Happy Homecoming. A New Challenge Begins.

Three excited little girls welcomed home their new siblings, Jonita Rochelle, and James Richard Jr., We felt so blessed to be able to bring them both home on the same day. We were well equipped with the basic necessities for two newborns because of the "twin insurance" offered by Sears Roebuck and Co. If you had previously ordered a baby layette through their catalogue they would add a second comparable layette at no charge should you have twins. When the doctor confirmed that I was going to have twins, I quickly ordered the the largest layette in the catalogue. Holding true to their policy, Sears sent me a second one, the same as the first.

Once all of the girls had had their turn holding and gently caressing each baby, the initial excitement was over. Then reality quickly sent in. I had breast fed each of my preceding babies "on demand" and I planned to do the same with the twins. I had been assured by the nurses in the hospital that it was indeed possible to nurse two babies, and they even tried to show me how to feed them both at the same time. What a joke! I knew it would one at a time for me. But about this "on demand" thing became another joke. I soon found out that all I was doing all day was feeding babies. I tried to keep a record of who ate when to help me remember how often each of eating. This was just not working. With Jim's insistence we decided that the babies would be put on an eating schedule ... OUR schedule and that they would both eat at the same time, hungry or not. I think Jim was tired of hearing one or the other of them crying all night. That worked a lot better, even if it meant waking them up to eat. They soon adjusted to the schedule. However, this was the first time I had to depend on Daddy to help with the night feedings. I would feed one for a while, hand it to Jim to burp while I fed the other and then repeat the process. We both looked forward to the time when they would sleep through the night.

The other thing that became a challenge was the LAUNDRY... piles and piles of LAUNDRY!

There was no such thing as disposable diapers back then, and try to imagine doubling the amount of clothes that a baby can go through in a day. Now imagine laundry for three little girls and a husband added to that. And now imagine doing it all without a dryer. Everything had to be hung out on a line to dry. Then there was the folding of all those diapers and tiny baby clothes. My engineer husband invented a whole new way to fold diapers that made it easier for me to rinse out before washing. (Ask me sometime and I will show you how if we ever go back to cloth diapers.) I was grateful that we had at least an automatic washer, and I was even more grateful when Grandma Knapp came to help out for a while. I think I would have had a breakdown without her those first few weeks while I adjusted to my new busy life.

On the rare occasion that we took all of the children out for an afternoon, usually on Saturday when Dad was home to help, it was amazing how many people would stop us to see the twins.

They would see me carrying one and Jim carrying the other (no twin stroller) and would guess they were twin. Although one was always dressed in blue with a blue blanket and the other in pink with a pink blanket, it was even more amazing how many would ask if they were identical. Jim's sarcastic remark would always be, "No, one's a boy and one's a girl." Even then some would look a surprised by that statement and one even asked, "So what difference does that make? They still can be identical." I guess????

So began my life with five children from six years old to newborn, no family nearby, and a husband that was gone three evenings a week teaching, and another night at Mutual where he worked with priests.. I was pretty much on my own.