randy Morton, welcome to the show, Randy. Randy 1:13 Thank you, Joe. And welcome, everyone. Joe 1:16 So Randy, how old are your twins right now? And what’s the most exciting thing about this age? Randy 1:21 They’re eight and a half have boy and girl twins. And the exciting part now i guess is just seeing them grow up as they get older from being infants and just the different quirks that they have and how they get along as well. So Joe 1:38 I suppose they’re in school right now? Are they in person school or doing remote learning? Randy 1:42 They were in person. And then when the cases spiked the school went back to virtual, but they’re actually getting ready to go back next week for in person. Joe 1:54 How have you been able to manage having them learn from home, or having them learn at school has has been juggling with your family? Randy 2:02 It’s been a little difficult. I am divorced. So they actually live with the mother. So she deals with mostly the school aspect part of it as far as the virtual learning. And then I get them every other weekend. So I I’ve done some of the virtual schooling on Fridays, when I usually pick them up. Joe 2:23 How long ago did you get divorced? Randy 2:25 It’s been four years now. Joe 2:27 So let’s rewind back to when you found out that you would be having twins. What was your family situation like at that time? Randy 2:35 I was married, of course, we had been trying for several years to have kids. And unfortunately nothing was working out. We actually did lose a baby at one point early on in the pregnancy. And then we ended up going the IVF route after her trying it why that wasn’t working with the shots. So then we did IVF we put two eggs in thinking, well, if one didn’t take at least we’d still have a good one. And they both took so yeah, we ended up with twins. Joe 3:14 So it wasn’t a complete shock. As you know, that was a possibility. Randy 3:17 Yes. And actually, it’s an interesting because my ex wife, twins run on her side of the family. So of course it skips every other generation and her mom, her mom’s mom was a twin. So obviously it skipped her mom and the possibility of my ex having twins or her sister having twins. We always knew that was in the back of our mind as well. Joe 3:43 Were there any complications with the pregnancy or the birth of your twins? Randy 3:47 Um, no, thankfully, there wasn’t. No, Joe 3:50 that’s wonderful. So looking back in those early days with twins, what kind of surprised you the most about having two babies at once? Randy 3:56 Well, the initial process I mean, with the whole IVF aspect of it was just crazy and mind blowing, I guess you can say as far as seeing what they&#82

Do twins come from Mom or Dad? Well, we know that twins grow inside of Mom and she does the lion’s share of all the work in that process. But what about family history or genetics? Will Dad’s history or that of the Mother determine if you’re having twins? This question requires that we go back to our high school biology class to remember how babies are made. If you remember, there’s an egg from the mother and a sperm from the father. When those come together, it creates the baby. With twins, you have certain circumstances that caused them to become twins. Identical Twins Let’s start with identical twins. Identical twins are completely random. It’s not based on family history or genetics. Identical twins form when a single fertilized egg splits and forms two embryos. Now in this case, it’s not because of mom or dad. It’s just beautiful luck that creates identical twins. So who “causes” identical twins? Mom? Dad? The answer: neither one. You’re just lucky! Fraternal Twins Next are fraternal twins or non identical twins. In this case, Mom’s side of the family has more influence than the father. Instead of a single fertilized egg splitting into two, you have two eggs that are independently fertilized. Why would Mom have two eggs at the same time ready for fertilization? It could be due to several different factors. First is that Mom released two eggs at the same time. Typically, a mother will release one egg every cycle that is available for fertilization. However, in the case of fraternal twins, the mother may have released two eggs. As Mom ages, she may tend to release more than one egg every cycle. So the older the mother, the more likely that she may have non-identical or fraternal twins. This is one reason so many celebrities seem to have twins. Another option is that the mother has a family history of hyper ovulation where mom releases more than one egg every cycle. So if mom has a history of that, or mom’s family has a history of that, you may be more likely to have fraternal twins. We also have the wonders of modern medicine. If families are having a hard time conceiving and having children, parents may decide to go for additional measures to help encourage conception and pregnancy. When you start to involve modern medicine, the game changes completely, it doesn’t really matter what mom’s family history or dad’s participation is. Because if mom is taking some medication to help her ovulate, she may release more than one egg. That could cause potentially fraternal twins or triplets or more. Parents may use in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to get pregnant. This is where an embryo is created outside of mother’s uterus and then implanted in the uterus. Oftentimes parents choose to embed more than one embryo in the uterus with the hopes that they take. That could lead to more than one baby: twins, triplets etc. Dad’s Role in “Creating” Twins So of all I’ve explained so far, dad has little to no say in if they’re twins or not. Sorry, mate. Of course if mom and dad are the couple are deciding together that they want to embed more than one embryo through in-vitro fertilization, then obviously dad has a say in things. Are twins hereditary through the father? No. When you look at spontaneously conceived twins, dad’s family history, genetics, and opinions really have nothing to say with whether you have identical twins or fraternal twins at all. The Bottom Line about Having Twins If you have identical twins, congratulations, you won the twin lottery. It’s not because of mom or because of dad. It’s just random and a beautiful thing. As we know, we have identical twin girls. If you have fraternal twins or are expecting fraternal twins, it could be because of Mom (age, hyper ovulation, medical assistance, etc.) So there you go. Are twins because of Mom or because of Dad? Well, it depends. How about about you? Do you have identical twins or fraternal twins? Go ahead, leave a comment below and tell us what you have and when you found out what you would be having. The post Do twins come from Mom or Dad? appeared first on Dad's Guide to Twins.

Episode 248 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Ian Sadler, father of identical five-year-old twin boys. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: When one twin isn’t growing as fast as the other in utero At 25 weeks, issues arose but managed to get to 32 weeks Boys spent 3 weeks and 5 weeks respectively in NICU Creative naming of the twin boys after a basketball player of Dad’s alma mater One boy on heart monitor when came home due to Bradycardia Dealing with sensory processing disorder Boys in separate classes Birthday celebrations so they feel celebrated Preparing at night for the next day and more… Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 Super creative naming of twin boys after a basketball player at dad’s alma mater, plus the joys of raising nearly five year old twin boys today on the show. Intro 0:13 Welcome to the dads guide to twins podcast the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the dads guide to twins Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:28 Hey there and welcome to the 248th episode of the dads guide to twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always you can find me on the web at twindadpodcast.com where you can find the complete transcript for this episode, and you can listen to all previous podcast episodes. Today we continue our father twins interview series with Father of identical twin boys. Before we jump into his story, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by twintshirtcompany.com. Where you’ll find unique designs of T shirts designed specifically for us families of twins, there are shirts for dads, moms with the grandparents and the twins themselves. You can browse all the shirts at twintshirtcompany.com. Today we’d like to welcome to the show, father of twins. Ian Sadler. Welcome to the show, Ian. Ian 1:14 Thank you, Joe, excited to join you today. Joe 1:16 Ian, how old are your twins right now? And what’s something exciting about this age? Ian 1:20 So my twins are four about to turn five. And right now we’re in the phase of life where they’re, they’re deciding on what their unique styles of life are. So one of my one of my kiddos is very sports focused and the other one likes to sing in the bathroom and tell everybody he’s a rock star. So they’re, they’re formulating their own unique identities right now. And it’s but it’s all it’s right at the beginning of them. So they’re still very similar, but at the same time, there’s glimpses of who they may become in the years to come. Joe 1:52 They always kind of demonstrated different personalities like you’re describing Ian 1:56 a little bit. I think I think that early on, we anticipated what their personalities were going to be but as you can imagine, we’ve been dead wrong, right? So you know, you think that you have this specific vision of what you anticipate based on names based on initial characteristics, but yeah, I work in college athletics is my assumption is that they’re going to love sports. But they’ve established their own identities and they’ve gone to complete different directions. Joe 2:26 Are they identical or fraternal? Ian 2:28 They are my boys are identical. mono di twins. Joe 2:34 I have mono di girls. And, so do you? Is it is it pretty obvious who’s who are other people still tricked by telling them apart? Ian 2:42 Yeah, they Um, so for us, it’s pretty easy. So they weren’t they are identical twins. However, in your you’re in utero, Landen was growing a little bit faster than Luke was early on. And so forever, we describe Landen as the one who has a little bit rounder, a face. And he’s always been, you know, three, four or five pounds heavier than Luke. And so for us, it’s, it’s pretty easy to tell which one is which. But for others, we occasionally have to make sure we label them with stickers or, or different colors, and each of them has their own favorite color that they wear, which makes it easier for our friends. Joe 3:22 Yeah, for sure. We had to find some patterns, or we would dress them in different colors. It was all really to help other people. And in help us later, like if we took pictures of them, we can look back and see who was who based on on like the color clothes they had on Ian 3:35 early on. Luke was on a little bit of a monitor. And so when he looked back at pictures, it’s impossible to tell who was who except there’s a little there’s a little cord hanging off the sock of Luke. And we can always tell which one he is. Joe 3:48 Let’s rewind the clock back to when you found out that you were going to be having twins. What was your family situation like at that time? And how did you find out? Ian 3:56 So

Episode 247 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Eric Langenderfer, father of twin boys. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: Raising identical 9-month-old twin boys Getting a DNA test to prove they were identical Childproofing for crawling twins Creating a child safe room Finding the perfect stroller for side by side Putting the twins into daycare at 6 weeks 6 months of bed rest with restrictions and how they adapted Why feedings were time-consuming Keeping track of baby feedings and changes Dealing with teething symptoms When kids get sent home from daycare and more… Connect with Eric on Instagram Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 You may encounter some crazy problems during twin pregnancy and with very young active twins. But it doesn’t mean you have to throw in the towel. You can be very creative in how you solve these problems, to help your wife to help your kids to get the house ready, etc. We talk about a lot of creative solutions with a dad of twins today on the show. Intro 0:20 Welcome to the dads guide to twins podcast, the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the dads guide to twins Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:36 Hi there, and welcome to the 247th episode of the dads guide to twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always, you can find me on the web at twindadpodcast.com, where you’ll find the complete transcript and Show Notes for this episode, and you can listen to all previous podcast episodes. Today we continue our father of twins interview series with a father of identical twin boys. But before we jump into that, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by my second book for dads. It’s called “Dad’s Guide to Raising Twins: How to Thrive as a Father of Twins”. You can pick up your book at raisingtwinsbook.com Now let’s jump straight into that twin dad chat. Today, I would like to welcome to the show, father of twins, Eric Langenderfer. Welcome to the show, Eric. Eric 1:18 Thanks for having me. Joe 1:20 Eric, how old are your twins right now? And what’s something exciting about this age? Eric 1:25 They are nine months. And the exciting part is that they’re crawling around getting into everything. They’re really expressive and using their hands a lot. So I think that’s kind of the nicest part compared to say, right when they’re first born with it, they don’t really have many expressions, and they’re not obviously moving and crawling at that stage. Joe 1:47 Do you have two boys? Two girls, one of each? Eric 1:49 Oh, yeah, twin boys, identical. Zeke and jack, they thought that they were not identical because they each had their own yolk sac or whatever it is. And someone actually for the longest time they said they weren’t identical. And then we got and a DNA test and I came back like 2 million to one or some crazy amount that they’re identical. Joe 2:12 How old were they when you got the DNA test? Eric 2:15 Maybe like three months, four months, something like that. Because we I mean, I could just I just couldn’t tell them apart. And Rachel had trouble. The daycare couldn’t tell them apart. So we were just thinking we’d get it tested. Joe 2:26 How did the test worked? Is it with like a mouth swab or a blood draw? Or what? Eric 2:30 Yeah, it was like a mouth like a beautiful sample, like a little swab on the epithelial cells of their, their mouth, you just do a little swab inside the inside of their mouth and send it off in the mail. Joe 2:43 You mentioned that your boys are crawling now, how long ago did that start? Eric 2:47 Probably Zeke started first. And he’s probably been calling for maybe a month, maybe six weeks or so? I don’t know. I don’t know for sure. And then jack was a little bit later. Joe 2:59 So about the eight month marker so Eric 3:02 yeah, yeah, I think they’re a little bit don’t like quote unquote, you know, behind the the milestones. But they’re, they’re doing fine. Joe 3:10 So how have your childproofing efforts gone so far? Eric 3:15 Oh, well, we just turned kind of our whole house into child land. We have the plugs we’ve got they don’t get into too much really. But on some drawers and stuff. We like bungee cords just from like Harbor Freight. That’s pretty much it. But in terms of like, making the kit making it kid friendly, and like fun for them and everything we actually opted to go with, like we moved our kitchen, our dining room, kitchen table, whatever, just ended the foyer way. And then in that whole area, we have down like grappling mats from like jujitsu or wrestling. And they’re like two inch thick foam there from Amazon. And they’re awesome. Be

Episode 246 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Rich Banbury, father of boy/girl twins. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: A typical day in the life schedule of one-year-olds How dad can take care of the twins When breastfeeding didn’t work due to trouble latching Dad can be more involved when bottle-feeding Induction but no progress so had to have c-section Mom lost lots of blood so had to go back into surgery Bringing twins home and figuring everything out One more active than the other Advantages of the bottle prep machine and more… Connect with Rich on Instagram. Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 Getting through that first year with twins can be really tough. We’re going to jump into one twin dad’s journey from finding out he’s having twins through that first year today on the show. Rich 0:09 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast, the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins. Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the “Dad’s Guide to Twins”, Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:23 Hey everybody, and welcome to the 246th episode of the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always, you can find me on the web at twindadpodcast.com. Where you’ll find the complete transcript for this episode. And you can listen to all previous podcast episodes. Today we continue our father of twins interview series with a fellow twin dad from the UK, and father of boy girl twins. But before we jump into that conversation, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by my first book for dads. It’s called “Dad’s Guide to Twins: How to survive the twin pregnancy and prepare for your twins”. You can learn more about this book at twindadbook.com. Let’s jump right into that interview. Today I would like to welcome to the show father of twins. Rich Banbury Welcome to the show Rich. Rich 1:08 Hi there Joe, Great to be here. Joe 1:09 Rich, how old are your twins right now? And what’s something exciting about this age? Rich 1:13 they they’re going to be one years old, on the 12th of this month, I think I think the best part for myself and Clare, my partner now is just where the you know, the really becoming their own little sort of people start to interact with the small being able to play with them more, you know that it’s not just sort of practical, you know, day to day stuff with them is exciting watching them grow up. Now. It’s a good age or, you know, it’s, it was very tough, you know, I’m sure as you know, you know, the first three months, up to six months, it was quite intense where some of us just now, you know, sort of enjoy your time in them a bit more. Joe 1:51 Yes, for sure. The first year is quite a challenge. So you’re almost full, almost finished with that first year, which is quite the accomplishment. Rich 1:59 Not Absolutely. It was it was really timing for yourself. I mean, you have you’ve got two boys have new and two identical girls. Joe 2:10 That’s right. Rich 2:11 That must have been incredibly intense. Joe 2:13 Yeah, it was fun. They all came really close together. And so we had our hands full with not just the twins, but two very young siblings as well, Rich 2:23 That must have been tough. Joe 2:24 Now they’re all teenagers are almost teenagers. So it’s a whole different level of excitement around the house now. Rich 2:33 Does it? Does it get easier? Oh, Joe 2:36 it does. I mean, you’re coming out of the first year, which is insane and crazy. And as you started to notice, they become more self sufficient, you know, they sleep better, the better and they can entertain each other and life starts to get a little bit easier as time goes on. Rich 2:51 I think that’s a bit already for us where it’s small things but were even down to them, you know, holding their own bottle or trying to think of things now below that, that that type of stuff where but you know, before you had them you wouldn’t think of make that much difference but just being able to feed themselves for instance, it you know, it does make such a difference. Then we even started to slip through the night where we you know, any up to recently have they started going through the night. But that is just been an absolute godsend again, you just don’t realize, you know, you’re almost like walking around like a zombie. You know, a lot of the time. Yeah, now they’re starting to sleep through it. Yeah, it’s a big difference. It’s good. Joe 3:35 What is the typical schedule for your nearly one year olds right now? Like, what time do they wake up? And when do they even take naps, things like that? Rich 3:42 Yeah, they get up. I get up with them in the mo

Episode 245 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Chris Mason and Kyle Strickland, fathers of boy/girl twins. Listen as we explore their twin parenting journey, including: Their surrogacy journey including finding an egg donor 20-week ultrasound only doctor visit able to attend Relocated to Wisconsin right before the twins’ birth C-section because the daughter was breech Flying with one week old twins Living for 3 months in an AirBnB before their house was ready Getting twins on the same schedule Relief of getting over formula Joys of when twins could hold their own bottles Road tripping with toddlers and more… Connect with Chris and Kyle on Instagram. Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 Surviving a road trip across the country with nearly two year old twin toddlers. Today on the show. Intro 0:07 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast, the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the “Dad’s Guide to Twins”, Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:22 Hey everybody. Welcome to the 245 episode of the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always, you can find me on the web at twindadpodcast.com. Where you’ll find the complete transcript for this episode. And you can listen to all previous podcast episodes. Today we are continuing our father twins interview series with twin dads Chris and Kyle as they share their journey raising boy girl twins. Want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by my second book for dads. It’s called “Dad’s Guide to Raising Twins: How to thrive as a father of twins”. You can learn more about this book at raisingtwinsbook.com. Now let’s jump straight into the interview. Today, I would like to welcome to the show fathers of twins, Kyle Strickland and Chris Mason. Welcome to the show, guys. Kyle 1:03 Thank you for having us. Joe 1:04 How old are your twins right now? And what’s something really exciting about this age? Kyle 1:08 They are they will be two next month, something that’s exciting about this age. You know, they’re getting into the toddler phase, I think what’s really interesting now is they’re really getting into that independent nature where they can play by themselves and seeing them interact with each other and play with them. But they aren’t as needy on to us to play with them. So we can leave them alone for a little while. And it’s just kind of cool to see them really grow into those personalities and just really kind of start to interact with each other in a lot of different ways. Chris 1:40 Yeah. And I think with that they become good friends. And as Kyle was saying. They can take care of each other and play together. And for us. It’s limited. It’s not limited, but we don’t have to 24 seven, watch them. They can keep each other company. Joe 1:54 Let’s go back to when you found out that you would be having twins. What was that experience? Like? And how did you know you’d be having twins come in and come into your family? Kyle 2:01 What’s interesting with us is it wasn’t really a surprise, we actually went into the whole process expecting twins and hoping for twins, which I don’t think most people say. So we came we came about with having twins through our surrogate. So we went through our surrogacy journey. So when we transferred in two embryos on our transfer day, we did that with a conscious decision of best case scenario, we’d end up with twins worst case scenario, and that was one or nine had to go through the process again. And then really worst case scenario, one of them split. So we end up with triplets, which we were hoping against. But we actually went into the whole process of saying, Hey, we’re only going to do this journey once. So let’s try to get two kids out of it as much as possible. So we were we were very excited and elated. When we did find out and see the sonogram that two little heartbeats were there. Joe 2:54 That’s great. Can you share a little bit about how you found a surrogate for this journey to begin, Kyle 2:59 we went through a bunch of different agencies to go through the process. So there are a bunch of companies and groups that actually will facilitate the entire process for you, especially helping not only like LGBT couples and families, but also heterosexual couples, who would need that help as well. So we weren’t, we weren’t the agency basically here in LA. And they actually went through the process of vetting out and finding surrogates matching us up with a surrogate, who was fantastic and amazing, and really guided us through that entire process. Chris 3:35 But as part of that, they also had to help us find egg donors, which I th

Episode 244 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Tony Rowe, father of twin girls. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: When the twins came earlier than expected when water broke while dad was 45 minutes away Twins went to NICU after about 15 minutes Wife had high blood pressure Leaving one twin at the hospital when Mom and one baby go home Getting bearings with just one child Taking turns to go see the daughter in NICU Pumping for 7-8 months then formula Hiring a nanny through care.com Twins starting to walk at about 13 months Moving to a new house with infant twins and more… Connect with Tony on Twitter. Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 What’s it like when you had to leave one of your twins at the hospital in the NICU? When mom and the other twin come home? We discuss that and much more with a twin dad today. Intro 0:11 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast, the podcast that’ll help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the Dad’s Guide to Twins Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:27 Hey everybody, and welcome to the 244 episode of the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always, you can find me on the web at twindadpodcast.com. We’ll find the complete transcript for this episode, and you can listen to all previous podcast episodes. Today we are continuing our father of twins interview series with a fellow father of twins. But before we jump into that, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by my first book for dads. It’s called Dad’s Guide to Twins, how to survive the twin pregnancy and prepare for your twins. You can learn more about this book at twindadbook.com. Once again, that’s twindadbook.com. Now let’s jump straight into the interview. Today, I’d like to welcome to the show, father of twins, Tony Rowe, welcome to the show, Tony. Tony 1:11 Thanks for having me, Joe. Joe 1:13 Tony, how old are your twins right now? And what’s something exciting about this age, Tony 1:17 they are about 19 months. And I guess what’s exciting is Oh, they’re running around repeating stuff and just kind of you know, experienced experiencing stuff for the first time and you get to see that kind of those light bulb moments or those you know, those wonders and that those learning moments basically. Joe 1:40 So what have been some recent learning moments or light bulbs that have gone off for them? Tony 1:44 I think obviously, you know dancing and you know listening songs and animal noises and books and you know, repeating books or you know, you pointing to something in a book and then repeating it, you know, say right now it’s kind of funny, the, you know, good night moon book, classic, I remember that would be a pretty, pretty sell staple in our household when I was growing up. And the little late little old lady whispering hush and not put my finger on me lifted and say hi, should they do it too? So that’s that those stuffs just kind of funny right now to me. Joe 2:21 Do you have twin girls? Is that right? Tony 2:24 Yep. twin girls. Yeah. Joe 2:25 Are they identical or not? Tony 2:27 No. faternal. So they, yes, my mom, they’re identical. Just because grandma has a really hard time telling them apart. Joe 2:35 Alright, let’s let’s rewind the clock back to when you found out that you were having twins. What was your family situation like at that time? Tony 2:41 So the first to family? So we started trying and basically, October of 18 a sure you know, Fall of 18. And soon after, like, Oh, my wife kind of did in a card and are announcing a card and the first ultrasound. The tech was like, Oh, you know, they look good. You know, the pronoun base. And you know, he was like what? You know, they? And so yeah, yeah, you’re twins, you didn’t know that we’re like, no, so it was just kind of nervously laughing through the, you know, through the rest of the ultrasound and just kind of in shock. Joe 3:19 Yeah, it is a shock when you’re not expecting to and they just kind of subtly mention it as if we’re in a big deal. fraternal twins, twin girls, did you have any complications during the pregnancy? That that made you concerned or worried? Tony 3:32 Not actually not. At first, everything was going by great. Like, you know, first, the teens 20s weeks into the pregnancy first trimester, second trimester was just awesome. You know, not a whole lot of complications, or you know, pretty boring, actually mundane. So, that’s when I read your book, I’d read your book all throughout it. And you know, you’re kind of listening to or looking at blog stuff and you know, your social media posts. And I was like, Well, you know, model this doesn’t really appl

Episode 243 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Jamie Tuttle, father of four-year-old identical boys. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: Choosing to be a stay at home dad to the twins Encouraging imagination and creativity in the boys Having twins after being married for years During the pregnancy, Mom couldn’t keep any food down, lost weight Planning for a c-section Finding success in breastfeeding and bottle-feeding Potty Training by three Traveling with young children Life-changing product for feeding babies Keeping tempers in check Finding books that help boys with emotions Getting back in the swing of date nights and more… Connect with Jamie on Facebook, Instagram, or via email. Transcript This is auto-generated so please forgive any mistakes. Joe 0:00 Encouraging imagination and creativity in your twins and more lessons from a stay at home father of twin boys today on the show. Intro 0:09 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast, the podcast that’ll help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the “Dad’s Guide to Twins,” Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:24 Hey everybody. Welcome to the 243 episode of the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always, you can find me on the web at twindadpodcast.com. Where you’ll find the complete show notes transcript for this episode, and all previous podcast episodes. Today we are continuing our father twins interview series with a fellow father of twins from the Pacific Northwest here in the US. But before we jump into that discussion, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by twintshirtcompany.com where you’ll find dozens of T shirts designed specifically for us. Families of twins, we’ve got shirts for dads of twins, moms are twins, the twins themselves, even some shirts for grandma, and grandpa. You can see all those shirts over at twintshirtcompany.com. Today, I would like to welcome to the show father of twins. Jamie Tuttle. Welcome to the show, Jamie. Jamie 1:14 Thanks for having me. Joe 1:15 Jamie, how old are your twins right now? And what’s something exciting about this age? Jamie 1:20 Oh, they’re four and a few months. Right now just what they’re doing with their imagination, you know, coming up with crazy stories and creating their own games and sports and just the way that they just that and being the sponge that they are and just picking everything up and just playing and actually figuring stuff out even before I get a chance to teach them even at times. Joe 1:48 That’s fun. Do you have boys girls, one of each? Jamie 1:51 Boys. Joe 1:51 Are they identical? Jamie 1:52 Yep. mono-di Joe 1:55 Mono-Di. That’s what we had. We had model day girls. So you mentioned creativity and imagination? Is there something that you’re doing to help encourage that or structure that? Jamie 2:02 I’m an artist, so I’ve got an art studio. And so we do a lot of painting and stuff like that. But um, we I tend to foster it by kind of letting kind of starting a story kind of giving them kind of a jumpstart into something and then just letting them run with it. Basically letting them know that whatever they come up with, there’s there’s really no wrong answer. When it comes to them just creating things. Joe 2:27 Have they shown different tendencies artistically or creatively? Jamie 2:31 Yes, kind of off and on, you know, the, they’ll definitely one will pick up a paintbrush and like, without me teaching him he’s actually holding a paintbrush appropriately by correct the way, you know, very painterly anyways. And he’ll paint and actually put together like a scene, you know, whether it be you know, hills and the sun and everything else, he he can put it all together, or the other one will grab a pencil or marker, you know something on that line, and then start scribbling, but end up with something that nobody saw coming until he’s done. Joe 3:16 That’s exciting that you’re able to give them some opportunities to explore those talents. Let’s rewind the clock back to when you found out that you were having twins. What was your family situation like at that time? Jamie 3:25 My wife and I had been married for 20 years. We had both turned 40. And we my wife kind of said, Yeah, I think I’m ready. I think we should we should do this. And I was like, Alright, cool. And we tried and we it didn’t take many tries necessarily. And boom, she got pregnant. And you know, I guess that’s kind of kind of history at that point. So it was a surprise and not a surprise at the same time. We joked about having twins before the first ultrasound. I mean, we like yet watch. It’s gonna be twins. Sure enough. It was and there was a lot of laughte

Episode 242 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Barnaby Haszard Morris, father of non-identical girl twins from New Zealand. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: Starting kindergarten with twins Telling similar twins apart Mom’s terrible nausea until the morning twins were born Waiting 3 days for availability at the hospital to deliver the twins When the NICU was full so couldn’t deliver twins Mom’s complications after birth Recruiting family to come and help with the twins When the time comes to go back to work Having Mom stay home with the kids Finding out that Dad could manage on less sleep and thus take night feeds Moving twins to two separate rooms and more… Connect with Barnaby on Twitter Transcript Joe Rawlinson 0:00 Imagine having to wait three days to let the hospital admit you to deliver your babies and being turned back each day when you thought you’d be having your twins. Today we discussed that and much more with a fellow father of twins. Intro 0:16 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the “Dad’s Guide to Twins“, Joe Rawlinson. Joe Rawlinson 0:32 Hey everybody, and welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast. This is Episode 242 and I am Joe Rawlinson. Today we are continuing our father of twins interview series with with a kiwi twin dad from New Zealand. But before we jump into that conversation, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by my book “Dad’s Guide to Raising Twins: How to thrive as a father of twins“. This book will guide you through the first couple years of twins and help you overcome the challenges we all face during those crazy first years. You can learn more about this book at raisingtwinsbook.com now let’s jump straight into that interview. Today I would like to welcome to the show fellow father of twins. Barnaby Haszard Morris, welcome to the show, Barnaby. Barnaby 1:13 Thanks so much for having me, Joe. Joe Rawlinson 1:14 Barnaby, how old are your twins right now. And what’s something exciting about this age? Barnaby 1:20 Right now they’re three, they turned three in November 2020. And something that’s really exciting about them. I mean, every day is exciting in a different way. But just this week, they started going to kindergarten, one day a week by themselves. Whereas last year, they were only going together. So that’s quite exciting and a little nerve wracking. But Nora got through it really well yesterday, and had a great day by herself at kindy. And hopefully, June has a similar story today. That increased independence, I guess. What’s really nice about this age. Joe Rawlinson 1:56 So you’ve got two girls, are they identical? Barnaby 1:58 Yeah, two girls, they’re not identical. They do look quite alike. Blonde hair, very blue eyes. So strangers find it hard to tell them apart, and sometimes family members. Joe Rawlinson 2:09 So there’s a secret marks or identification that you can use? Barnaby 2:14 Yeah, there is actually June has a birthmark on her forehead that’s quite pronounced. And it’s sort of darkened over time to make it a bit more prominent. Whereas when they are born, you know, there’s marks everywhere, it’s kind of hard to tell, Joe Rawlinson 2:30 you mentioned that they just started going to kindergarten by themselves. So how has that transition been from what they’re doing before? Barnaby 2:38 Tara my wife and I do our best especially Tara cause she’s home with the kids, we do our best to prepare them for these sorts of transitions and talk in a in a relaxed way as possible about what’s coming up. So that when that happens, they sort of expect it. So they started kindergarten towards the end of last year when they were about shortly before they turned to three. And they talked to her pretty well. But I actually expected that with twins, they’d be really comfortable going into social settings like that. Because they’ve always had someone around. So they’d be more they’d have a lot more experience relating with someone else their own age, what actually happened. And I don’t know what it’s like for other twins. But Nora and June kind of leaned on each other and they would stick together to the point where they wouldn’t necessarily interact with other kids so much. So the thing where we’re getting them to go to kindy by themselves for one day a week each, instead of give them that chance to express themselves in their own way, and not to be so bound to each other. But generally, the transition to kindergarten has gone really well. And they do cope quite well with transitions with notice, which is very

Episode 241 of the Dad’s Guide to Twins Podcast Show Notes Today we continue our father of twins interview series with Grant Holloway, father of boy/girl twins. Listen as we explore his twin parenting journey, including: Raising one-year-old boy/girls twins Becoming a twin dad through adoption Preparing for twins last minute Determining who does what with infants Which parent wakes up to care for twins at night How to feed twins by yourself How to handle both twins at the same time When twins start walking Day in the life of one-year-old twins Introducing the dog to the babies and more… Transcript Joe 0:00 Becoming a twin dad through adoption and surviving that first crazy year with twins today on the podcast. Intro 0:08 Welcome to the Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast the podcast that will help you survive and thrive as a father of twins. Now, here’s your host, the author of the book, the “Dad’s Guide to Twins”, Joe Rawlinson. Joe 0:23 Hey everybody, and welcome to the 241st episode of Dad’s Guide to Twins podcast. This is Joe Rawlinson. As always, you can check out all previous podcast episodes and the show notes and transcript for this episode at twindadpodcast.com. Today we are continuing our father of twins interview series with fellow father of boy/girl twins. But before we jump into that episode, I want to let you know that today’s show is brought to you by my second book for dads of twins. It’s called “Dad’s Guide to Raising Twins: How to Thrive as a Father of Twins“. You can learn more about that book and pick up a copy for yourself at raisingtwinsbook.com. Now let’s jump straight into that interview. today. I would like to welcome to the show fellow father of twins Grant Holloway. Welcome to the show, Grant. Grant 1:02 Thanks for having me. Joe 1:03 Grant. How old are your twins right now. And what’s something exciting about this age? Grant 1:07 I saw they just turned one a couple days ago. And I probably the most exciting thing is really starting to see their personality come out. You know when they’re babies newborn, they’re very clingy, you know, you don’t really get to see their personalities a whole lot. But now they’re one they’re independent. They’re laughing they’re giggling they’re talking to each other. They’re playing with each other. You really get to see who their kind of are becoming. It’s quite fun. Joe 1:33 That’s great. I would say if you can survive the first year with twins, you can do absolutely anything. So hats off to you for making it through that big milestone. Do you have boy/girl twins? Grant 1:42 We have a boy girl twin. Joe 1:44 Well, let’s rewind the clock back to when you found out twins would be joining your family. What was your situation like? Grant 1:48 Yeah, so I became a twin dad through adoption. We found out on a Friday. And my wife and I we’re just we were at an aquarium just having a great day. We went out for lunch. And we got a call from our adoption agency that said that we had been matched with a birth mother who were interested who was interested in our profile, and wanted to meet us. And so we met our the birth mother on Sunday, two days later. And the next day, we went to an ultrasound and a doctor’s appointment. So we got to meet our twins for the very first time. Three days after we found out we’re going to be twin parents. And then a week went by and we went to another doctor’s appointment with our birth mother. And the doctors say well, not this week, well, we’re gonna probably wait a bit longer. The babies are healthy. birth mother was healthy. So there was no real concern about the baby, but babies being born. And so we went home. And we were a little disappointed because we thought that that was going to be the day we would become twin parents. But we went home and we got a call. It was a Wednesday. So about 10 days after we found out we were going to be parents. We got a call about five in the morning. And they said our birth mother was going to the hospital the babies were on the way. We are twin parents because of adoption. We had about ten days to prepare for this whirlwind tour of being a parent to two little ones. But it was a really fun week just preparing the house, get everything ready. And just getting ready to be a twin dad, it was an adventure. Joe 3:33 That’s fantastic. How long were you waiting until you finally got word that there was an adoption possibility? Grant 3:39 Yeah, we were on a list for about a year we were matched with a birth mother in November. And that adoption actually fell through. And so we put back on the list in December. And so a little over a year, we had waited to become parents. Joe 3:57 And it sounds like the birth mother was pretty far along when you found out that that you’re going to be twin parents. Do you remem